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Taking the mountain with you

“The only Zen that you find on top of a mountain is the Zen that you bring with you” – Robert M Pirsig

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article looks at how to embody the energy of a mountain, its a fun idea with serious applications!

Lots of great events & courses coming up soon, scroll down below the article to have a look! 

In the spirit of the mountain, 

Toby
 


Taking the mountain with you
 
‘Taking the mountain with you’ is a Zen expression. It means that if you are a meditator, rather than needing to go to a mountain to ground, de-stress and recover your balance, you become like the energy of the mountain. By meditating consistently, as you walk around in the city or wherever you go, you take the energy of ‘mountainous-ness’ with you.
You can also take the image of the mountain as a metaphor for enlightenment, or awakening. When we are stabilized in the art of awakening, wherever we go we take that awakening with us, because we embody that energy.
 
“The only Zen that you find on top of a mountain is the Zen that you bring with you” – Robert M Pirsig.
 
When I was a monk, there were always members of the Buddhist group that I was in who were obsessed with the idea of going on retreat. They felt that, once they had done a six-month or one year retreat, somehow that would have attained a special state that would once-and-for-all mean that they never had to be bothered by ordinary states of mind and body again. They were looking for a one knock-out punch! Needless to say I also listened to several stories from these people regarding returning to ordinary life after their long retreat and feeling like they were back to square one after a disappointingly short time!
 
Bring the mountain you’ve got
 
One middle-way that I have found useful is to simply commit each day to bringing the ‘mountain that you have got’ with you into your life each day. What this means is that you bring to front and centre that part of you that is calm, balanced and stable like a mountain each day. Simply be that to the greatest degree that you are able.
 
A mountain poem
 
The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
– Li Bai
 
Some meditation positions
 
Sit or stand like a mountain. At first imagine you are standing or sitting on a mountain. There is you and the mountain. Feel into the calmness, solidity, and presence of the mountain, gradually relax into this until as the poem says, “We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains.” Go from being with the mountain to being the mountain. Work with this until there is no self-and-mountain, only ‘mountainous-ness’.
 
In daily life, try and return to this feeling of mountainous-ness often:

  • When you walk into a room or a meeting, bring it with you
  • Coming home from work, bring it on the train with you
  • Sit down to the family dinner with it
  • Experience your uncertainty with it
  • Through the highs and lows of your life, bring the mountain with you

 
Wherever you go, bring the mountain!
 
Related reading: The body is in you – How to go into deep meditation quickly
Four Zen Meditations
 

© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com

All upcoming classes & workshops
 

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Tues & Weds, 7.30-8.30 pm – Freedom & Fullness – A practical introduction to non-dual meditation practice

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6-15pm  – Freedom & Fullness deep-dive non-dual meditation sessions

Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th May – The Call of the Wild: Shamanic Meditations for connecting to animal guides in the inner world Masterclass & Mini-retreat

Starts Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th May, 7.30-8.30pm – Embodied Transformation – An integrative introduction to Tantric meditation

Starts Saturday, 10th May & then weekly, 5.30-6.15pm – Embodied Transformation – Saturday Tantric deep-dive meditation sessions

Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th May, 7.30-8.30pm – Wesak compassion & inner visioning meditation

Saturday 17th May, 3-4.30pm – One Heart Open Day: Heart Opening meditation with singing bowls

Tuesday 17th, Weds 18th June, 7.30-8.30pm – Summer solstice balancing & renewing meditation

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses * 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology

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Awareness and insight Energy Meditation Enlightened Flow Enlightened love and loving Integrating Ego, Soul and Spirit Life-fullness meditation and creativity Meditation techniques Primal Spirituality spiritual intelligence Stress Transformation

Combining your Witnessing with Tantric meditation

“You are not a drop of love in the ocean. You are the entire ocean of Love in a drop.”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article looks at combining your basic witnessing practice with a Tantric meditation form. If you enjoy it you would be welcome to join us for the Tuesday & Wednesday sessions this week, where we will be working with this meditation directly.
 
Tantric practice is also the subject of a new series of classes & sessions that I will be leading in May:
Starts Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th May, 7.30-8.30pm – Embodied Transformation – An integrative introduction to Tantric meditation
Starts Saturday, 10th May & then weekly, 5.30-6.15pm – Embodied Transformation – Saturday Tantric deep-dive meditation sessions
If you are motivated to come on this journey with me, you can do so live, online or via recordings.
 
In the spirit of the Ocean-you-Are,

Toby
 


Combining your Witnessing with Tantric meditation
 
Tantric meditation is a tradition of meditation originating primarily, but not solely in the east. It emphasizes the unity of body, sensuality, and spirit. In some of its forms it stops at the awakening of a sense of the Body-as Spirit. In it’s more complete forms it takes this sense of embodied spirituality,  merging it with transcendent consciousness to create the path to a fully awakened, non-Dual state. This article outlines a combination of basic witnessing with simple Tantra to supercharge your meditation, and your energy levels.
 
