Learn Meditation

Video-Based Self-Study Online Course with Personal Consultation

Meditation Online Course

Introduction

Definition and perception of notions like “reality” and “truth” are non-trivial problems. Scientists, philosophers and mystics of all ages and cultures have tried to find out what existence is all about, what makes it move and what holds it all together. The purpose and motivation for living the human life – beyond the satisfaction of primary instincts – is nicely summarised in the “perennial philosophy” (Buddha, Leibniz, Huxley, Vivekananda etc.). Aldous Huxley lists a minimum working hypothesis:

1. That there is a Godhead or Ground, which is the unmanifested principle of all manifestation.
2. That the Ground is transcendent and immanent.
3. That it is possible for human beings to love and realise the identity of the Ground.
4. That to achieve this unitive knowledge, to realise the supreme identity, is the final end and purpose of human existence.
5. That there is a Law or Dharma, which must be obeyed, a Tao or Way, which must be followed, if humans are to achieve their final end.

Or consider these four questions:

1. Where do I come from?
2. Where am I going?
3. Why am I here?
4. Who am I?

The uneasy but exciting energy behind these questions motivated me as a young person to study physics. This left me both with great fulfilment, gratitude and wonder on account of the amazing theories and findings of modern physics (some of them beyond my grasp of understanding) but also frustrated, since it didn’t fully answer to my initial, essential (maybe unconscious) motivation.

When I discovered yoga a few years after completing a PhD in theoretical physics, my motivation to follow up on these existential questions was revived. In the study and practise of yoga and Eastern spirituality I found a very different approach with awakening qualities and complimentary results. Today, I still find meditation the most important tool in life to find and fulfil its purpose, and, on the way towards that ultimate goal, to heal, grow and have glimpses of reality and truth.

Motivation - Why Should You Take This Course?

In this course you will learn how to meditate. With a balanced combination of theory and informed, guided practice you will enjoy gaining experience and proficiency in meditating. A regular practice of meditation opens up possibilities for positive change:

You will increase your ability to concentrate both in quality and duration
You will enhance your cognitive functions
You will feel more resilient to stress and stay relaxed and focussed in stressful situations
You will feel at the same time calmer and more awake
Your overall mood will be more stable and light and you will be less likely to be overwhelmed by negativity
You will find yourself more resourceful in challenging life situations and problem solving
Your overall sense of well-being will be better, your immune system will improve
You will have better sleep
You will start to relate better to the people around you
You will have better understanding and more empathy for yourself and others
You will have an increased self-awareness and be less worried and self-absorbed
You will be more efficient and beneficial in your business and family life
Your creativity will be more inspired and productive

“Meditation is a science, the systematic process of training the mind. It is the science of meditation that allows people from all walks of life to experience the same amazing benefits. A regular sitting practice has been shown to enhance concentration, lower blood pressure, and improve sleep. It is used to treat chronic pain, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.”

“Meditators develop valuable insights into their personality, behaviours, and relationships, making it easier to recognize and change past conditioning and counterproductive views that make life difficult. They have a greater awareness and sensitivity to others, which is enormously helpful at work and in personal relationships. The calming and relaxing effects of meditation also translate into increased emotional stability when confronting the inevitable stresses of life.” – Culadasa, The Mind Illuminated

Some of my own Experience

I have been meditating almost daily since 2002 when I started daily yoga practice. In my own experience, one of the important and beautiful things I can observe from meditating is a sense of “enhanced space”. While meditating, a sense of inner space around the self occurs that seems to come from a relaxation of stressful inner personality forces like self-judgement, expectations, negativity and similar tendencies. These are usually fast and relentless and so pervasive that they are not actually seen for what they are but perceived as “normal” part of oneself and existence. While meditating, they divide from the sense of self and relax and sometimes fall away. What remains is a feeling of peace and more “space”.

This purer sense of self that remains can then sometimes deepen and become incredibly beautiful, powerful and nourishing. But I might not get that far every time I meditate.

Another other sense of space I experience then later, during the day. In stressful situations, where I would tend to be reactive, I experience more space (or buffer, reserve) to take in whatever is happening, stay more neutral and objective, and, instead of reacting, act in a more calm and inspired way. That is wonderful when it happens. I can then see myself more as an observer of myself and the situation I am in and less as an object in an emotional chain reaction. This could possibly also be described simply as better stress management.

Who Is This Course For?

This course is for You

if you want to learn to meditate
if you want to gain practical experience meditating
if have you a feeling that meditation is for you but don’t know where to start or need some guidance
if you want to complement or enrich your already established practice of any kind of meditation or spiritual mind-body work
or even if you just want to learn some basic theory about the purpose, methods and challenges of meditation!

This course will also be helpful if you want to support your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing, if you want to improve your concentration, enhance your cognitive and decision-making abilities, and balance your mental and emotional energies long-term.

How Long Will This Course Take?

Since you can decide yourself how often you want to practice and take video classes the duration of the entire course depends on your schedule. Also, there is a shorter and a longer version of the course; you can decide to finish after module 3 or continue and complete an optional module 4.

If you take one class every day (one class takes ca. 90 minutes), the course would take approximately four months for modules 1-3 and six months if you include module 4. If you take it slower and do only two classes every week (except for the periods where you will have to practice daily), the course would take approximately six months for modules 1-3 and ten months if you include module 4.

