Category: Meditation techniques

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Mindful-flow around 360-degree centering

Dear Integral Meditators, 

In an article from last week I explain awarness as the basic form of love. If you were to combine that with this week’s article on centering, you would have loving centered-ness, balance & flow!



Last 24hours to catch the I-Awake 16th anniversary 50% sale . If you are interested in how sound can help you in your journey as an aide on many levels, check it out.

In the spirit of 360, 

Toby


Mindful-flow around 360-degree centering
 
This article explains an exercise that, once you are used to it takes only a couple of minutes. You can also be putting to good use informally in your daily life once you have put it in place. Benefits include:

  • A more balanced, broad-focused sense of awareness
  • Getting out of a hyper-focused, excessively narrow focused or over-focused mode
  • Getting out of mental drifting into a more grounded sensibility
  • A place of presence that is adaptable, and can move from resting to action relatively seamlessly
  • A specific somatic form of mindful-flow that helps us to navigate the ups and downs of our day more evenly and effectively

 
Our narrow habit of attention
Often in our day, our sense of awareness is essentially focused on a narrow range: in front and out to the sides a little, kind of like your field of vision if you look straight ahead. This is understandable, as our awareness often follows our senses, and our field of vision in particular. However, staying in this narrow range can lead to an imbalance in our awareness that we can re-work quite easily with 360-degree centering.
 
Centering within the four quarters of the body
Actually, your body can ‘sense’ in every direction. All you need to do is to being awareness to the four zones of the body; front & back, left & right, in order to activate this. This can be done very simply, as a preparation for meditation, or as an end in itself. Sitting or standing comfortably:

  • Your front line – From the crown of your head, let your awareness flow down the front section of the body, face, neck, chest, belly, hips, front of legs, feet and toes. Notice any areas of tension, release them a little, notice what it is like to be aware along this front line
  • Your back line – From the crown of your head, let your awareness flow down the back of the body, back of head, neck, shoulders, back, back of legs, ankles and feet. Notice any areas of tension, release them a little, notice what it is like to be aware along this back line
  • Your right line – From the crown of your head, let your awareness flow down the right side of the body, side of head, right ear, neck, shoulders, right arm, from right armpit down to hips, side of right leg, ankles and feet. Notice any areas of tension, release them a little, notice what it is like to be aware along this right line
  • Your left line – From the crown of your head, let your awareness flow down the left side of the body, side of head, left ear, neck, shoulders, left arm, from left armpit down to hips, side of left leg, ankles and feet. Notice any areas of tension, release them a little, notice what it is like to be aware along this left line
  • Simultaneous – After doing all four individually, take a few breaths where you are aware of all four zones together. Notice what it feels like to be aware of all four sections simultaneously. If this feels too much initially, try just with two; the front and back simultaneously, and the left and right simultaneously.

 
Finding your mid-line
From your crown now imagine you have a line of light and energy going down the middle of your body, all the way down to your perineum. This is your mid-line, the mid-point between the front and back, & left and right halves of the body. Practice breathing in and out of this mid-line.
 
Linking your mid-line to the four quarters
Focusing on your mid-line, as you inhale, gently gather your energy into your center. As you breathe out, relax from your center-line, feeling the energy flowing out evenly to the four quarters of the body. Gradually build capacity to feel the focused inflow to the core as you breathe in, relaxing outflow as you exhale.
 
Related articles:
Making your physical awareness balanced & whole
Finding your spiritual, physical home
Aspects of environmental meditation
 

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

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The easy way to love more

“Be present to &pay attention to things, feel the basic, rudimentary love. Let it feed you & your life. Imagine it is easier than you think!”

Article: The easy way to love more
 
Two parts of awareness
 
If you look at your experience of awareness, you may notice that you can kind of divide it into two parts:

  • The part that can observe, that can register or be aware the object that it looks at
  • The feeling that comes with the awareness like a ‘touching’ or ‘embracing’. This part is almost sensory

You might basically say that there is a ‘watching’ and a ‘feeling’ dimension to each moment of our awareness.

