Wednesday 30 November 2011

Some of my favourite books

I've talked a bit about books that might help us in a spiritual quest.  And for this, everyone has to find their own.  I feel very much that sometimes in life, we can find ourselves in synchronicities, in finding the right book at just the right time, for instance.  And the spiritual search is an intensely personal thing.

That said, here are a few of my very favourite books from my Amazon lists, which I treasure:


Women Who Run With The Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman (Classic Edition)
4.  Women Who Run With The Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman (Classic Edition) by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
The list author says:
"wise, deep -- find the wild woman within and prepare to have your perspective on life dramatically altered"
£7.66   Used & New from: £2.92
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)

Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World
12.  Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World by John O'Donohue
The list author says:
"spiritual connection"
£6.99   Used & New from: £0.01
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
The Invitation
9.  The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
The list author says:
"this book will awaken the deep and wild part of your soul"

£5.54   Used & New from: £0.01
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life
6.  The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Zander
The list author says:
"One of the most inspirational books I have ever read.  A delight"
£14.63   Used & New from: £1.49
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews) | 1 customer discussion
Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals
16.  Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals by Thomas Moore
The list author says:
"for when you have nothing lighting your path"
£9.09   Used & New from: £4.49
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
The Complete Conversations with God (Boxed Set)
7.  The Complete Conversations with God (Boxed Set) by Neale Donald Walsch
The list author says:
"Achingly beautiful"
£20.31   Used & New from: £17.50
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews) | 1 customer discussion
The Shamanic Way of the Bee: Ancient Wisdom and Healing Practices of the Bee Masters
5.  The Shamanic Way of the Bee: Ancient Wisdom and Healing Practices of the Bee Masters by Simon Buxton
The list author says:
"a stunning rite of passage"
£7.36   Used & New from: £4.67
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
Collision with the Infinite: A Life Beyond the Personal Self
3.  Collision with the Infinite: A Life Beyond the Personal Self by Suzanne Segal
The list author says:
"Awakening"
Used & New from: £29.95
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
The Artist's Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self
8.  The Artist's Way: A Course in Discovering and Recovering Your Creative Self by Julia Cameron
The list author says:
"A must-have for every creative person out there!"
£7.94   Used & New from: £5.88
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)

Black Butterfly: Invitation to Radical Aliveness
4.  Black Butterfly: Invitation to Radical Aliveness by Richard Moss
The list author says:
"A beautiful account of the author's own awakening, plus his thoughts on radical spiritual transformation"
Used & New from: £3.68
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
The Four Agreements: Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (Toltec Wisdom)
7.  The Four Agreements: Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (Toltec Wisdom) by Don Miguel Ruiz
The list author says:
"simple yet deep Toltec wisdom"
£6.26   Used & New from: £1.57
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)

The Prophet's Way: A Guide to Living in the Now
17.  The Prophet's Way: A Guide to Living in the Now by Thom Hartmann
The list author says:
"love this"
£13.59   Used & New from: £8.01
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation
18.  The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation by Thom Hartmann
The list author says:
"waking up on how to clean up the mess we're making"
£6.24   Used & New from: £4.70
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

Thursday 24 November 2011

New Age religion or Old Testament? The minefield of knowing where to turn


The spiritual pull might be calling, but then what?  Beginning the journey, trying to tease out what works for you and what doesn’t can feel pretty tricky.  In one corner the stern and often seemingly unforgiving religions, and they seem extra suspect these days.  You’ve got Old Testament flames and anger and and all that eye-for-an-eye stuff and the slippery perils of how Not To Fall into Hell.  Then in another corner, there’s the New Age movement, in which everyone seems to flutter about like hundreds of floaty Mary Poppins’, all breezy and happy, but it’s as though they’re living on another plane, because they seem keen to erase all that is dark and difficult in life.  And sometimes it can feel a bit weird.  Sometimes it can all feel a bit clannish, with the uniforms of the New Age, the earth-coloured clothes, mandatory dreadlocks, talk of permaculture and recycling and strict vegetarianism or veganism, and it can feel a bit like unless you adhere strictly to their ideas, you’re still on the outside a bit.

