The post Spiritual Activism – Mindfulness For World Transformation appeared first on The Now Project.

Their bodies are there, but their eyes are all glazed over, their minds are somewhere else and they are lost in a dream. It’s not their fault, don’t blame them, they don’t even know they are zombies, they think they are awake, but they are not really, they are sleeping. They are so possessed by their minds that they think the dream is real, they think those voices in their heads are who they are and they have forgotten how to live. They experience everything through words and concepts and have forgotten that the world is a sensory delight. Poor lost souls, they think the past and the future are real and they spend their lives there. Their minds drag them back and they propel them forward, they cannot see the glory of this moment. They cannot see it because they are not here. The present moment, the only place where life really exists, is cast aside as irrelevant, they miss the miracle of existence and are barely alive at all.

Poor lost souls, they don’t understand that the past and future exist nowhere other than in their minds. Zombies live in purgatory, they are neither alive or dead, trapped in unhappiness, consumed with loss hurts, regrets and disappointments, not realising that they are creating this suffering for themselves by living in the past. They re-live trauma and feel that suffering over and over again, they miss the magic of the light shining through trees, they miss the child’s smile and the sensual delight of the autumn breeze, they miss it all because it can’t be seen through their unhappy story. They will hold onto resentments sometimes for years and even generations, feeding their grievance and poisoning their lives, they can’t feel the richness of this moment because they have killed it in the belief their resentments serve a purpose, when in truth they are only hurting themselves and poisoning the world around them.

Have you seen them rushing around, condemned to roam the earth consuming it’s resources in an endless search for fulfillment? Poor lost souls condemned to run through life ever chasing, chasing, chasing, looking outside of themselves to find themselves, but only finding more wanting. They run through their lives towards old age and death, having never been still long enough to have ever lived at all. What are they looking for? Where are they going? They live in the future, because they think it’s real, they think the answer is in the future, they think they’ll find themselves in the future, but there is no future, there never will be, there is only here and now, so they are condemned to roam the earth looking for themselves. Have you seen how the zombies look so afraid, faces ashen white, all twisted and distorted with fear. But they are safe, nothing is there in reality that will hurt them, but they are consumed with worry because they are being attacked by their minds. They can’t see the hopelessness of trying to control a future that doesn’t exist, with thoughts that don’t leave their heads. They think the dream is real, they run worst case scenarios, have imaginary arguments and fight imaginary wars and struggle with imaginary disasters. So lost in the mental drama they are hardly alive at all.

Zombies can’t enjoy the rain on their face or delight in the light reflected in the puddles, they can’t see it because they are not present, they are not here. All they see is a miserable day, they don’t realise that it’s not the weather that’s miserable it’s them, they have a miserable day because they are lost in a miserable dream.

Zombies don’t see the world as it is, they can’t see the beauty and aliveness of this moment, they can only see the projection of their minds. The truth of this moment is filtered by the fog of their judgements, their opinions, their prejudices, their culture, beliefs and past conditioning. They think that their minds interpretation of reality is the truth and some of them will kill you for not sharing their illusion. They might call you a denier, a heretic or non believer and they think that if you don’t share their mind made reality you must die, but in truth they are already dead, because their minds have killed them, their judgements have cut them off from life and there is no one there behind their empty staring eyes.

Stay away from the dangerous zombies, have nothing to do with them, they will suck the life out of you. But there is hope for some, because most Zombies are not yet completely dead, they still have a chance at life, in fact some of them are even starting to wake up. Right now quite a few Zombies are starting to stir from their sleep, and together we have a real chance of defeating the Zombie Apocalypse.

You’ll recognise awakening zombies because they will recognise you, they will sense your aliveness and make themselves known. It may be a glint of life in their eyes or a feeling of connection, they will be drawn to you and you’ll recognise them for sure and if you come across a zombie who isn’t yet quite dead you can wake them. Loud bangs and sudden shocks and genuine life threatening situations will wake them for a short while, and can be used in an emergency but they will likely fall asleep again soon after. I prefer the more subtle methods, you could simply encourage them to be mindful, you could remind them of what’s real right now and make them stop and notice what’s here.

Make them taste their food, make them feel their feet on the ground when they walk, show them the light in the puddles and make them feel the breeze and as you do so you could hold a space of no mind, and in that space something magic happens, there is a glimpse of awareness, a spark of life is ignited and the Zombie starts to come back to life. So if you wake up next to a zombie, don’t despair, forgive them for being asleep, gently wake them from their slumber, make them a nice cup of tea and show them how to mindfully enjoy every drop. Be mindful adrian   Get involved, we would love to see your comments below

The post Defeat the Zombie Apocalypse with Mindfulness appeared first on The Now Project.

Thank you everyone who came to our mindfulness retreat last weekend. It was a fantastic success.