Love as the basic feeling or emotion

Continuing with our train of thought here, you could regard the ‘watching’ dimension of awareness as the basis of our mind and thoughts. With regard to the second, ‘feeling’ dimension of awareness, this then acts as the basis of our emotions and feelings. Awareness divides up into these two dimensions of mind (thought) and emotion/feeling.
When we value something that we meet or see, our awareness pays attention to it, we ‘give it’ our attention. You might say that this giving of attention is the basic emotion, love. Because we give somebody or something a value, we pay attention to it. That attention is basic love.
You will know this from your own experience, when someone else listens to you, pays attention to you, considers you, acknowledges you, then you feel valued by them, which is a really simple way of feeling loved.

Loving is easy

Sometimes it can feel like it is difficult or hard to love. Sometimes we feel exhausted by the demands of others and the world. We don’t feel we have the capacity to love. Sometimes (maybe often?) this is because we are trying to hard to love, we think it is something more difficult than it is. If we understand that all you need to do to love something is to rest your attention upon it, we discover it is not as difficult as we thought, in fact it is easy!

Different domains of practice

To discover experientially how easy loving is in this basic sense, we need to practice. Becoming basically present, perhaps smiling very gently, practice bringing attention to, and therefore extending love towards:

  • Yourself, or a part of your inner-self
  • Your body, or a specific part of the body
  • Other people, those you know, like, dislike, don’t know
  • Things in nature, plants, animals, trees, the ocean
  • In-animate objects, paintings, ceramics, anything you like

 
Don’t over think it!
 
On way in which we can sabotage ourself here is by trying too hard. We think we must have to pay attention and think a certain way, or really try and feel affectionate. By doing this we can miss the total simplicity of what is going on here.
 

Attention = valuing = love

 
That’s really it! And it is a wonderful gift that you can give to yourself, your body, other people and the world around you. One thing to understand is that, in this context, love is the thing that happens before you think about it. Sure, sometimes we love others after we have developed a way of thinking about them and what they are/do/stand for, but attentional love is more basic, more simple, easier than that.
 
Sit/stand/walk. Be present to/pay attention to things, feel the basic, rudimentary love. Let it feed you and your life. Imagine it is easier than you think!
 
Related reading: Lazy compassion (compassion & care through awareness)
 

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

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Meditating on your cellular memories (& positive impatience video)

“With positive cellular memories, the purpose of meditating on them is to strengthen & consolidate them. When working with difficult cellular memories, the purpose is to release the energetic charge of those memories through somatic awareness”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article looks at cellular memory, & how to start using it effectively in daily life to build your inner strengths & re-work your weak points.
 
This week’s Wednesday & Saturday meditation classes are on working with cellular memory. We will be looking specifically at how to transform our stress using this angle in meditation.

In addition you can view this week’s 45 second mindfulness by clicking on the link!
 
In the spirit of body-intelligence,

Toby


Watch Toby’s 45 second mindfulness video on being positively impatient:

Working With Your Body’s Cellular Memory Through Meditation

Let’s say I meet someone at a party, that person looks somewhat  like someone who hurt me and made me angry in the past. Based on meeting this person that looks like a past acquaintance, my body’s cellular memory is stimulated and I feel myself experiencing not just a mental aversion and hurt, but a tangible energy of hurt that I feel in my body.
Let’s say alternatively I meet an old friend whom I share many good and fond memories of. My body’s cellular memory remembers this old friend, and I feel impelled to embrace them warmly to express my appreciation.
Our body remembers things on a cellular level, and this cellular memory is a powerful force in our life.

Read full original article….

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

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Four tree’s rooted under the sky – six dimensions of presence

“To practise meditative presence is to practise being present to our world, to be ‘where we are’, rather than lost somewhere else”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s article describes basic meditative presence in a six-dimensional manner, done well it provides a stable basis for all other forms of meditation, and will enable greater presence in all areas of your life!
 
Up until Monday October 5th I have a special offer of 15% off my Life-fullness life coaching and Mindful Self-Knowledge Programs.
 