Good old Humanism is a solid and scientific, option.  It’s a way of being good towards your fellow man without needing to be self-aggrandising, without resorting to a rulebook allegedly written by a God some millennia ago.  It rejects blind faith, and that is definitely a good thing!  This is a good fall-back, option.  But what if you’re hovering around agnosticism, or want to explore notions of God?

It is my view that all religions lead to the same thing – for that reason I’m fairly closely affiliated towards the Bahai faith.  I remember one friend of mine, a Christian, who was one day the focus of a Muslim in a street in southeast London.  “Hey man,” said the Muslim, “we’re all the same, right?”  My friend could have replied in a myriad of different ways.  His response was to shrug and ignore, coming home and brimming with indignation, because:  “the Koran has changed a lot of the key Biblical stories around.” 

What he perhaps hadn't realised was, that just for a second, the Muslim had been able to zoom out of the minutae of it all, realise the lesson of love for everyone which is inherent in every religion.  Realise that love, compassion, understanding, gratitude, these are the messages we need to take on board.  And that they cover all people, all life, no-one excluded because they happen to have joined a different ‘club’.
Not that I blame my friend; he’s the product of his religious upbringing, after all, which tells him firmly there can be only one religion.  He cannot think otherwise, that all religions lead to the same place, because well, who is God if not a Christian God?  His framework of belief, so carefully constructed over the years is reliant upon his faith being the Only One.  To allow in even a fraction of something different might cause his world to implode, as it might for many others. I can empathise with that.  It's the biggest concept we're talking about -- God, and if people find their beliefs shaken, it must feel as though the world is crumbling under their feet.

But this is the way it is for many religions.  People get so caught up in intellectualising the stories, parables.  They have to be truths and there can be only one set of truths!  Jesus said, “love your neighbour” he didn’t say, “only love your Christian neighbour”, or “only love that person who lives at no. 23 because they happen to believe in me”.  It was simply, to love and embrace, everyone.  Religion can often be worn, heavily, like a comfort blanket by people, who get lost in dogma or snippets from the Bible, who think that going to church and mingling with likeminded folk is enough.  We all have work to do, on recognising our own faults, and wearing a cloak of religious virtue doesn’t exclude anyone from this.

I don’t think it’s our duty on this planet to absorb ourselves 100% in material things, I think the soul needs replenishment through periods of contemplation, of silence.  Of noticing the tiny things.  Feeling gratitude for merely being alive, because that’s a pretty big deal. In Buddhism, we begin loving kindness meditation by choosing a neutral person to feel warm towards, then someone you find more difficult.  Because just plunging in and attempting to feel love for everyone is hard work!  Starting with smaller aims then working your way up is a good idea. 

If you are struggling on your own path, if you are experiencing a dark night of the soul, perhaps, not quite sure where to turn, then I would say the beginning is probably with an increase in awareness through meditation, through paying attention, increased gratitude and acts of kindness.  Allowing love – not eros love, but agape love – to permeate every corner of your life where possible.  I don’t think you necessarily need to follow a religion.  But I do think it important to follow your intuition.  If your intuition says you need a religion, then read about religions until you find one that fits.  I think finding out what is missing is as vital as breathing.  And I don’t feel we need only call ourselves one thing – if you want to worship God in a church, dance in a field and worship Gaia I think that must be fine, too!

