... meditation as exploration and discovery
"A 'must read' for all those that are interested in meditation" -
Stafford Whiteaker, the Good Retreat Guide, 2014
'Stillness in Mind' sets out to introduce mindfulness from a perspective of everyday immediacy - mindfulness less as an exercise and more as a way of being. It is the first step along the way of meditation which the author calls 'Clear Space'. The setting is a clear space of the mind where nothing needs to happen, where we can gently abide without the tension of expectation. Then he uses his extensive knowledge and experience as a counsellor therapist to set a framework for understanding what happens next. The framework draws on the insights and discourse of psychotherapy in terms of the energy which can arise from our edge of awareness and the deep connection which comes from relation, when we accept without judgement and prize our essential humanness.
Simon Cole borrows from the insights of leading psychotherapists and thinkers, Carl Rogers, Eugene Gendlin, Martin Buber, and offers a way of using a regular practice of meditation as a channel for personal growth, showing how to set many of life's turmoils - attachment, disappointment, sadness, regret, remorse, guilt, jealousy, anger, anxiety, stress, pain - within the healing orbit of this deepened relationship with ourselves which meditation fosters. Healing orbit, yes, but we are never allowed the misty-eyed view of a nirvana - quoting Marieta Dippenaar in his final chapter 'On from here... ' :
Stafford Whiteaker, the Good Retreat Guide, 2014
'Stillness in Mind' sets out to introduce mindfulness from a perspective of everyday immediacy - mindfulness less as an exercise and more as a way of being. It is the first step along the way of meditation which the author calls 'Clear Space'. The setting is a clear space of the mind where nothing needs to happen, where we can gently abide without the tension of expectation. Then he uses his extensive knowledge and experience as a counsellor therapist to set a framework for understanding what happens next. The framework draws on the insights and discourse of psychotherapy in terms of the energy which can arise from our edge of awareness and the deep connection which comes from relation, when we accept without judgement and prize our essential humanness.
Simon Cole borrows from the insights of leading psychotherapists and thinkers, Carl Rogers, Eugene Gendlin, Martin Buber, and offers a way of using a regular practice of meditation as a channel for personal growth, showing how to set many of life's turmoils - attachment, disappointment, sadness, regret, remorse, guilt, jealousy, anger, anxiety, stress, pain - within the healing orbit of this deepened relationship with ourselves which meditation fosters. Healing orbit, yes, but we are never allowed the misty-eyed view of a nirvana - quoting Marieta Dippenaar in his final chapter 'On from here... ' :
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about dancing in the rain."