This week’s Wednesday & Saturday meditation classes are on the subject of developing playfulness, and learning to work with the ‘inner sea snakes of your mind'(!)
 
In the spirit of presence,

Toby

Four tree’s rooted under the sky – six dimensions of presence
 
The two dimensions of meditative presence
 
I have spoken in other articles about basic meditative presence being like sitting between two trees. To sit in meditation means to have an object of awareness anchoring us to the present moment, such as the body and breathing. If you then imagine you are sat between two trees, one on the left, one on the right:

  • If you go beyond the left tree, that is like you being ‘lost in thought’, loosing track of the present moment by being distracted by thoughts
  • If you go beyond the right tree, that is like falling asleep

So, your basic aim in meditation is to hold this position between the two trees; anchored to the present moment by your object of meditation, not lost in thought, not falling asleep.
Notice that:

  • You can be aware of thoughts without being lost in them
  • You can be feeling sleepy without actually falling asleep

You can relax in the present moment, feeling it to be a relatively broad, forgiving space to center in!

From two to four – the present moment in time

Now imagine you have two more trees, one in front of you, and one behind you. As before, anchoring your presence in the present moment around body and breathing, you hold your position behind the front & back trees.

  • If you go beyond the tree behind you, that is like living in the past
  • If you go past the tree in front of you, that is like getting lost in the future

This then gives you the present moment in time, and a way to keep oriented there. Again, notice that:

  • You can have thoughts about the past & future without being lost in them
  • It’s only when they completely draw your attention away from the present moment that you lose your meditative presence

From four to six – not lost in materialism, not lost in spirit

So, you now have four trees around you, four basic aspects of meditative presence. From here we can add two further dimensions.

As you sit between your four trees, be aware of Mother Earth beneath you, and the sky and stars above you (you can put the sun of the moon in there too if you like!). Feel yourself to be balanced between your nature as a material, physical being, and a spiritual being.

  • If you sink too far into the earth, this is like being ‘lost in materialism’
  • If you start floating too far up into the sky, this is like being ‘lost in the abstraction or etherial-ism of spirit


As you sit with your body and breathing, you do so with balanced presence, poised between the earth & sky.
 
Inhabiting your mandala fully
 
This image then gives you your six basic dimensions of meditative presence. Actually, these six directions around you, with you present in the center, give you your basic mandala, world, or ‘Universe’. Each of us inhabits a space with ourself at the center, with a direction above, a direction below, a left and right, an in front and a behind. Practising meditative presence is practising being present to our world, to be ‘where we are’, rather than lost somewhere else.
 
Any other meditation can fit in this space
 
You can use the simple description and exercise above to build your basic meditative presence. Once you are familiar with it, you can use any object of awareness to stay present in the six directions. For example, you can use it to do visualization, mantra recitation, therapeutic work, any type of meditative activity.
Also, and possible most importantly, you can use it as a way of orienting yourself to be more present in your daily activities, to be present to your life, not missing it by spending most of your time distracted and ‘somewhere else.’
 
Related reading: The foundational pillars or ‘goal-posts’ of meditative presence
Your basic mandala of presence – The four trees

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

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Four stress-transformation ‘flips’ – article & guided meditation recording

“A confident relationship to our stress sets us up for a lifetime of curiosity, wonder, excitement & adventure. An adverse relationship to it sets us up for a path of anxiety, oppression, limitation and fear”

Dear Integral Meditators, 

This week’s newsletter is on four stress-transformation ‘flips’. If you are wondering what stress-transformation looks like as a meditation you can also listen to  a 15minute guided meditation on these four aspects of stress-transformation. 

The 15minutes a week Stress-Transformation online program features a wide, creative range of meditations like this 15minute recording. As well as it’s buy-alone price, it is available at a 50% discouont if you get it with either the Wednesday class, Saturday Deep-dive or workshop versions of the stress-transfromation programs (which can be done live, online or via recording). 