Deeper into Witnessing – Transcending and including
 
Basic witness practice is sitting in meditation as the observer self, detaching in a healthy way from the contents of your consciousness. You simply hold this position and practice watching calmly. Deeper witnessing involves developing the capacity to:

  • Transcend the content of your consciousness by witnessing
  • Simultaneously include and embrace that content in an unconditionally warm and loving manner

One analogy for this is that you witness like the sun, which shines its light objectively on the world, whilst simultaneously embracing it with its warmth.
 
Bliss and Love, your basic Tantric ingredients
 
Love and inclusion
 
Breathe into your heart and feel the natural, original Love there. Experience it as an embracing warmth and care that builds and grows as you breathe. Let your body soften to this feeling, so that it as you stay centred in Love. A nice object of meditation here is the Rumi line:
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”
Altered to focus on Love:
“You are not a drop of love in the ocean. You are the entire ocean of Love in a drop.”
 
Bliss and transcendence
 
Breathe into your lower-belly, sacral region and sexual organs. Connect to the basic Bliss of your Life-force in the body. This is the basic bliss that, when activated biologically becomes sexual attraction, and ‘peaks’ in the experience of orgasm. Breathe and let the feeling of bliss build a bit in your loins. Then imagine this Blissful feeling rising as an energy from your sexual organs to the base of the spine, and then up the spine and back of the head to your crown. Feel a ball of light building above your crown, filled with transcendent Bliss and the freedom that comes with it.
 
Creating a Love-Bliss Witness
 
Bring the ball of transcendent Bliss down from your crown to your heart, where it merges with the inclusive, all-embracing Love. So, you have a feeling of Love-Bliss-Consciousness at your heart.
Now identify your True Witness Self as being Consciousness composed of these two qualities; Transcendent Bliss and an All-inclusive Love. With this set up you can then either:

  • Witness the content of your consciousness with this Love-Bliss Witness or
  • Rest in the ocean or sky-like experience of the Witness itself, enjoying the feeling of blissful ‘Fullness & Emptiness’

 
A final position here is then to practice viewing the content that you are witnessing as arising from the Ocean of your Bliss-Love Witness, not two things, but one thing arising simultaneously, which gives you an approach to a Non-Dual expereince.
Once you are familiar with the above practice, you can ‘short-cut’ sometimes by generating the Bliss in your sacral region, and then just feeling it rise-up directly to meet the Love in your heart. But going up to the crown and then down again has the initial advantage of mixing the Bliss with the freedom of higher levels of consciousness available at the crown.
 
Related reading: Sky & sun, freedom & fullness
Re-awakening to your Bliss
All you need is Love – Contemplative Non-Duality


© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses * 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology

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Energy Meditation Enlightened Flow Enlightened love and loving Inner vision Integral Meditation Integrating Ego, Soul and Spirit Meditation techniques Motivation and scope Presence and being present spiritual intelligence

All you need is Love – Contemplative Non-Duality


“There is a natural warm, inclusive feeling that arises when you are in touch with your heart energy. Think of this as your foundational, or basic love”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article looks at Love as a gateway to Non-Dual meditation. If you enjoy it you would be welcome to join us for the Tuesday & Wednesday, as well as the Saturday sessions this week, where we will be working with this meditation directly.

Final reminder also of the Liberation & creativity through the observer self (Finding freedom in your roles) mindfulness masterclass that I will be doing at two times over the next week. 

In the spirit of Love, 

Toby

This week’s article: All you need is Love – Contemplative Non-Duality
 
You could think of it as there being three gateways to Non-Dual or unitive meditation:

  • Through the Mind (and/or) head, using the witness or observer self
  • Through the Heart using the feeling of being, and of love
  • Through the senses (and/or belly), using non-conceptual sensation

This article focuses on the heart and feelings of love. It includes three meditation positions, all of which ‘work’ by themselves, but if you put them together sequentially, it creates a step-by-step movement from everyday awareness to Non-Dual awareness.
 