Payment and Password

The price for the course is £199.

Please make a transfer and send me an email with your details and a few lines about yourself and your motivation to do the course. I will send you the password immediately.

The password will give you access to the course at the bottom of this page and to the Vimeo page containing all the course videos. The password has a validity of two years. By paying you agree to not share the password with anybody else.

Once you have completed the course, you will receive an electronic certificate (pdf).

This Course

This course consists of short articles to read, regular self-scheduled practice with videos, and personal consultation with me.

It is recommended that you schedule at least two video sessions per week for your course to get results and feel progress. If you have enough time and dedication, you can do up to one video every day.

The 62 videos for this course are on a Vimeo page which is accessible via the green buttons anywhere on this website.

Your password will not work for videos accessed in any other way (except for some free videos).

Your password will work only for green buttons giving you access to the course and the videos.

Course Outline

The course is divided into three modules and can then be extended into your own continuing, customised practice or an optional Module Four.

Module One first introduces a model of the mind from the Kundalini Yoga tradition to help understand the mind’s functioning, how it creates problems, and how its use and service can be improved. Module One then guides you through a series of 18 meditation class videos that work on each of the aspects described in the model. This gives you a profound but playful introductory experience of a great variety of shorter and longer meditation exercises which strengthen and sharpen your psyche, mental clarity and concentration abilities. Module One includes ideas for regular self-evaluation, practical questions to evaluate your meditation practice from time to time.

In Module Two we introduce a first, simple strategy for how to become more conscious of the process of continuously falling in-and-out of meditation, how to better deal with distractions and stay longer in an actual state of meditation. We practice our findings with some longer meditations of Kundalini classics like Kirtan Kriya, Sodarshan Chakra Kriya, Long Ek Ong Kaar, Master’s Touch and Laya Yoga. In the second part of of Module Two we explore the aspect of time and repetition for meditation progress. We motivate and engage in a continuous 40 day practice of Kirtan Kriya meditation.

Module Three investigates in greater detail the process of how to concentrate, how to maintain strong concentration but stay relaxed over an extended period of time, and how to ultimately stabilise, deepen and advance our meditation experience. We discover how to train and make use of a natural (and important) subconscious process that otherwise disrupts the attempt of meditation. We introduce peripheral awareness as an explicit, important factor in addition to the concentration focus. Module Three then introduces sound as the most important object of meditation – the concept of Shabad Guru. The theory of Module Three provides you with a more sophisticated and powerful strategy for meditation that alerts you to the various levels of distraction and various tools for staying engaged in meditation. You are now equipped for a 40 day practice of the Shabad Guru Mantra Meditation.

At this stage you can either continue with regular practice of Shabad Guru Mantra Meditation or any other meditation of your own choice and phase out of the course, or you can continue (now or later) with Module Four which will broaden your meditation experience further with a series of triple meditations employing chanting, mudra, pranayama, posture, movement, visualisation and locks in various combinations and sequences. The culmination of Module Four is a perfect combination of maximum impact exercises, the Trinity Giants, a combined practice of Sat Kriya, Sodarshan Chakra Kriya and Kirtan Kriya for 40 days.

The Mystic Longing

“We live in hope that when death comes, we will not be annihilated but consummated, and we will pass through the veil of death into unmediated, infinite union with the infinite love of God, which is our destiny. It is mediated here on the earthly plane. We sense it as in a mirror darkly, we are drawn to it, and then we trust that when death comes, it opens out upon this unmediated union, as destiny, which is the reason we were created in the first place.

“The mystical part comes in when one begins to sense in the midst of these mediated realizations and surrenders to all these realms of transformation, we begin to sense that there is something in us that doesn’t want to wait until we are dead in order to find our way into unmediated infinite union with the infinite love of God. That there is growing within us a certain longing for unmediated union and to entering into the depths of God’s life, sharing and living God’s life as deeply as God lives God’s own life. We feel a longing for that. […] This longing is an echo in our heart of God’s infinite longing for us not to wait until we are dead to experience this union, which is the earlier reflection on creation, which is already here.

“If we opened up our heart all the way, we come to the God-given godly nature of the infinite presence of God presence-ing itself as the world, as our body, as time, as space, as everything, but hidden, it is veiled. And then we start seeing it through these mediations. We see that God is calling us to a certain kind of urgency of love. That God is calling us not to wait until we are dead to enter into this infinite union with the Infinite even while we are still on this earth, which is, the mystic longing. It is a kind of a longing that we don’t understand, for union that we don’t understand, but which stirs within us in ways that we don’t understand, calling us out onto this path. Where can I go?”

James Finley, Turning to the Mystics

“I am delighted about the recorded Vimeo classes. I feel grateful and lucky to have Sat Siri as my teacher as he is able to convey his presence and the teachings as if he were in the same room.” – Helga

“I have been attending Sat Siri’s classes for over a year. They have changed my life. He embodies the principles of Kundalini Yoga and is a wise and knowledgeable teacher. He also introduces mantra and music with his guitar. The classes bring the spiritual and divine lessons into your day and my life has only been enriched for it. All his students respect and appreciate what he shares with us and I wholeheartedly recommend you try his classes.” – Fiona