In the spirit of confidence in transformation,

Toby

Article: Four stress-transformation ‘flips’
 
There are many, many ways of transforming difficult, debilitating stress into positive or growth stress. Over the years I’ve developed lots of fun, creative techniques for doing so that I continue to teach in my meditation classes, and coach around in my coaching sessions. What I am going to do here is to outline four essential ‘stages’ or ‘flips’ that are foundational to all stress transformation practices. They work as individual units of practice, but I find that when they are put together and practiced sequentially in this order, they become exponentially more effective. In this context ‘flipping’ simply means flipping from debilitating stress to growth, or positive stress.
 
Witnessing – from fighting it to being curious about it
 
The first position then is witnessing. It means to step back from your stress and, rather than being caught up in, identified with or fighting it, to observe and be curious about it. Watch it and get to know it with your observational awareness, try to take it incrementally less seriously, give yourself room to play.
 
Flowing – from resisting emotion to feeling and releasing them
 
The second position is to notice your experience of emotions around the stress, if possible, naming them. Having done this, then rather than trying to get rid of them, or indulging them, or repressing them, set up a pattern of breathing whereby as you inhale you are feeling/experiencing some of that emotion, and exhaling you are relaxing into it/releasing it. An emotion is a type of feeling; feelings want to be felt. By consciously allowing yourself to feel and then release stressful emotions, they become much more workable.
 
Framing – from being lost in the inner conversation to creating it
Here we take position one, witnessing, and apply it specifically to noticing our inner conversation around the stress. Simply watching and dis-identifying from the self-talk can be really useful in itself. But here was are also then concerned amount making creative alterations to the narrative that ‘spin’ the conversation in a more useful direction. “I can’t do it and so I’ll never be able to do it” is a completely different conversation from “I can’t do it yet, but by trying and failing I will learn how before too long”.
 
Appreciating – from feeling unlucky and hard done-by to appreciating the opportunity
In all situations with stress, there is an opportunity to grow, something to be learned, something that we can put to use. Appreciating what the stress we are under can do for us gives us a way to value it, to get excited about it rather than feeling anxious or oppressed by it. It also gives us a purpose and direction to move our stress towards, something we can do with it. Rather than being in the way of our path, it can become the path itself!
 
Stress is so much a part of our life that our relationship to it is literally ‘life-defining’! A positive relationship with our stress sets us up for a lifetime of curiosity, wonder, excitement and adventure. An adverse relationship to it sets us up for a path of anxiety, oppression, limitation and fear . These four ‘flips’ give us a chance to make even our most difficult stress workable, and to make us confident in the face of it.
 
Listen to the four stress-transformation flips guided meditation by Toby

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

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A Mind of Ease Awareness and insight Inner vision Insight Meditation Integral Awareness Life-fullness Meditation techniques Mindfulness Presence and being present Stress Transformation

The Way to be ok, always – liberation and the Witness-Self

“Skilful witnessing creates an increasing sense of ever-present calm even when under multiple forms of stress. We find ourself increasingly “always ok”, nothing we can’t handle”

Dear Integral Meditators,

 
This week’s article looks at the relationship between witnessing practice & your fundamental sense of freedom. It’s a slighly edited verson of something I wrote in 2013, witnessing practice is something that just gets deeper & better over time. It was working well for me in 2013, but the experience I have now 14 years later is undoubtedly richer & better!

This week’s chakras & non-duality meditation sessions: Wednesday @ 7.30pm SG time,  at 5.30pm, Saturday afternoon, & noon at Space2B. The subject will be ‘Third chakra – Confidence, power, union with mind’.

Heads up for the new series’ for September are out, The weekday & Saturday ‘ Meditations for transforming negativity & stress into energy, positivity & empowerment sessions. 

In the spirit of liberation, 

Toby


The Way to be ok, always – liberation and the Witness-Self
 
Cultivating the experience of the witness-self means cultivating your experience of self as a detached observer of your mind, body and life experiences, as opposed to having your sense of self totally caught up in them.
 
The witness or observer self has three main qualities:

  1. It witnesses our life with detached awareness
  2. It has no physical or mental form, it is merely formless awareness
  3. It is the ultimate subject of our awareness, the irreducible ‘I’

 
The path to liberation from pain and suffering has an enormous amount to do with the cultivation of the witness self.
 