Basic warmth and the simple feeling of being

The first object is the simple feeling of being. Notice how, at the centre of each moment of your experience is a sense of being-ness. Notice that if you drop into that feeling within your heart-space, there is kind of a natural warmth to it, and that the warmth is naturally a friendly, inclusive kind of feeling.
Think of this natural warm, inclusive feeling within your heart as your foundational, or basic love.
Since this is a Big Love meditation, if you like you can imagine this feeling of love as a light within your heart, perhaps with interweaving colours of gold, green, pink and red. After a little practice it should feel like it is quite a natural, easy state to drop into. Tune into your own simple feeling of being, and the warm love within it,
 
Enhancing using the three types of love
 
You can enhance this simple feeling of loving warmth by bringing to mind a feeling of love that you have in a relationship. Broadly speaking you could focus on one of these three:
 
Eros, or romantic love – This put simply is the creative spark that arises between two people or between ourselves and something that we love. This is most often thought of as the romantic love between lovers
Agape – One of the archetypal images of agape is the mother and child (eg: Mary with the baby Jesus), but more broadly speaking agape is empathetic or compassionate love, it embraces its subject ‘parentally’.
Filia – Filial love is classically the love between siblings, but it is also a common way of bonding between friends. 
 
Recall one of these types of love, perhaps the one you find most powerful presently. Breathe that love in and out of your heart space, using it to make your basic loving feeling more powerful and visceral.
 
Expanding the love outward and inclusively
 
Reflect that the very same simple feeling of being, with its attendant love lies within the heart of all living beings, human, animal, plant or otherwise. Feel and sense it to be not just in your heart, but all pervasive, everywhere in the landscape around you, in the World and in the Universe. Let your heart expand to include everyone and everything in its embrace. Feel your personal love (agape, eros or filia) becoming an all embracing One Love. Feel all separation and fear melting away, dissolving into this feeling of One Love, One Universal Heart, one All Loving Being.
 
The final stage is then to view the diverse appearances of all living beings as manifestations or expressions of the One Love you are meditating on, like two sides of the same coin. One Love appears as the many, and the many is a manifestation of the One Love.
 
Reading through these stages intellectually, it might all seem a bit far-fetched. The key here is to get into the practice of it and let your Love start to feel juicy and embodied enough to really put you in touch with the experience of it.
 
Related reading: Meditating on Enlightened Love the Easy Way
Three types of relational love

© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com
 


All upcoming classes & workshops
 

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Tues & Weds, 7.30-8.30 pm – Freedom & Fullness – A practical introduction to non-dual meditation practice

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6-15pm  – Freedom & Fullness deep-dive non-dual meditation sessions

Saturday 5th April, 3-5pm (9am start Europe time) & Monday 7th April, 7.30-9.30am ( 7.30-9.30pm Eastern time US) – Mindfulness masterclass: Liberation & creativity through the observer self

Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd May – The Call of the Wild: Shamanic Meditations for connecting to animal guides in the inner world Masterclass & Mini-retreat

Starts Tues 10th, Wednesday 11th May, 7.30-8.30pm – Shamanic meditations for connecting to your animal guides & familiars

Saturday 17th May, 3-4.30pm – One Heart Open Day: Heart Opening meditation with singing bowls
 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses * 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology

Categories
A Mind of Ease Enlightened Flow Enlightened love and loving Inner vision Insight Meditation Integral Awareness Integrating Ego, Soul and Spirit Meditating on the Self Meditation techniques Mindful Self-Leadership Presence and being present Primal Spirituality

None of it & all of it – Who are you really?

“If you freed your self-sense from it’s current limitations, what creative possibilities might arise?”

Dear Integral Meditators,

This week’s article looks at “Who am I really?” as an object of meditation. If you enjoy it you would be welcome to join us for the Tuesday & Wednesday, as well as the Saturday sessions this week, where we will be working with this meditation directly.

In the spirit of the simple feeling of Being,

Toby

None of it & all of it – Who are you really?

This article focuses on our self-sense as the gateway to a non-dual meditation experience. Really what it is is a series of mindful positions that will lead you progressively from your ‘small I’ to your ‘Big I’. It echoes the Hindu Vedanta school of meditation, some of the esoteric teachings of Christ within the Christian tradition, and Qabalah. All of these three have the ‘I AM’ as a central focus of meditation enquiry.

Out sense of self or I accompanies our every moment. Transforming this sense of self therefore has a tremendous impact in all domains of our life. If integrated well, we can find ourself happier, more motivated, more relaxed and more effective as a result of doing this meditation.

The simple feeling of being

The first object of meditation is the simple feeling of being. Notice how, at the centre of each moment of your experience is a sense of self, me or I, a being-ness.

Being trapped inside the skin

Secondly, notice how your sense of being, your ‘I’ seems to instinctively be located within your body, with the boundary being your skin. You, or ‘self’ is inside the body, with your thoughts, feelings, sensibilities, perspectives. The World and ‘others’ are outside. Small vulnerable self within, big word outside. Notice how this feeling of being/self affects every perception and experience you have.

Witnessing – “Not this, not that”

Notice within you that there is a witnessing consciousness, an observer that is not the body, not the mind, or your thoughts, beliefs, or emotions. It is not the job title you have, or the family position, or your tribulations or successes. Rather it is that which witnesses these with equanimity, transcending and including everything within its gaze. Notice also that this witness self is the source of the ‘simple feeling of being’ mentioned in the first position above. Separate out the Witness Self, and get used to “Holding to the attitude of the non-doer or witnessing Self in the midst of all actions”.  