Often a well-meaning New Ager may say ‘there is nothing you have to do’ or ‘you can wake up others just by finding your own enlightenment, you don’t have to do anything or heal anyone else, just be you’.  But I believe this is misleading.  The path we each have will unfold for us all in its own time.  It may be we cannot see the wood for the trees, that we are so embroiled in our crises that we don’t think we’re making any progress at all.  It’s not until you then zoom out a bit and look at your life from a different perspective that you are able to see the progress you’ve made.  It may be there is nothing specific you have to do, or it may be, without a doubt, that you feel a path unfurl before you.  And this is what is often difficult because it may fly in the face of the materialistic culture in which we operate.  I also believe the universe wakes us all up when it’s time to awaken.  You might be immersed fully in your life and resent the intrusion!  But I do believe once we step into a more spiritual path, that in itself will bring its own reward, as anyone who has had deep, joyful, awakening experiences will testify.  It isn’t all easy by any stretch of the imagination, but I do believe it’s worth it; it’s the soul’s expression of longing to find its way back home.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Awakening Experiences


I’m reading a book at the moment called ‘Waking from Sleep’ by Steve Taylor.  It’s a look at different types of spiritual experience and ways to achieve them. Apparently the Victorian poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson practised a form of mantra meditation by silently repeating his name to himself.  'This act frequently induced high-intensity awakening experiences in which he lost all sense of seperateness, and became part of the formless spiritual ‘ground’ of the universe.  As he describes it:
"Individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being, and this was not a confused state but the clearest, the surest of the surest, utterly beyond words – where death was an almost laughable impossibility – the loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction but the only true life."
Taylor discusses how dancing, meditation, listening to music, contemplating poetry or painting, running, or simply sitting contemplating in silence, can all induce either high-intensity awakening experiences, or something calmer and more peaceful.  I know from my own small experience of meditating how I can lose a sense of boundaries within my body, and I have experienced a great sense of love and peace.  And some people experience transcendent sex -- when you have a mystical experience during the act of sex, without necessarily having any interest in or knowledge of, mysticism or religion.

Epilepsy or other brain conditions can sometimes induce powerful states, too, such as the scientist, Jill Bolte-Taylor, who apparently experienced Nirvikalpa samadhi.

Jill says:
"I could no longer define the boundaries of my body.  I couldn’t define where I began and where I ended. […] My left hemisphere brain chatter went totally silent, just [as though] someone had taken a remote control and pressed the mute button.  At first I was shocked to find myself inside a silent mind.  But I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of the energy around  me… I felt enormous and expansive.  I felt at one with all the energy that was and it was beautiful there…
My spirit soared free like a great whale gliding through a sea of silent euphoria.  Nirvana, I found nirvana…"

And a quote from the author and spiritual teacher Alan Watts, from his autobiography:
"Every morning when I first awaken, I have a feeling of total clarity as to the sense of life, a feeling of myself and the universe as a matter of the utmost simplicity.  “I” and “That which is” are the same.  Always have been and always will be.”
I read an article recently about how it’s common for astronauts to have deeply spiritual feelings or experiences.  Since then, a quick search on Google reveals just how common an experience this is and it even has a name, the overview effect.  It is said to be a similar effect that is experienced by Buddhist monks whilst meditating.

Here's an interesting article about the first 24 astronauts on the moon -- upon their return most of the astronauts found their perspective on life to be considerably changed.

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who rode on Apollo 16 in 1971 describes how a feeing of bliss, timelessness, and connectedness began to overwhelm him. He describes becoming instantly and profoundly aware that each of his constituent atoms were connected to the fragile planet he saw in the window and to every other atom in the Universe.
"What I do remember is the awesome experience of recognizing the universe was not simply random happenstance…that there was something more operating than just chance."

Astronaut James Irwin founded the religious organization, High Flight Foundation and Charles Duke formed the Duke Ministry for Christ.Mitchell founded the Institute for Noetic Sciences, a leading institute for consciousness studies, upon his return. He also maintains that UFOs are real, and that the US government has been covering them up for 60 years.

Some people say that these astronauts just went a bit crazy upon their return.  And it's a natural reaction, given the tiny constraints of the worldview we normally operate within, which has little time for spirituality and religions, and most view both with the highest degree of scepticism, especially given the recent trend of atheism with people like Richard Dawkins jumping into the fray.  Some might think it's just the physiological effect of being in space, and that the chemicals in the body produce euphoria-like effects which have us fooled into thinking there is something more mysterious out there.  But, in terms of evolution, humans are puny!  We have a small understanding of the world around us and are currently grappling with science to attempt to make Einstein's theory of relativity fit into the world of quantum physics. We can't discount the vast swathes of mystical experiences on account of not having proof for it yet. We don't have proof to entirely eliminate the possibilities these experiences present, either.  Personally, as a believer in God and a believer in a mysterious universe, I find these experiences continually fascinating.  And I hope one day they point us in the right direction for our own spiritual evolution towards a more peaceful world.