To the extent that we are able to detach (not dissociate) ourself from our pain we can control it. If we can detach ourself from our pleasure we can engage it without clinging to it and thus avoid the experience of pain that happens when we are separated from that pleasure.
 
In meditation we cultivate and strengthen the witness self, but it is important to understand that the witness self is present with and available to us right now, whatever stage of development we are at. Hee are two short stories that illustrate this in a slightly funny way:
 
As a fifteen year old at school I had a friend the same age (let’s call him Tony) who went out with a seventeen year old girl. She left Tony for an older boy who was a mutual friend. Tony subsequently told me the story of how he had confronted the older boy, shouting and screaming at him in an emotional outburst. He then told me, looking slightly sheepish about how he had felt that there was a part of him watching the whole episode (including himself screaming and shouting) that was not upset at all, but felt detached and calm. That “watcher” that he had experienced amidst his emotional outburst was his witness self.
Later I had a female friend at collage who similarly discovered that her boyfriend had been having an affair with another woman whilst away at university. Again with a similar sense of sheepish confusion she described to me how she had shouted and screamed at her boyfriend whilst simultaneously feeling that a part of her was observing the situation with total calm and detachment. Like my friend Tony, my female friend had found herself aware of her witness self at the same time as she experienced, and was identified with, her emotional turmoil.
 
So, with meditation we cultivate awareness of this witness self, making it increasingly “front and center” of our daily experience, finding an increasing sense of ever-present calm even when under multiple forms of stress. We find ourself increasingly “always ok”, nothing we can’t handle.
 
Reading this some people may think that cultivating the witness self may make us cold, uncaring, emotionally mono-syllabic and so on. The reality is however that when practised in an integrated, balanced way, centring our awareness in the witness increases our capacity to enjoy deeper and more positively a wider range of emotion, pleasure, happiness and wellbeing. You could say that it liberates us to a whole new level of the human experience. We leap in and out of our roles with playful freedom.
 
A final point; being centred in the witness self also liberates us substantially from the fear of making mistakes, looking foolish, taking an appropriate chance. So, whilst finding an experience of liberation through the detachment of the witness, we concurrently find a new way of engaging in our world and human experience more freely and dynamically.
 
Related reading: Witnessing – Being That Which is Not


© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

Live workshops & online Courses * 1:1 Coaching * Books * Corporate Mindfulness Training *Life-Coaching *  Meditation Technology

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A Mind of Ease Awareness and insight Enlightened Flow Inner vision Insight Meditation Integral Meditation Meditation and Psychology Meditation techniques Mindful Resilience Presence and being present Primal Spirituality Zen Meditation

You already have what you seek – Meditating from wholeness 

“You are whole, a lot of the things you seek, you have already. Proceed from there”

Dear Integral Meditators, 


This week’s article looks at approaching meditation, & life from a perspective of wholeness, & noticing how much easier it can make things!

Head’s up for the Mindful Resilience workshop – Practices for sustaining effectiveness, happiness & clarity under pressure that I’ll be doing on the 28th June, I also talk about an approach to improving resilience in the article…

In the spirit of the effortless, 

Toby


You already have what you seek – Meditating from wholeness
 
Meditating to express your awakened nature
 
One of my favourite expressions from Zen meditation is ‘You don’t meditate to attain awakening, you meditate to express it.’ What this means is that, you already have an awakened, whole and complete essential nature, so you don’t need to achieve it, you need to recognize it! Initially it can be difficult for us to relate to ourselves as whole right from the start of our practice, but this is what Zen and other forms of meditation invite us to do. It means inverting the usual ‘doing something to achieve something’ mentality, and relate to your wholeness, in the sense of having awakened nature right now.
There are also ways in which we can meditate in a wise way, where instead of trying to achieve something, we simply recognize that it is already there. Here are three examples that I have bee working with over this weekend with coachees and students.
 