None of this also = All of This!

Once you have freed your inner sense of self from identification with your body or other aspects of your everyday self, the experience is exactly that, a huge sense of freedom, liberation, a big letting go into a vaster, bigger all-encompassing Self.

The movement from here is toward the recognition that, since you are not any part of your small I, then you are free to identify Self as the Whole, as the Whole World, the whole Universe. Here you can simply sit and watch everything that arises within your field of awareness, recognizing it as Self. No more self and other, no more subjects and objects, just the Self, the I AM, the Simple Feeling of Being appearing as the World, as the Universe. To quote from a previous article, Self and the World become ‘Not one, not two’.

This final position also invokes two of my favourite bible quotes:

God’s revelation to Moses in Exodus 3:14, where God (appearing as the burning bush) says, “I AM WHO I AM” (or “I AM THAT I AM”) in response to the question “Who are you?”

Jesus’s response in John 8:58, where he states “Before Abraham was, I am.” What I AM is this? The formless timeless Witness, that lived within Jesus, and lives within us now. The I AM that is not any one part of the World, and so is all of it! 

Related reading: Awakening, not over-thinking

Self as the Gateway to the Expanded Self and to Universal Love and Compassion


© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com

All upcoming classes & workshops
 

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Tues & Weds, 7.30-8.30 pm – Freedom & Fullness – A practical introduction to non-dual meditation practice

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6-15pm  – Freedom & Fullness deep-dive non-dual meditation sessions

Tues 18th, Weds 19th March, 7.30-8.30pm – Spring Equinox balancing and renewing meditation

Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd May – The Call of the Wild: Shamanic Meditations for connecting to animal guides in the inner world Masterclass & Mini-retreat

Starts Tues 6th, Wednesday 7th May, 7.30-8.30pm – Shamanic meditations for connecting to your animal guides & familiars

Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th May – Wesak compassion & inner visioning meditation

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses * 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology

Categories
Awareness and insight Inner vision Integral Meditation meditation and creativity Meditation techniques Primal Spirituality spiritual intelligence

Five types of meditator – Shaman to Non-Dual

“There are five types of meditator; the Shaman, the Yogi, the Siddha, the Saint & the Non-Dual”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

The article below outlines a ‘map’ of different types of meditator within the traditional world wisdom traditions. It’s useful to have categories like this when reflecting upon what type of meditation practice you might like to create for yourself, and also how different schools of meditation fit within each other.
 
This week’s Tuesday & Wednesday meditation is the Spring Equinox balancing and renewing meditation, which combines elements of several of the meditation types mentioned below.
 
Also, Saturday’s deep-dive meditation focuses upon the Non-Dual, and is entitled “The World within Me, environmental Non-Duality”.
 
In the spirit of wisdom,

Toby

 


Five types of meditator – Shaman to Non-Dual
 
One way of dividing meditation into types is by identifying categories of meditator, according to the level or dimension of reality that they predominantly focus their efforts on. There are of course traditions of meditation that cross over or combine these different types. If you know what they are, you can identify what types of meditation you want to bring into your own practice, and enjoy making combinations according to your aspiration.
 
Type one, the Shaman
 
The Shamans were the original meditators, so to speak. The first humans to start looking inwards and reflecting. Correspondingly, they met the first domain of consciousness that you come across when you go beyond the physical, the Bio-energetic, or subtle physical/psychic. Shamanic meditation therefore emphasizes communion with the forces of nature & mother Earth. Within this they encounter animal guides, nature spirits, dream-world journeys and so on. Because Shamanism emphasizes psychic/ bio-energetic practice, quite often they come across as quite ‘powerful’ as their energetic presence is tangibly amplified.
 
Type two, the Yogi
 
Yogic practices emphasize the development of the higher dimensions of the psychic or energy body, and the corresponding subtle, expanded dimensions of consciousness associated with them. Kundalini yoga, mantra and chakra-type meditations are examples of this type of meditation. A practitioner of these types of meditation could be characterised as often having a very ‘blissful’ often loving presence.
 
Type three, the Siddha
 
The Siddha emphasizes meditation on the ‘Causal’ level of consciousness, or the formless, timeless emptiness that lies beyond all levels of mind, whether gross or subtle. There are many examples of this type of meditator within the Buddhist and Hindu traditions. These meditators might be thought of as being characterised by a ‘Mountainous equanimity’ or even-mindedness coming from the state of consciousness they emphasize.
 