Monday 14 November 2011

The New-Age Movement & 'the Secret': transforming the darkness within

I am friends with many New-Age people on one particular social networking site (as I adopt many 'New-Age' beliefs myself).  One woman in particular adopted a bit of a schizophrenic approach to her accounts.  Every day she updated her status with positive soundbites.  Then one day she erupted, spattering her facebook page with something altogether darker, and finishing her vitriolic outpourings with ‘if you all don’t like it you can ‘f*ck off, this is me!’  It transpired she had held two separate accounts, one to encompass the light side of her personality and one to encompass the 'normal' side, which she had long been using to contact her real-life friends.  The people she’d befriended on either side had no idea about this until the day she decided to merge both accounts under her New-Age persona.  What she’d done was really to repress her natural human responses and try to airbrush them from her life.  By allowing only one side of herself to be present to various different people at any given time, she wasn’t being honest about who she was, and finally, she exploded.

This is something I’ve noticed some New-Agers want to do, try to airbrush out the darker side of their humanity -- otherwise known as the shadow in Jungian psychoanalysis which is the denied aspect of the self.  But why?  These people often have the best intentions and want to write about positive human emotion.  They believe thoughts to be powerful entities in their own right, therefore allowing in chinks of darkness makes them wary. In addition, they may have had awakening experiences in which they felt overwhelming joy, love and interconnectedness. 

But chances are, they’re still human beings who occasionally want to tell the world to ‘f*ck off’. You can have a flash of brilliant insight about humanity and being positive, but there will still involve some level of effort to see through on a daily basis; if you've not got to grips with your own demons there is work to be done!   And we certainly can’t do that vicariously, from simply reading about someone else who is transformed.  Both Byron Katie and Neale Donald Walsch underwent incredibly challenging times before they were able to experience a sense spiritual epiphany that allowed them to transform their negativity.  Their difficult years were the beginnings of the work they needed to do in their psyches in order to allow the transformation to take place.  Peace Pilgrim was able to turn pretty much most of her waking life into constant prayer, but it took her 12 years of discipline before this practise came easily to her.  


We can’t proclaim ourselves transformed until we fully know what our weak spots are.  Darkness is as integral to the human experience as light in this context. I believe that it's the attitude towards whatever lands in our paths that is important. When we first step on the spiritual path, it's only natural and arguably, necessary, to feel doubt. In this way, our path can often oscillate between becoming more awakened and then scurrying back towards the darkness for a bit while we try and figure it all out. Sometimes this process is necessary; far better for us to be able to finally embrace our path having worked through our doubts and our shadow-side.  


The Secret
‘ The Secret’, by Rhonda Byrne is the first New-Age book I've come across so far that I felt didn't quite get the emphasis right.  The key of the Secret is, apparently, to believing you already have what you want so the law of attraction will ensure the universe will serve it up.  If we desperately long for something,  the universe will oblige by bringing us the experience of desperate longing.  Whilst on some level it may be true that our thoughts might bring about *some* of our experiences, we can’t say for certain that they are responsible for everything that happens to us.  Athletes will attest to the power of positive thinking and creative visualisation.   Sometimes we might find we’re entrenched in old, habitual ways of thinking which aren’t accurate or serving us in a useful way.  But it’s knowing how to utilise our minds in a more healthy way while not allowing ourselves to get carried away in fantasy.

This book appears to say that, by following our goals, regardless of what they are, the universe will spring into action to assist us. I have ethical issues with this.  I think synchronicities do play a part in life when we're on the right path that is individual to all of us, not just when something shiny takes our fancy.  The focus in this book has done away with spiritual focus and cut to the shiny results, feeding into a materialistic culture.  