The presence of stillness and silence
 
‘I wish my mind could be more still, but it’s so hard!’ Really? Reflect upon the environment you are in right now; the sounds and activity are all contained by the stillness and space that enables your environment. There is loads of physical space and stillness. Inwardly, yes you may have many thoughts, but they are arising in the open space of your awareness, which Is pervaded by stillness and silence. With a bit of skilful attention, we start to see that we are swimming in stillness and silence, like a fish in water!
 
The feeling of being alive, now
 
Why are you trying to achieve things? So that at upon achieving that thing, you can then really have the feeling of being fully alive. But wait, you are also alive right now, perhaps if you can open more fully to the simple feeling of being alive in the moment, you can experience the fulfilment and joy of it today, now, without waiting until you achieve your goals.
 
How much happiness can you accept?
 
We all have our problems, and those problems can make us unhappy at times, no doubt. But there are also many things in your life great and small that can be causes of happiness. If you can relate to those things now, and accept the happiness that is on offer. This way you can have genuine happiness now, right away. This happiness will then help you deal with your challenges and problems more effectively.
 
Getting resilience from your resilience
 

  • Relating to yourself and life from a position of wholeness
  • Realizing that you already have what you are looking for in many ways

These are the two essential principles here. I use them in many ways, both in my own life, and in my teachings. For example, in the mindful resilience workshop that I teach, the first practice is to:
 
“Understanding the different levels of mindful resilience and tapping into the inner resilience that you already have (but may not be leveraging effectively upon)”
 
So right off the bat, I encourage participants to relate to their resilience as something that they already have, rather than something they lack and need to ‘achieve’. All of this is to say that it is an approach that is ergonomic and flowing, sailing with life rather than struggling against it.
 
You are whole, a lot of the things you seek, you have already. Proceed from there.

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

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Why non-dual meditation should be your go-to practice

“Non-duality is a view of our experience that invites effortlessness and flow. Integrating it into your practice invites this experience of effortlessness into your life, now.”

Dear Integral Meditators, 
This week’s article looks at non-dual meditation, why it is great to make as a central part of your meditation, and how to get started with a simple non-dual breathing practice. 

If you are looking for a rich way to integrate non-dual meditation into your life, this week sees the start of the Wednesday evening & Saturday afternoon chakra’s & non-duality meditation programs, they will also be the subject of the Saturday noon meditation masterclass series at Space2B that I run. 

In the spirit of the effortless, 

Toby

Why non-dual meditation should be your go-to practice
 
What is non-dual meditation?
 
Non-dual meditation is a type of meditation that emerged in the 6th-8th centuries, explicitly within the eastern Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu (eg Vedanta) traditions, but also implicitly within the western esoteric traditions of the time. Essentially it focuses on the collapse of the subject-object divide within our consciousness into a ‘Just This’ experience. Before that time, the vast majority of meditation was dualistic in nature; there was a subject of consciousness, the ‘I’, meditating on an object of consciousness, this object could be:

  • Something obvious, like the breathing, “I am focusing mindfully on my breathing”
  • Something more subtle, like my mind, “I am aware of my thoughts”
  • Something really subtle, for example “I am aware of my formless timeless consciousness”

Whatever you meditated on, there was a subject and an object of consciousness.

Why it’s a great practice to make your go-to practice

Non-dual meditation is a great practice to make front and centre of your daily meditation because:

  1. It offers access to an effortless level of stress transformation – Non-duality is a view of our experience that invites effortlessness and flow. Integrating into your practice invites this experience of effortlessness into your life, now.
  2. It is the final destination of all meditations. In all of the different great meditation traditions of the world, non-dual reality is the ‘highest’ attainment, the final destination. Since it is that, you may as well bring it in today!
  3. You can practice it on the level you are at – Non-dual meditation is deep but simple. You can practice it on the level you are at today, and have some degree of success. You don’t need to wait until you get ‘better’.
  4. You can integrate your other meditations into your non-dual practice. You can MAKE your current meditation into a non-dual meditation, simply by changing your perspective on it. Non-duality is a VIEW of reality, if you integrate it into your current meditation, it becomes a non-dual practice. For example, in the Chakra meditation series I am about to teach this week, it integrates Chakra meditation with non-duality, which is a great, and very do-able combination!
  5. You being the result into the path – Non-dual meditation focuses on the recognition that awakening is not something you achieve, it is something that you ARE. This is a wonderful understanding to integrate into your daily life; you are already whole and complete as you are, right now!
  6. It is fantastic for living in the world – Non-dual meditation enables us to transform everyday activities into our spiritual practice in ways that would be difficult otherwise. It’s a type of technology that really helps you be ‘in the world but not of the world’.