Type four, the Saint
 
The ‘Saintly’ traditions of meditation emphasize the ‘Pure Witness Observer’ as their meditation practice, the omnipresent ‘Self’ or ‘I AM’ that accompanies every moment of or experience of life. These types of meditator might be experienced as having a particular ‘peaceful, loving freedom’ that you sense in their presence. This comes from embodying of the pure witness consciousness that they emphasize in their practice.
 
Type four, the Non-Dual meditator
 
The Non-Dual meditator emphasizes meditation on the ‘not-two’, or Unitive aspect of reality. It’s scope is inclusive of all levels of consciousness, and so can be practiced on the physical, mental, or causal (formless-consciousness) levels. This type of meditation is more of a ‘relaxing into a recognition’ style of meditation, rather than one where you try to change from one state of meditation into another. This is because Non-Duality is a state (like the previous stage of the Witness) that is present in all other states. Because Non-Dual meditation emphasizes the integration of emptiness and form, worldly and spiritual, quite often a Non-Dual mediator may come across as quite ordinary, living a worldly life surrounded by family and work. However if you sense into them a bit more closely you might notice they have a peculiar ‘same-same but different’ quality, as well as a certain type of relaxation and humour!
 
In my meditation coaching and training, as well as my personal practice, I emphasize the integration of different aspects of all the above, with a central focus on the Non-Dual as a ‘holding space’ for the rest. This means there is plenty of opportunity for variety and fun, whilst at the same time aiming for balance and in-depth diving into the particulars.   
 
Related reading:
The Five Stages of Meditation Practice from Beginners to Advanced
Five Inner Skills we develop Through Meditation
Non-Dual meditation & Organismic reality
The Three Stages of Non Dual Meditation

© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 

All upcoming classes & workshops
 

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Ongoing on Tues & Weds, 7.30-8.30 pm – Freedom & Fullness – A practical introduction to non-dual meditation practice

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6-15pm  – Freedom & Fullness deep-dive non-dual meditation sessions

Tues 18th, Weds 19th March, 7.30-8.30pm – Spring Equinox balancing and renewing meditation

Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd May – The Call of the Wild: Shamanic Meditations for connecting to animal guides in the inner world Masterclass & Mini-retreat

Starts Tues 6th, Wednesday 7th May, 7.30-8.30pm – Shamanic meditations for connecting to your animal guides & familiars

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses * 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology

Categories
A Mind of Ease creative imagery Essential Spirituality Inner vision Integral Awareness Integral Meditation meditation and creativity Meditation techniques mind body connection mindful dreaming Mindfulness Presence and being present

Time – a holograph from Eternity

“Time is a holograph from Eternity”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This weeks article outlines a way of relating to time in a radically different way how we usually do, offering a way to a space of peace and centred-ness wherever you find yourself. 

If you enjoy the article, then you are welcome to join the Tuesday & Wednesday, as well as the Saturday sessions this week, where we will be working with this meditation directly.

In the spirit of unity in diversity, 

Toby


Time – a holograph from Eternity
 
The Eternal Now
 
Tibetan Dzogchen meditation is one of several of the non-dual meditation schools to emphasize that time is an illusion. An illusion in the sense that, it appears that we move from a ‘real’ past, to a ‘real’ present, to a ‘real’ future in a linear, consecutive fashion. For them it is only the Now moment that exists. You can start to see through the illusion of time by challenging yourself to get out of this current present moment.

  • You think about the past and what happened there, but wait, that thought about the past is happening Now, right here!
  • You project yourself into the future, thinking intensely about an outcome, you see it with crystal clarity. But where is that thought about the future? It is right here, Now
  • When the past or future event you are thinking of happened/happens, were will it happen? Of course, in the Now
  • You can distract yourself from something that you find uncomfortable in the present by taking your attention away from the thing that is there, but where is that distraction? Once again, the distraction is occurring in the Now moment

 
All confusion and suffering from this perspective comes from the seeking mind, trying to find fulfilment outside the now, rather than recognising that you have already arrived. Where? In the Eternal, always already Present, where you have always been and always will be. By collapsing the illusion of linear time in to the Eternal Present, we contact the Unitive or Non-Dual condition of reality that underlies all the surface change.
 
Holographs from Eternity
 
Imagine you have a many faceted diamond at your heart, radiating rainbow lights out around you. If you go inside that diamond, you find a space that is Just This, the place of the Eternal Now. It is formless, size-less, time-less. You feel like when you are in this space that you are in a place that is infinitely small and infinitely big, all embracing, Unitive.
 
Sitting within your physical body, with the diamond at your heart, you see that the diamond is projecting time and space around you, just like a holographic projector. It projects the three-dimensional world all around you, with the appearance of time and space. It also projects your inner space, the space of your mind with thoughts, memories, images and emotions. From the space of the eternal Now, the illusory world of time and space arises around you, like a rainbow appearing in the sky.
 
