Journey #83 – Czechia
Yoga Lokah in Brno
I went to Yoga Lokah in Brno, Czech Republic to organise a meditation session and give a lecture about “mastering emotional intelligence”. There were 21 people joining the session. I shared that we all have to face challenges in life, which causes the mind to loose the clarity. The emotional intelligence is how we can maintain our inner peace and not blaming others for causing the difficulties. If our mind isn’t clear, our eyes can be blinded and friends can even turn into enemies. Meditation helps us focus on changing ourself and understand that we all have to face personal problems and the true happiness begins when we can remove unhappiness from the mind.
After the meditation, many felt relaxed, peaceful, light and happy. Some said that the moment was like eternity … they didn’t feel time had passed although they meditated for 40 minutes. Half could visualise the sun clearly and 4-5 of them said that the sun was very very light. A girl was surprised to see a Golden Buddha in her meditation amidst a bright tunnel inside her.
Industra
At Industra, Brno, Czech Republic I facilitated a meditation session and shared a presentation about stress management. From a quote that “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.”, I share that the reason why stress happens in our life is because we never really learn how to manage our thoughts. Our mind wanders to worries in the past and the future forming a loop resulting in uncomfortable feeling … leading to stress. When we meditate, we give the mind an exit from the loop. So, we will practice meditation today.
Participants enjoyed the session and felt really relaxed, light, happy as if they were sitting in another place. Some felt the whole body disappeared when they felt super relaxed. A lady said that she had been already doing a self-development program. Today her meditation was very bright and beautiful when she imagined the sun.
KONEKTOR
At KONEKTOR, Brno, Czech Republic, I guided two meditation sessions at gave lectures about woman empowerment and conflict transformation. There were 53 participants in total. Many felt relaxed and peaceful during the meditation. Many said they liked using visualisation together with mantra because they helped remove wandering thoughts from he mind. Some shared that when the mind was still they saw many pictures appearing even they didn’t think about them. Others told me that during the loving kindness moment, they felt like the peace energy from inside their body was really expanding to all living beings.
Mendel University
I went to organise a meditation session at Mendel university in Brno, Czech Republic. There were 60 students and teachers who joined the session. Many students said that it was easier than they thought. Although we meditated for 35 minutes, they felt like 5! Some said that they felt light, floating, body disappearing. Some mentioned that the visualization object “the sun” was very bright … it was like a dream but they were conscious the whole time. Many liked this feeling because the problems and stress from study went away.
I also shared some tips about harmonious relationship that love has to begin with ourselves first. When we discover happiness from within, we will become a happy person that are able to share our love with people around us. From a receiver, we change ourselves into a giver. And if we can give 4 things … resources, endearing speech, help and security, our relationships shall be healthy and prolonged.
Newton University
I taught meditation in the Newton University, the city of Brno, Czech Republic and shared my thought under the topic “mindfulness in daily life”. There were 88 students as well as the dean of the faculty attending the session. I shared that mindfulness is an ability to combine our awareness and attention that is shattered because of responsibilities and problems that we face in our life. This is important for making critical life decisions. So, we need to train ourselves physically and mentally to be mindful. Physically, we need to make sure that we organise things around us and be mindful and moderate when using stuff. Mentally, we need to meditate to get rid of unnecessary thoughts from the mind.
Medical department of Masaryk University
I visited the medical department of Masaryk University to teach meditation and presented about the scientific benefits of meditation regarding health, relationship, work, society and the world. I shared that everything originates from the mind. When the mind is happy, whatever we do we won’t feel much stressed from doing it. I guided a meditation session for 40 minutes. The acoustic of the room was excellent so many of the total of 60 participants meditated very well. They felt relaxed, disappearance of the body, no time and body spinning experiences. Many felt they were being pulled down but they didn’t feel afraid. The head of the mindfulness department asked me whether learning meditation needs a teacher / master. I said that a teacher is needed indeed. Because a good teacher will encourage us and help us develop discipline in the meditation practice. They will help us overcome our meditation obstacles. They will become our role model on how we should live a mindful life. If we have found a teacher, listen to the teaching, contemplating on the teaching and practice the teaching, we will become successful in the path of inner peace for sure.
University of economics (VŠE) in Prague
I went to the university of economics (VŠE) in Prague, Czech Republic few weeks ago to facilitate a mindfulness and meditation session. There were 100 people attending who are mostly the members of the mindfulness club. I explained that mindfulness is about knowing what we are doing and knowing the consequences of what we are doing. In order to know that, our justification method must be accurate. This is possible when we clean our mind with the practice of meditation.
Many shared with me that even though they had meditated for a long time but they never could do it more than 10 minutes. Today 40-minute meditation went very smoothly. They didn’t believe that this would be possible and so easy. They felt relaxed, happy, pure, light. Some felt excited when they were feeling like floating or body disappearing. Many did not want to open their eyes. The president of the club shared that he felt so relaxed and the meditation was deeper than before. He liked the loving kindness part because it was so bright during that moment.
Google office
In November 21st, 2018 I went to the Google office in Prague, Czech Republic and organised a meditation session there. They already have regular meditation session and at least 25% of the employees meditate regularly. Wow! That’s wonderful. Today I had a chance on guiding 2 meditation sessions: for 20 minutes and for 40 minutes respectively. There were 14 people joining the session.
The participants really enjoyed the session. They felt light, peaceful and body disappearance. A lady said to me that she saw bright and colourful light from the centre of the body that keeps expanding all around her. One felt as if she was falling down but she didn’t feel afraid.
I shared a Dhamma “loving ourselves” that we should “search inside ourselves” and begin from discovering our true happiness from within. The first step is to clean the mind and we can see the world through clear lenses without contamination of craving, anger and delusion. This allows us to understand the genuine happiness’ whereabouts and the search will be over.