 
A simple example
 
Non-dual breathing meditation – Settle into a rhythm focusing on your breathing, just like a normal mindful breathing meditation. Notice that in the meditation there is a sense of an ‘I’ or self that is focusing on the breathing. Once you have a certain degree of focus and relaxation, gently ‘drop’ the I, so that it is just the breathing doing itself. There is no subject or object of consciousness, just the breathing. Put another way, the ‘self’ is experienced as nothing more than the breathing. To quote Shunryu Suzuki:
 
“The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” and outer world,” but in reality, there is just one whole world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think “I breathe,” the I is extra.”
 
So, one really simple example there, we’ll be looking at seven simple examples in the chakra meditation & non-duality course, which, I promise will be a whole lot of fun!
 
Related reading: The swinging door – when the breathing does itself
Non-Dual meditation & Organismic reality
Practical dimensions of chakra meditation


© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

Watch Toby’s video on  chakra meditation & non-duality: 

Upcoming classes & workshops

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

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6.45pm SG time – Saturday Integral meditation deep-dive sessions with Toby

12noon on Saturday – Meditation Masterclass Series at Space2B

Starts on Wednesday June 10th, 7.30-8.30pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self -an 8-week course

Starts Saturday June 13th, 5.30-6.45pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self – an 8-session deep-dive practice series

Sat 20th, 5.30pm & Weds 24th June, 7.30pm – Summer solstice balancing & renewing meditation
 

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

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A Mind of Ease Chakra meditation creative imagery Energy Meditation Inner vision Life-fullness Meditation and Psychology Meditation techniques Mindful Resilience Presence and being present Stress Transformation

3 levels of chakra meditation video, & article on varying your intensity level

Dear Integral Meditators, 

A video & article for you today!

The video is a short introducton to the three different levels of the chakras, & how to work with them in meditation. It’s partly for those who may be interested in the Wednesday evening & Saturday afternoon chakra meditation & non-duality summer courses. But it should be interesting & of value to those who are simply curious!

The article on ‘Yin & yang levels of intensity in meditation’ asks the question: “What level of intensity do I want to bring to my practice, & my life today? Which level will work best in the circumstances?”

In the spirit of creation & adaptation, 

Toby

Watch Toby’s video on the three aspects or levels of chakra meditation: 

Yang & yin levels of meditation intensity
 
In the same way that there are different levels of exercise, there are different levels of intensity regarding your meditation. If you have an exercise routine, you will likely have:

  • Some days that are high intensity days, where you are looking to push your body’s capacity by exercising intensely and close to the limit of your capacity
  • Other days you may exercise at a low level of intensity with the aim to help your body recover its energy
  • Other days it may be an intermediate level of intensity, somewhere between a 4-6 out of 10 (with 10 as max effort)

Similarly, when you sit down to do a meditation, it can be useful to distinguish whether you are going to meditate:

  • At a relatively high ‘yang’ intensity level, emphasizing clarity and capacity growth. This may take some energy to do, but if you feel your energy levels are quite good already, then you can invest some of that energy in improving your meditation ‘level’
  • At a lower, easy ‘yin’ regenerative level. Here you are not going to worry too much about ‘performance’, rather you are creating a space for your meditation that is aimed at recovery and rest. This type of meditation you may well come out with more energy, feeling refreshed and renewed, almost like you had a bit of a sleep

 
Of course, you can also choose a level in between, at an intermediate or balanced level of intensity, that ‘4-6’ level that I mentioned above!
The point here is that, if you make a conscious decision about the level of intensity before you start your meditation then that can set you up for a better meditation experience as you actually engage in the meditation.
You can create a formal program if you like where you have set days each week that are designated ‘yin meditation’ others ‘yang’ and one or two intermediate days. What I generally like to do is simply decide on the day, according to how I feel.
 