As you watch and observe the holographic world around you, you can clearly see and feel that it is the dance of the Eternal now; arising from it, not separate from it, the illusion of multiplicity arising from our own singular, formless, timeless consciousness.
 
I’ve gone into the details of time and timelessness quite extensively in other articles, in this one I wanted to try and paint a picture that you can use and explore in meditation, one that if you can get your imagination behind, then you can really start to get a feeling for the Eternal Now as a gateway to the Non-Dual state. The Non-Dual state that it accesses is not one (like most other meditations) where you shift from an every-day state to a deeper meditative state. Rather it is a way of recognizing what is already Here, Now, whatever state of mind that you might find yourself in. Like other Non-Dual meditations this offers a way of integrating daily life and spiritual life into a mutually coherent, complementary whole.
 
Related articles: Dancing between time & eternity
Four Types of Present Moment


© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 

Categories
Biographical Energy Meditation Greenworld Meditation Inner vision Integral Awareness Life-fullness meditation and creativity Meditation techniques Motivation and scope Presence and being present Primal Spirituality

Why meditate on & with animals?

“When meditating with animals, people often remark that their sense of time seems to take on a completely different quality”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This weeks article looks at the subject of meditating with animals, which humans have been doing since the practice of meditation began!

If you enjoy the article, then do have a look at the upcoming Masterclass, mini-retreat & class series that I will be doing on this subject, starting in May….

No classes this week, I’m off to lead a retreat in Australia for a week and commune with the land, nature, and of course the animals!

In the spirit of reconnection, 

Toby

 


Why meditate on & with animals?
 

I was asked the other day why I continue to guide workshops and classes on meditating with animals, given that to some of my client group it may seem a bit ‘strange’. Here are a few reasons to consider why meditating with animals is of great value, with a short practice at the end to try it out…

We’ve been doing it a long time

Prior to the transcendent spiritual traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism in the ‘east’ and Christianity/Islam in the ‘west’, human beings practiced an earth based spirituality where communion, learning and interaction with animals in the inner and outer worlds was a main part of our path to awakening and enlightenment. Our ability to do this type of meditation is long forgotten, but it is in our ‘dna’ so to speak, so most people find they can do it and have significant experiences without too much difficulty.

It re-connects us to parts of ourselves we have lost touch with

Meditating with animals connects us with our animal and instinctive nature in a benevolent way. It encourages us to use our imagination and capacity for inner visioning, and it encourages us to learn in a right brain creative, intuitive and visual way, very different from the way most of us use our minds and brains during the day.

Read full original article…

© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 

Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd May – The Call of the Wild: Shamanic Meditations for connecting to animal guides in the inner world Masterclass & Mini-retreat

Learn Shamanic meditation practices for connecting to animal guides in the inner world, & the energies of nature.
These sessions focus on how to re-discover and deepen your inner and outer connection to the animal kingdom as well as stimulate your inner growth and personal wellbeing though meditating with animal guides and familiars…read full details


Starts Tues 6th, Wednesday 7th May, 7.30-8.30pm – Shamanic meditations for connecting to your animal guides & familiars

Overview: This is a series of 9 classes where we tap into the ancient tradition of Nature Mysticism in general & Shamanic meditation in particular in order to:

  • Learn traditional meditation methods adapted for a contemporary time & age
  • Connect with animal guides in the spirit world to receive their gifts and guidance of wisdom, healing & power

Read full details…

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A Mind of Ease Biographical creative imagery Energy Meditation Inner vision Integral Awareness Integral Meditation Life-fullness Meditating on the Self meditation and creativity Meditation and Psychology Meditation techniques mind body connection Mindful Confidence Mindful Resilience Presence and being present Primal Spirituality

Making yourself bigger

“Whatever us going on in the small temporal experience you are having right now, you are bigger than it, and it is workable”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This weeks article looks at the scale of who you think you are, and suggests some mindful ways to change the balance in a positive way!

If you enjoy the article, we will be meditating on this topic in both the  Tues/Weds class  and the Saturday deep-dive sessions. I invite you to join us either live, online or via the recording.

In the spirit of bigger (in this case) being better, 

Toby

 


Making yourself bigger
 
The feeling of oppressed
 
Whenever we feel, if you observe the experience of being stressed, scared or overwhelmed, it is often something like:

  • My body feels contracted in on itself, reduced. My sense of ‘I’ follows this
  • The challenge feels LARGE, much bigger than mee, like a tall building or monster towering over you
  • A sense of being weak or helpless in the face of this massively larger, more powerful force

 
This feeling then makes not just the presenting challenge more difficult, but everything that happens to you. Life feels like a struggle, a trap, something that you are a victim of.
 
