SARVAMANGALA
Services
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It is our privilege to serve you in whichever way we can. Below please find the range of services and sessions we offer. If you have any suggestions for new services, or if you would like to contribute with providing a compassion or awareness-related service you are an expert in, please feel free to let us know.
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Retreats
Our retreats in the beautiful English countryside and the scenic Swiss Alps bring together like-minded people to learn ancient methods of awareness and compassion meditation. Our next retreat will be held online due to Covid19.
Meditation Retreats
Our retreats in the UK take place in the beautiful English countryside at Loughborough, where our dear friends Marc and Anne of Nanpatan Hall take care of an amazing venue.
Swiss Retreats
Those who are ready for an adventure and to go to Switzerland can enjoy a beautiful journey to the scenic Swiss (and Austrian) Alps. The Swiss retreats are usually not longer than 3-4 days.
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Online Yoga Session with Ektaji
Ekta Ghale is a student of Usha Devi, one of the senior students of the world-renowned yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar. Ekta has been trained under Usha Devi for more than ten years.
She teaches the daily classes for beginners and weekly classes for children and college students at Patanjala Yoga Kendra (Iyengar Yoga Center) in Rishikesh, the World Capital of Yoga. Every summer she also studies and practices at Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune, for a few months.
Practices
The purpose of our retreats is to bring together like-minded people to learn the following ancient methods:
Maitrī meditation on loving kindness
Maitrī or loving kindness means to cultivate the meditative wish:
“May you be truly happy, may you be at ease
May I be truly happy, may I be at ease.”
This meditative state is cultivated and directed at people whom one loves, people whom one is neutral towards and people with whom there is some tension or enmity. In a next step, Maitrī is directed at oneself, one’s own inner ‘good’ qualities, ‘neutral’ qualities and ‘negative’ qualities — without judging them — and by wishing oneself to be truly happy and at ease.
Maitrī meditation is cultivated till all bonds of enmity or dislike dissolve and only loving kindness remains. It is a highly liberating and effective practice.
Awareness Meditation
Awareness meditation is similar to mindfulness:
It means to gently liberate all physical, emotional and mental states by keenly observing and gaining insight into their nature.
It is the art of living in the present moment. This skill needs to be learnt properly and in a retreat format. The first fruits of awareness meditation practice become visible after just a few weeks. Meditators becomes more vividly aware, serene, clear-minded, insightful and caring towards themselves and others. Awareness meditation can be cultivated by anyone who engages in daily practice of a minimum of twelve and a maximum of forty-eight minutes.
Awareness meditation frees us from all blockages, fears and worries. It unveils the joy of living and brings out the true nondual nature innate to our being – the ultimate awareness: peace as vast as space itself.
Karuṇā meditation on compassion
Karuṇā or sympathetic compassion means to cultivate the meditative wish:
“May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering
May I be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.”
It is directed at others and at oneself. Karuṇā meditation increases the capacity to empathise and bond with others, generating strong and auspicious connections with others.
Muditā meditation on joyful appreciation
Muditā or joyful appreciation means to cultivate a deep appreciation of the virtues, talents and auspicious qualities of others:
“I delight and rejoice in your superb qualities, talents and happiness”
For example, one concentrates on the Buddha, an accomplished meditator (Siddha), or someone with the utmost noble qualities (Bhagavān) – one then consciously appreciates their boundless wisdom and compassion and concentrates on their qualities. One thinks of an ordinary person whom one admires and meditates on their qualities; then one meditates on the potential for inner peace and kindness even in one’s enemies or detractors. Finally, one then looks at the potential auspicious qualities within oneself, the potential for enlightenment, and cultivates serene joyful appreciation for that.
Upekṣā meditation - equanimity
Upekṣā, also known as Madhyasthajñāna meditation, means to cultivate an inner state that looks beyond any faults in others, a perspective that has no preference for one group against another group, for one quality vis-à-vis another quality — unbiased equality towards oneself, one’s own states, towards others and their states:
“I look beyond all faults into your true nature and potential.”
Upekṣā allows us to become more and more objective and clear about our own states of mind and to look beyond the faults in others and connect with their potential enlightened nature and thus with our own enlightened nature.
Mahākaruṇā meditation on
unconditional compassion
Mahākaruṇā means ‘Great Compassion’. It is a meditation on a very specific view: The view that when we attain enlightenment, we have the possibility of helping others forever. Thus, Mahākaruṇā is unconditional compassion across time and space:
“As long as space remains and as long as a world exists, may I, too remain to dispel the misery of others.”
Mahākaruṇā meditation dispels all self-grasping or self-centredness from our hearts and allows us to soar into a blissful state instantly and spontaneously. The bliss we experience in this state then becomes the energy whereby we can help to alleviate the pain of others with whom we are connected.
Utkrānti meditation:
how to die peacefully & with joy
In this meditation practice, we prepare ourselves for the process of our own death. Death is but a new journey. However, it can be quite terrifying to die, since it is a transition into something unknown.
To a well-trained mind, death is but the next great adventure.
The practice of Utkrānti prepares our consciousness for its separation from the physical body.
Someone well-trained in Utkrānti will die peacefully and with a joyful smile on their face, being able to let go completely.
More retreats are in the making
These will include:
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Experiencing Music & Art with Awareness
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Experiencing Sensuality & Love with Awareness
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Experiencing Ancient Indian Dance & Performance Arts with Awareness
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Experiencing All of Life's Challenges with Awareness & Ease
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Experiencing Yoga & Movement with Awareness
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Dream-Yoga: How to Enter the Dreamworld Lucidly and with Awareness
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Preparing & Experiencing Healthy Food with Awareness
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Integrating Science & Rational Thought through the Magic of Awareness
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