The Power of Positive Thinking
I do understand that a lot of people believe that 'thoughts are powerful entities in their own right (and I tend to believe this too).  So then it might become tempting to think if we just focus on what we want, or happy thoughts that will suffice in terms of spiritual development. The New-Age movement is still in its infancy, and so I guess there are going to be areas ripe for misunderstanding or misreading.  There is a book I’ve been meaning to read by David Tacey, called Jung and the New Age which sounds like a hugely interesting critique of the New Age phenomenon, and looks at the reasons the psychoanalyst, Carl Jung has been (apparently) so widely misappropriated by the movement, looking at innacuracies in the reading of his work. 


What I can say from my observations so far, is that people involved in the New Age movement have to be careful when choosing what to believe, and how they read certain texts (like everyone really!).  It's all-too easy to get swept up in a tide of well-meaning positivity, but it can lead to an almost fanatical belief based on very little of substance.  It just means when stepping a foot onto the path of deepening your spirituality, you should be as aware of your own failings as possible, and be willing to be honest about them.  I'm sure my New-Age friend has since found a middle path between her outburst and her 'whiter-than-white' persona, and probably learned something about her own nature along the way.


There is a wealth of beautiful information out there amongst New-Age reading (including Byron Katie, and Neale Donald Walsch, as well as the ACIM books).  I personally believe that we are all one, and that there is a very beautiful presence, or force, or God, that is able to guide us if we let it.  For most of us, there is work to be done.  Work to find out who we are and then live out our lives at the highest level of our potential. We all have unique gifts which we can bring to each other and to the world. The work involves staying very much heart-centred, making decisions from a place of love, kindness, gratitude.  Then our non-attachment will perhaps attract the right things into our lives!  (These might not be a huge paycheck or a shiny new car though, but they will be whatever it is our soul needs on its path at that moment.)  


Plenty of books out there will help you on your spiritual path, but it's vital that you find ways to stay true to yourself as much as possible; if you feel you've become lost you may need to disconnect from the world around for a time.  The answers will come.

Vipassana meditation retreat: is it for you?


One Buddhist retreat that I've been thinking about going on is the Vipassana (or insight) meditation retreat, as taught by S. N. Goenke (http://www.dhamma.org/) and I’ve been doing some reading on the web to explore the ideas behind this further.  If you are curious and are thinking of going on this retreat, an interesting discussion can be found here along with a link to a pdf critique of the discipline.  A more recent article can be found in the Guardian which also looks at this from a practical point of view, the amount of sitting for such long periods can cause huge discomfort!

The insight meditation technique is but one shard of Buddhist thinking, and it's pretty gruelling, with up to 11 hours per day spent in meditation.  Amongst other issues, the critique I linked to above, looks at ways this technique might even perhaps cause ‘disassociative disorder’ (in which people can feel entirely removed from themselves, as though they’re watching themselves without any emotional attachment).  People with known mental issues are discouraged from going on this type of retreat.

Dukkha and hacking the operating system
I think we all have our own internal directives, and we each have our unique spiritual journey.  What troubles me about something like this is that it appears to perhaps strip away the uniqueness of the individual, and strips man down to machine.  We ‘hack the operating system’ as someone said in an article relating to Steve Jobs and his commitment to Zen Buddhism (article in Shambala Sun) and that’s fine as far as it goes.  But man is not machine.  Being aware of ourselves on a greater level is of course a good thing. Buddhism seems to want to stress that life is suffering or ‘dukkha’ (which is apparently more like an analogy of a wobbly wheel on a car than the ‘life is suffering’ analogy we are more used to hearing.  Bringing awareness into our everyday lives on a greater level means we are more free in how we respond to events, and bring a greater sense of personal responsibility into our lives.  And that is a wonderful tool in a world where chaos and anger seem to spill out all over the place.  Being able to step back and choose your reaction is an excellent tool that more people should have.