Working with scale
 
About eight years ago I had an experience sitting in meditation where I felt my body was not just a small body sitting in my room, but large, as big, bigger than the apartment block. It was as if I was sitting in the landscape like a large building, looking down upon everything. Along with this literal feeling was an experience of feeling stronger, more powerful in relation to my life. It changed my sense of how I existed in relation to my challenges, in relation to what was possible. As well as power, there was a feeling of calm confidence.
I stayed with this feeling for several weeks, letting it become a part of my foundational way of going and being, I had literally become bigger!
 
Beyond psychology
 
The Yogachara school of Buddhism asserts that all our internal problems come from a mistaken sense of self. We perceive ourself as a small being, inside our skin, with a separate, foreign world outside of us. In reality, it asserts, our True Self, or Self-as-Consciousness is infinite and boundless. As this infinite and boundless self, we are not in the world, the world is in us! We are as huge infinite and boundless as consciousness itself!
By engaging in some simple Yogachara-ic ‘mindful shifts’ we can achieve some quite remarkable changes in our experience, I’m placing a few below.
 
Some mindful positions on Bigness
 
Sitting in meditation, walking, or otherwise in a state where you can settle into a mindful condition, use the following simple sentences as anchors for exploration:

  • I am not in my body, my body is in me (as a boundless, timeless consciousness)
  • I am not in the room, the room is in me
  • I am not walking/sitting in this landscape, the landscape is in me
  • I am not on the Earth, the planet is in me
  • I am not within the orbit of the moon, the Lunar sphere is within me
  • I am not within the Sun & solar system (Galaxy, Universe, whole of Creation), they are within me
  • I am not in life, life is within me, I am Life

Everything is happening within you, within your boundless Body, Mind and Heart. Whatever us going on in the small temporal experience you are having right now, you are bigger than it, and it is workable.
 
Related reading:
Non-Dual meditation & Organismic reality
Making yourself big
Connecting to Your Big Mind (Is the Mind in the Body or the Body in the Mind?)
Born from Life, not into it
Small Focused Mind, Big Open Mind


© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 

All upcoming classes & workshops
 

Ongoing on Tuesday’s & Wednesday’s (live & online), 7.30-8.30pm – Weekly integral meditation classes

Starts Tues 11th, Weds 12th February, 7.30-8.30 pm – Freedom & Fullness – A practical introduction to non-dual meditation practice

Begins Saturday 15th February – Freedom & Fullness deep-dive non-dual meditation sessions

Tues 18th, Weds 19th March, 7.30-8.30pm – Spring Equinox balancing and renewing meditation

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A Mind of Ease Concentration Enlightened Flow Inner vision Insight Meditation Integral Awareness Integral Meditation Meditation techniques mind body connection Presence and being present Primal Spirituality spiritual intelligence Zen Meditation

Prajna – Seeing things from all angles & none

“Prajna is awareness that does not break reality into opposites. When you are feeling broken-apart by the world, it is a place you can return to, finding wholeness instantly”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

The meditation processes I describe below are part of the ongoing theme of Non-Duality practice that I have been writing about the last few weeks. The beauty of them is that they are simple at the same time as profound. Have a go at developing your prajna!

If you enjoy the article, we will be meditating on this topic in both the  Tues/Weds class  and the Saturday deep-dive sessions. I invite you to join us either live, online or via the recording!

In the spirit of prajna, 

Toby

 


Prajna – Seeing things from all angles & none
 
Dualistic or conceptual reality
 
From the point of view of the Madhyamika Buddhist meditation school, confusion and suffering derives at its root from what is called dualistic-appearance. Dualistic appearance is basically what happens when we conceptualize. Conceptual thinking and feeling does two things:

  • When we see an object or person (or belief etc…) we then throw our idea of the object on top of the object itself, so now there are two things appearing to us, not just one. This is one reason why it is called dualistic appearance.
  • Secondly, we see the world in terms of opposites, polarities, or dualities, for example good and bad, higher, and lower, better or worse, nirvana (freedom) and samsara (bondage).

Dualistic appearance sees the object together with our idea of the object, and then we conceptualize the object in terms of its opposites.
For example, let us say you or I meet a female primary school teacher. The first instant you see her, you will see her ‘as she is’. In the next moment your mind will start throwing concepts on her based upon things like:

  • Your experience of primary school
  • Your assessment of teachers
  • Whether she is your child’s teacher or not

You will start making assessments in terms of opposites:

  • She’s a better/worse teacher than my primary school teacher
  • She is polite/rude
  • She is admirable/contemptible
  • She is superior/inferior to me

Of course, using these dualities well is essential for navigating the world effectively. But it is also this same duality that prevents us from seeing the world as it is, from seeing reality from an Ultimate or Absolute point of view, and that creates all sorts of sufferings and problems for us.
 