Our winter retreats are very different in flavour to the summer ones. The retreat centre can only accommodate 20 so with myself and the team it only leaves room for 16 guests, that’s a ratio of one teacher to every four guests which makes for some pretty intense mindfulness training. Our winter retreats are a much more intimate affair and all being together for the whole weekend creates the perfect environment for presence to build and for shift to happen.

The Martinsell Retreat Centre is a magical place, tucked away at the foot of Martinsell Hill in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside it is surrounded by nature. The Centre sits on the Aylesbury ley, an important energy line which connects a number of ancient spiritual sites including the Aylesbury stone circle and three early hill forts. The ley line or Dragon line has a powerful energy and Nicola at the Retreat Centre has spend years cultivating a wonderful healing energy, she holds a high state of awareness and this influences everything. The vibration proved to perfect for our work.

My challenge when designing the format for the weekend was to make it a powerful experience for experienced practitioners and also open it up to complete beginners. I wanted the weekend to provide a vehicle to take experienced practitioners to another level in their awareness and to trigger a profound shift in consciousness. I also know that quite often complete beginners are ready to make these shifts too and I learned during our summer retreats that it’s often the people who don’t know what they are looking for who find the most.

And you know what? We pulled it off. Half off the group had little or no experience of mindfulness until at weekend had never experienced thoughtless awareness. The Dragon’s tail worked its magic and by Saturday evening every one of them had dropped in to awareness, freeing their minds to a new dimension of reality. Thank you brave adventures for suspending your beliefs and for having the courage to look within. Pleasant surprise isn’t it?

In truth the work started Friday evening well before we stepped on the dragon’s tail. Martinsell centre is such a peaceful place that it’s easy to drop into a silent inner space and with the team of myself, Jason, Paul and Brad all holding a high state of presence the world outside and problems in the head were soon forgotten. The space was already opening.

Porridge, warm fruit bread and coffee for breakfast – all consumed mindfully of course. Followed by meditation and a 90 minute crash course in mindfulness, then we started the walk and put all the talk into real practice. I took myself off ahead of the group and sat on bench in the grounds meditating and plugging myself in preparation for the work. Jason lead the class and I was expecting them to catch me up in about 10 minutes, after 20 minutes I went to look where the group were only to discover with absolute delight that they were all mindfully lost in the experience of eating an apple straight from the tree. They had gone no more than 100 meters in 20 minutes. Now that’s mindful walking! Jason had got them feeling every step, feeling every breath of wind, smelling the wood smoke looking at every leaf and noticing the light in the dew drop. What’s the rush when you aren’t going anywhere and there’s so much to notice on the way. It was only midday on the Saturday morning and they were all practicing like masters.

We picked up the pace a little, but maintained the intense mindful attention. Each step of the walk became a vehicle to mindfulness. As we walked certain tasks were set, first task was to feel every breath consciously between the gate and the big Oak on the tarck to the footpath, next to listen to each footstep as we walked through the leaves, then to feel the rain drops on your nose. We made the climb very slowly, with full attention given to every step, never looking upwards and always focusing on the step we were on. Stopping at regular intervals to do a quick body scan and come alive through the senses and fully appreciate where we are.

The hill was hidden in the mist and as we climbed it had an ethereal quality. The whiteness blanked out the scenery and the rest of the world disappeared into the whiteness. It was magical. Magic is the most appropriate word to use because that’s exactly what happened, the intense mindful focus and the energy of the dragons tail worked their magic and in that white emptiness shift happened. By the end of the walk everyone was immersed in thoughtless awareness.

A wonderful late lunch was devoured enthusiastically if not with the same mindful attention. Paul gave a class in Kundalini yoga and Brad led a meditation before mindfulness games round the campfire including two rounds of the famous appreciation game before coming in for a hot dinner by the log fire.

A wonderful late lunch was devoured enthusiastically if not with the same mindful attention. Paul gave a class in Kundalini yoga and Brad led a meditation before mindfulness games round the campfire including two rounds of the famous appreciation game before coming in for a hot dinner by the log fire.

Sunday started with Chi kung on the end of the dragon’s tail. Chi kung literally means energy work, it’s my favorite form of meditation, it’s a great vehicle for mindfulness and also works on the subtle energetic field of the body. After 15 minutes everyone was feeling chi in the body and the foundations were in place for a day of mindfulness and intense energy work. The shifts that happened on Sunday afternoon were remarkable. Way beyond anything I foolishly believed possible. Oh beliefs are such limitations.

Once again a big thank you to all our wonderful guests, you are all brave open minded adventurers and you make thus work such a joy. As for my fantastic team, what fantastic teachers you have become. .

We still have places for our next retreat in mid January. If you are ready to jump wholeheartedly into a new one mindful state of awareness or are simply looking to bring your existing practice to life, then we’d love to see you.

The post White Dragon Retreat – November 2013 appeared first on The Now Project.