Introduction to Buddhism
I read a small introduction to Buddhism by Steven Hagen in which the author focused on the central tenet of Buddhism, that of ‘awareness’, of ‘being awake’.  But it didn’t talk about compassion, about loving kindness, which both play a huge part, too.  Sometimes I feel that the overarching object of Buddhism can be quite selfish, as it is the pursuit of one’s own enlightenment.  (Not so with Mahāyana Buddhism, in which I believe the emphasis is on the delaying of nirvana until all sentient beings become enlightened.)  But where for instance there is great emphasis on obtaining good merit so you can have a good rebirth, surely we should be encouraged to focus on service to others as its own reward? Surely motive plays an important part in our karma?

A toolbox for the mind
Buddhism is often likened to a toolbox for the mind, it’s a psychological religion, and excellent for self-analysis.  In the book I link to above, Steven Hagen effectively argues that the central tenet and the most important, is simply, awareness.  Flooding our lives with awareness we can see how we have been sleepwalking through much of our lives up until this point; we have self-awareness when we better understand our own true motives, and awareness ultimately enables us to live more skillfully.  However, you don't need to be a Buddhist at all to go on a Vipassana retreat, they are designed for everyone no matter what faith (although you are actively discouraged to mix any religious practices whilst on retreat to ensure you get the best benefit from it).

Vipassana
I have been thinking about whether or not to do this retreat now for a year or so, and as I was reading other experiences and thoughts at www.metta.org.uk I was reminded that we often have to just take the plunge and go for things!  Otherwise we will never fully know if it will work for us.  This type of retreat sounds like it can be both an incredibly uncomfortable experience, but also quite beautiful.  But the point of it is that we face both the uncomfortable and the beautiful aspects with the same level of equanimity.  We are not looking to hold out for the joyous experience that might arise nor rush through the unpleasant side of it, but the goal is to be able to face both experiences in the same way.

The retreat then, will be hard work -- you may have feelings that make you go 'wow' but you might not.  You will probably feel uncomfortable, and may find it tricky going at times, emotionally or mentally.  It is likely though that you will come away feeling calmer, and more able to deal with whatever life throws at you.  If you are lucky enough to having any beautiful experiences during this retreat, that's a bonus, but shh, don't make too much of it, because that's not the point!  :)

You don’t have to be a Buddhist, but Buddhist words and scripture will, I believe, be referred to at times.  Nor is this a way to lure people to follow Buddhism. Some people believe this type of retreat to be a bit cultish, but it’s simply one technique to flood you mind and body with the white, crystalline light of awareness. You don't take anything on 'blind faith'.  The 'noble silence' is something that also sounds appealing to me, I find I often take refuge in silence and I enjoy it.  I'm not afraid of a silent world for a couple of weeks; to me, it enhances the idea of the retreat being a sacred time to myself.  I do have some level of trepidation about the level of physical discomfort however!  Still, I hope to be able to do this, perhaps later in the year.

I’d say if you want to try this meditation then go for it, but be prepared for the level of work and concentration involved.  Perhaps try a silent weekend retreat first as a taster.  The Vipassana method does seem to work very well for many people, and give a greater sense of clarity and focus (this guy is very pro).

Do be aware that you need to be mentally 'fit' to undertake this course.  If you suffer from an existing psychological condition, it is not advised that you undertake this type of retreat.  Equally, if you know of any traumas long-buried, it is probably a good idea to be aware that difficult feelings could well arise during this course.

An alternative retreat could be a Satipanya Buddhist retreat:  retreats devoted to contemplative living and insight meditation in the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition. This centre, above, is based in Wales, and is informally affiliated with a group of meditation centres in Sri Lanka.  They also have links to Gaia House, in Devon.

Centres in the UK
I've listed a few centres below:

Dipa Dhamma in Hereford  (you can read an article in the Independent written by a participant:  The Power of Solitude ) Vipassana courses as taught by S. N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin

Gaia House in Devon

International Meditation Centre UK -- in Wiltshire (based on Vipassana teachings taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin)

Satipanya in Wales  (based on the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition from the teachings of Bhanti Bohdidamma)