A daily example
 
On the way to work on the train this morning, I did a 15minute meditation. Before I started, my body felt really quite tired, so I decided to do it at a low intensity, ‘yin’ recovery level of intensity. So, I began with this ‘soft focus’ type approach, not worrying too much about precision, brightness or energy. As the meditation went on however, I did feel my state moving from a low energy toward a higher energy level as I progressed. In the second half of the meditation, I picked up the intensity and finished feeling both refreshed and quite ‘on point’ around my energy level. It turned into a ‘bit of both’ type meditation!
 
A final point, you can use the above principles to vary the level on intensity that you bring to your life appropriately. Some days can be high intensity days, others recovery, ‘yin’ days. Yin days can involve work, yang days can involve recovery or leisure. It’s more about the mindful modulation of your effort, rather than the activities themselves.
 
Related article: Zen ergonomics – Sailing with, rather than rowing against life

© Toby Ouvry 2026, 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

Upcoming classes & workshops

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

Ongoing on Saturdays, 5.30-6.45pm SG time – Saturday Integral meditation deep-dive sessions with Toby

Starts on Wednesday June 10th, 7.30-8.30pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self -an 8-week course

Starts Saturday June 13th, 5.30-6.45pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self – an 8-session deep-dive practice series

Sat 20th, 5.30pm & Weds 24th June, 7.30pm – 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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Chakra meditation Inner vision meditation and creativity Meditation and Psychology Meditation techniques Uncategorized

Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality summer courses

Dear Integral Meditators, 

I’ve just completed the write ups for the summer meditation courses. Both the weekday classes & the Saturday deep-dive sessions will be focused on the chakras as gateways to non-duality. 

Actually, all seven chakras have three levels; bio-energetic, mental & consciousness. 

In the sessions we will look at all three in an intergral manner, with the emphasis being on the final wisdom-state of the conscious level. The seven gatweays we will cover are: 

  • First chakra – stability, abundance, unity with the world
  • Second chakra – energy, creativity, union with life
  • Third chakra – Confidence, power, union with mind
  •  Fourth chakra – Heart, merging, relating – union as love
  • Fifth chakra – sound, speech, mantra – unity through silence
  • Sixth Chakra – Observation, integration – union as the witness
  • Seventh chakra – Consciousness, integration – formless union

I’m pretty excited to facilitate these sessions, I’ve been practising different forms of chakram meditation for the last 30 years, & this will be a conndensation of that expereince into a single 8 session format. If your looking for an ‘inner summer to remember’, this might be your ticket!

Programs can be participated in live, online or via the recordngs. Click below for full details.

In the spirit of energised relaxation, 

Toby

Starts on Wednesday June 10th, 7.30-8.30pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self -an 8-week course

Overview:  The chakras are a traditional, dynamic meditation form that invite us to discover:

  • A way of bringing greater energy into our body in a way that promotes health & wellbeing
  • A way of developing ourselves on seven different levels of our being in a balanced & integrated manner
  • A way of accessing deeper meditation states more easily & effectively
  • A way of enjoying working with colour in meditation

Read full details…

Starts Saturday June 13th, 5.30-6.45pm – Chakra meditation as a gateway to non-duality, energy & the integrated self – an 8-session deep-dive practice series

What is unique to these sessions is that Toby will be showing how to meditate on each of the chakras as gateways to the non-dual state, which is considered the highest or ‘ultimate’ level of wisdom-meditation practice.

Non-duality is a state beyond verbal description, but it can be understood more deeply & profoundly by approaching it from the seven different levels of the chakras. In doing so the richness of your non-dual meditation, & your ability to apply it effectively in daily life will be greatly enhanced….read full details

Follow Toby on: LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram

Integral Meditation Asia

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