Urban Dandy Meditation #2 was on 29^th March 2018 in Notting Hill. You should have come.

A new venture, aimed at people from North Kensington and further afield to engage in the practice of transcendental meditation and to stimulate discussion and creativity.

The theme for the second Urban Dandy meditation event was ‘What is freedom?’

Within this broad theme, the class considered the question ‘What kind of freedom is experienced in transcendental meditation?’ 

The group discussed the tightrope of being in the world, grappling with a plethora of pressures and seeking truth, whilst simultaneously not being fully of this world, and the resulting question – ‘If I’m not of this world, what am I of?’     

“I”

All participants reported that meditation facilitated a letting go, including of conventional understandings of the concept “I.”

This concept “I” can represent habitual roles, identity via nationality, religion, social class, political affiliation/non-affiliation, a strong identification with physical appearance, opinions, resentments, or taking a view of oneself as superior/inferior to others…

A human tendency is to spend energy looking for recognition and affirmation by playing any number of roles based on these identities, both consciously and subconsciously. We can deploy our energies fending off threats to these identities…

However, if these roles are seen for what they really are – habitual thought patterns – this energy is released and can be directed to benefit the whole person. 

Patterns

In meditation, socially constructed identifications become more noticeably insufficient and, over time, distance is established between them and the observer – the identifications start to be viewed as patterns created by the mind rather than absolute truths.

Underneath the choppy waves of these thoughts and beliefs is a deep ocean of stillness. In meditation, this ocean is accessed and experienced directly by letting go of expectations and letting go of reliance on thought as a way of knowing oneself.

This is what transcendental meditation offers access to…it is experiential, not intellectual, making it subtle, powerful and effective.

An experience of freedom in Notting Hill…but it didn’t stay in the building, a drop of it traveled with each participant into the night… 

By Tom Charles

@tomhcharles

Thanks to AC

Art by Angel Lewis