Below are a list of meditations – as well as interactive group exercises – that I’ve guided at The Consciousness Explorers Club (CEC) in Toronto. Some have audio (I add more audio all the time) and can be followed along as guided meditations. Others are description-only, but can be plundered for your own freestyle practice, teaching, and learning purposes.
TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: The Way of the Heart MEDITATION: Centering Prayer GROUP PRACTICE: TBD. I expect this one will cause some reactivity. Many of us are fine exploring exotic Eastern practices, but mention the G word – mention prayer, mention Christ – hoooweeee, out comes a lifetime of secular conditioning and judgment. BORING. Do you really think Indians … Continue reading “The Way of the Heart”
TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: The Direct Path MEDITATION: Self-Inquiry GROUP PRACTICE: Who Am I? Time for a trip to Hindustan. For this Advaita Vedanta-inspired practice, we send our attention backwards in an exhilarating and probably frustrating and ultimately fruitless search for yourself, or your small self anyway. Past all the schemes and tics of your personality – all that activity – … Continue reading “The Direct Path”
TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: The Way of Sensory Experience MEDITATION: Just Note Gone GROUP PRACTICE: Partner Noting OK so we’ll start this wake-up series with an old school Theravada innovation: the intent noticing of sensation. This is the classic Buddhist path of insight; it involves penetrating our immediate experience with so much clarity and equanimity that eventually … Continue reading “The Way of Sensory Experience”
TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Solid Ground MEDITATION: Vase Breathing GROUP PRACTICE: The Silent Partner Yeah, space is fun, but sometimes you need to double-down with your feet on the ground. In the main meditation we’ll explore a Tibetan practice called “Vase Breathing” that will turn you into an immovable object. For the group practice, we’ll continue the … Continue reading “Solid Ground”
TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: We Live in the Space Age MEDITATION: Sound and Space GROUP PRACTICE: The Space Between Us OK so first we stabilize the body, then we’ll send our minds out into the audioscape of College street, past the traffic and the streetcars to the boundary-tingling outer limits. For group practice we’ll continue last week’s … Continue reading “We Live in the Space Age”
TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Hey Bag Head! What’s my Body’s Language? MEDITATION: Feel flow GROUP PRACTICE: Most of us walk around with no sense whatsoever of the chemical energetic signature we’ve giving off. So let’s find out. What do people notice about you, and you about them? Can you play with that signal? Maybe there are clues in … Continue reading “Hey Bag Head! What’s my Body’s Language?”
TEACHER: Jeff Warren and James THEME: The Beat that My Heart Skipped MEDITATION: Feelings and Sounds GROUP PRACTICE: James is putting together a mini-DJ set for this one We’ll work with different sounds and tones and tunes and see if we can notice how they impact our inner-verse, how we are played by the music even … Continue reading “The Beat that My Heart Skipped”
TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: The Arrow and the River MEDITATION: Old School Vipassana Noting, with two main flavors: contentment and agitation; GROUP PRACTICE: Pop Noting Been meaning to bring back this popular social technique for a while. Partner noting ping-pong style, we’ll scour our insides and afterward have a group powwow about the possible differences between stressful … Continue reading “The Arrow and the River”
TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Being Awesome MEDITATION: The Grounded Body GROUP PRACTICE: I am The Shit practice Basically we’ll get into small groups and interact and, as we do, each of us tries heartbreakingly hard to be and act in a way that we imagine our best selves to be. We make it really obvious to ourselves, which … Continue reading “Being Awesome”
TEACHER: Jeff Warren THEME: Damn you technology! MEDITATION: Noticing the compulsive push and pull; GROUP PRACTICE: Cell phone meditation on the absolute need to check your damn email and your text messages. Honourary Buddhist Louis C.K. absolutely nailed it. So on this particular Monday you get to bring your phone and go ballistic consulting every platform except this time you’ll do it … Continue reading “Damn you technology!”