True meditation brings us home to ourselves. It helps us find presence and stillness, a space from which we can recognise who we are, and re-integrate ourselves within the more-than-human world.
I teach non-dual meditation, establishing a container to enter a state of being where the separate sense of “me” dissolves, revealing the unity of all things.
Through practice, discipline, and inner motivation, meditative states become easier to find, one day realising that you fall into meditation whenever the occasion arises.
The goal of meditation is not less stress, more joy, or better relationships. These are its side effects. Here, we meditate to find out who we truly are.
What meditation actually is
Meditation is an integrated experience of mind, body, and spirit, all three aligned and working together. What the yogic traditions call samādhi, a state of being immersed in awareness, is true meditation.
The practice of reaching for this state is called dhyāna, where we seek absorption in presence, without any sense of separation or ego. The “I” disappears.
Other practices, like concentration (dhāraṇā), aim to sharpen the mind and increase our ability to focus. In the spiritual circles of today, there are also many guided imagination exercises also called “meditation,” but these are a different practice with different aims to true meditation.
Everyone has a different starting point, a different door that helps them enter presence. It’s important to see the path that’s actually yours, rather than staying stuck with one technique, or trying hundreds without really settling into any of them.
Finding balance
Meditation is a way of experiencing the interconnection of all things. We can only feel this interdependence when we calm the mind, dissolve the ego, and return to bodily awareness.
Too far down, and we’re engrossed in material concerns: money, resources, body image, judgement. Too far up, and we become airy, floating, stuck in the imagination, unable to live the practical lives this world asks of us.
I’ve seen both of these extremes. When meditation works, it walks you straight through what you’re avoiding, not away from it.
Just like a hike in the bush, building a clay house, or catching and cooking a fish, once the wisdom and the method settle into the fabric of our minds, bodies, and souls, we become able to explore safely on our own.
The meditation practice becomes a doorway to greater alignment in everyday life. We cherish each opportunity to be alone, yet thoroughly held within the wider web of life. What remains, underneath the separation, is simply life itself: presence, and a loving kind of awareness.
My relationship with this practice
From birth, I grew up in environments where meditation and connection to something greater were valued and real. My grandfather spent the later part of his life teaching meditation around the world, visiting communities to help people find what they already carried within them. My mother and aunt worked as spiritual mediums across Aotearoa, Australia, and the UK.
I’ve meditated in temples in Japan, in churches in Europe, and in the wild reaches of nature around the world. Throughout, the same simple work, quieting the mind and turning within, has stayed with me, and continues through everything I share.
Questions people ask me
What are the pitfalls of meditative practice?
Meditation is not a neutral practice. It doesn’t lead directly to states of joy, bliss, love, and peace.
Anyone who has tried meditating knows that in the beginning, thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations rise up. This is completely normal. As the mind rests and stops being stimulated by phones, screens, people, and constant activity, it starts processing everything that hasn’t had space to be felt.
If the mind and body haven’t been given room to settle before a regular practice begins, these things surface to be dealt with. This is why most people give up on meditation, or never really start. It feels too hard to concentrate, to calm the mind, to soften the body. With the right presence alongside you, this becomes workable.
Which techniques should I/do you use?
There’s no single technique that works for everyone.
Each meditation is different, the same way each day is different, and we shouldn’t cling to a particular result or experience and try to reproduce it the next day. That attachment distracts from the actual path.
I draw from a range of contemplative traditions, alongside an understanding of how the mind and nervous system actually work. Depending on where you’re starting from, we find what fits, whether that’s stillness practice, mantra, or moving meditation.
Do I have to meditate for a long time every day?
There’s no fixed amount of time you need to meditate each day. Setting a goal can help with motivation and discipline, both real parts of any spiritual path.
Your practice needs to fit you and your life. But if something regularly becomes more important than the time you’d set aside, it might be worth asking what your real priority actually is.
What do you think about meditation apps?
Any digital aid will help a certain kind of person, up to a point.
Nothing replaces the internal motivation to meditate, or the joy that’s already the nature of your own being. Apps can help keep a schedule and offer structure for concentration practice. That can calm the mind or offer a moment’s peace. But true meditation, dhyāna, is simply being in presence, and no app gets you there on its own.
Sitting together
From time to time, someone reading this feels the resonance and wants to go deeper, alone or over a longer stretch of time. I offer both.
I honour my time, and give it to the people ready to meet themselves this deeply. Sessions run through Advait Ashram, where you can also learn more about the nature of the teachings in the context of Trika Shaivism and Siddha Yoga.
Book a time, or learn about the ashram
Prefer to write first? Write to me and we’ll find our way from there.