Seeing dualistic appearance / Pranja – Dropping dualistic appearance
 
In our own self-enquiry, we can start to look for and see the processes of our own dualistic appearance. We can watch how we ‘throw’ our ideas onto people and things, and box them into polarities. This is a very interesting and powerful practice in itself. We can then practice dropping our ideas about what we are seeing, and try to encounter things as they are, in a singular, non-dual manner. One way to do this is to practice the ‘mirror mind’ method that I outline in a precious article. You imagine that your awareness is a mirror, simply reflecting back what it sees without adding or subtracting to it. This non-dual way of viewing the world is called prajna, or wisdom.
 
 
Seeing things from all angles and none
 
Another complementary technique to mirror mind that you can use is explained by Ken Wilber in his article on ‘Five Reasons You Are Not Enlightened’. I’m just going to quote it directly below, as it is very clear:
“One little exercise I use to get into a state of pure awareness without any conceptual operation is to: Ask yourself how do you feel physically? So, you start to get a sense of how that is. How do you feel emotionally? How do you feel morally? How do you feel mentally? Now how do you feel from all those angles at once?
As soon as you hear that question, there is a silence in the mind, a quiet, there’s no immediate answer that comes up. And that is because you have an awareness that is not conceptualizing and not feeling. It’s just pure, unqualifiable awareness. And that is an example of prajna, or being in pure awareness without concepts. And so, remaining in that state sooner or later allows you to have a realization of Ultimate Reality, where emptiness and form are not two. Where samsara and nirvana are not two. Because it is an awareness that does not break reality into opposites. And so this type of awareness is the fundamental practice of the Madhyamika, and in many cases Mahayana schools of Buddhism”.
 
Related reading: Mirror mind meditation
Dualistic Appearance – What you see, and what you think you see


© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com 

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A Mind of Ease Awareness and insight creative imagery Energy Meditation Inner vision Integral Meditation meditation and creativity Meditation techniques Zen Meditation

Mirror mind meditation

Dear Integral Meditators, 

The meditation below is one I have been using a lot recently, its great for developing both witnessing forms of meditation and as a gateway to non-dual experience. If you enjoy it, I invite you along to both of these programs: 

Tues/Weds class series starting this week Freedom & Fullness – A practical introduction to non-dual meditation practice, and the deep-dive non-dual meditation sessions beginning on Saturdays.

First session is on the mirror mind!

In the spirit of the reflecting, 

Toby

Mirror mind meditation
 
Context for the meditation

Mirror mind meditation is a way of developing competency in two particular domains; witnessing meditation and non-dual meditation. These two types of meditation are characterized by the fact that these two states of consciousness are always present, so the technique is really all about learning to recognize them, and then drop into them resting in this recognition.
In a certain way you could say that witnessing and non-dual meditation are the deepest and most profound meditations you can do. But the nice thing about them, and the mirror mind method is that even if you are a beginner, you can get a good experience by doing them. You can meet them on the level that you are at and have a good result!

The technique

Sitting comfortably, start by centring yourself in the present moment. Begin to notice what is coming and going within your field of awareness:

  • On the sensory level in terms of environmental sounds and feelings within the body
  • On the level of mind in terms of thoughts, images, memories and their attendant emotions and moods
  • The spaces or gaps where you are simply ‘aware of awareness’

As you observe, notice the part of you that is observing or witnessing what is coming and going. Be this witness observer, noticing that when centred in it, you drop into a space of ‘merely observing’, or bare attention.

Now imagine your observer is a mirror sitting within your heart space (middle of chest). I sometimes like to visualise it as one of those silver, reflective disco balls. All it does is reflect back what it sees, exactly like a mirror. It doesn’t:

  • Interpret
  • Comment on
  • Identify or dis-identify with
  • Or name

any of what it sees. It simply accepts it, like a mirror reflecting whatever is in front of it. The totality of all that comes and goes within your awareness is simply accepted, mirrored. Nothing more nothing less.
So, you just drop into this mirror mind state, witnessing and reflecting that which arises. Whether your awareness is sensory, thought-based, feeling-based, empty, you just mirror it in your mirror mind!
 
A final stage moving into the non-dual

If you stay with your mirror mind for a while, you will notice that, although your awareness starts to become unified and singular through the mirroring, there is still a subtle gap or duality between the observer (mirror mind) and the observed (content of consciousness being mirrored). So, a final stage to the meditation is to then let the mirror mind melt into whatever arises, so that there are just ‘things arising as they are. In this state there is no observer or observed, there is only ‘just this’. It may take a while to get to a point where this last stage feels tangible or do-able, but when you are ready for it. It is an important final step in the sense that it takes the meditation from a witnessing state to a fully non-dual one.
 
Related reading: Watching and then dropping the watcher

© Toby Ouvry 2025, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com


Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

Online Courses * 1:1 Coaching * Books * Live Workshops * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology