Freedom in Ordinary Life
The freedom you seek is the freedom you are.
Beneath so much of our wanting lies a longing to be at peace, to feel whole, to come home.
We look for this in the world, through relationships, achievements, possessions, knowledge and experiences. Each may bring a moment of satisfaction, yet sooner or later, the looking begins again.
There may come a time when we begin to question the search itself. What are we really looking for? And is it possible that what we seek is already here, in our very being?
This is where our exploration begins.
If freedom is our nature, why does it so often feel otherwise? How do our thoughts, beliefs and familiar patterns of feeling shape our experience of ourselves and the world?
We invite you to explore these questions with us through self-enquiry, meditation and embodied exploration, and to discover for yourself the essential nature of who you are, not as something to believe, but something to explore in your own experience.
The Way We Work
We're Marcus and Lisa, a husband and wife living in South Devon. We've been exploring the nature of who we are, separately and together, for many years.
Marcus has a way of cutting through the ideas we take to be true, usually with a healthy dose of dry, irreverent British humour. Lisa brings a grounding presence and an ability to sense patterns held in the body.
Together, we look at what we take ourselves to be, how the mind draws on the past and imagines the future, and how this is felt in the body.
Even when our essential nature has been directly experienced, familiar patterns of thought, feeling and bodily contraction can continue to arise, bringing with them the familiar sense of being a separate “me”.
Through conversation, self-enquiry, meditation and attention to the body, we explore these patterns as they arise, not as problems to be fixed, but as invitations to look more closely.
What happens when we give our attention to what is actually here, rather than simply believing the stories around it? And when we look closely at the thoughts, feelings and sensations that make up our sense of self, who, or what, is actually experiencing them?
Being with Us
Online Group Meetings
Explorations in Being
Fortnightly Mondays
7pm UK - 75 minutes
An invitation to explore the essential nature of who we are through self-enquiry, meditation and embodied exploration.
Each meeting has a particular theme, bringing together a talk, guided experiential meditations, periods of silence and an opportunity for questions and reflections.
Online Morning Practice
Stillness-Moving, Silence-Sounding
Alternate Mondays
9am UK - 90 minutes
A quieter way to begin the week. These morning gatherings bring together gentle exploratory movement, a short enquiry, guided body awareness, sitting together in silence and guided relaxation.
An invitation to explore the body from within, becoming more sensitive to sensation, effort, contraction and ease.
Freedom in Ordinary Life
In-Person Meetings & Day Retreats
Various Locations
Various Times & Dates
An opportunity to spend more time together in-person, exploring the nature of who we are through talks, self-enquiry, guided meditations, movement and silence.
Our gatherings offer space for the enquiry to deepen, with time for questions, reflection and the simple pleasure of being together.
Laura, UK
“I can return to peace at any time. It is my natural state. Knowing this is such a comfort.”
Upcoming Events
Explorations in Being with Marcus & LisaMon 12 OctZoom Room
Stillness Moving, Silence SoundingMon 19 OctOnline Event- Explorations in Being with Marcus & LisaMon 26 OctZoom Room
Meditations
Guided explorations into the ease of being
with Lisa
Resting in Being
An invitation to step out of our usual preoccupation with thought and come back to the simplicity of being. Through gentle attention to the body, sensations, sounds and the openness in which they appear, Lisa invites you to explore what is already here, without trying to change your experience or reach a particular state.
Talks
Talks exploring awakening, self-enquiry and ordinary life.
with Marcus
What are you still looking for?
What if searching for awakening keeps us from seeing that it's already here?
In this Rambling, Marcus looks at the movement of seeking: the next insight, the next book, the next teacher, the hope that something will finally fall into place.
Rather than offering another answer, the invitation is to look at the search itself. What is it we're actually looking for, and what happens when we turn towards the one who seems to be looking? What does the feeling of 'me' feel like? What are the tensions, contractions, wants and resistances that keep us searching?
Maybe nothing needs to be found.
The freedom we're seeking isn't somewhere we're going to arrive. It's already here.
From Our Journal
Writing, conversations and explorations around being, self-enquiry, the body and freedom in ordinary life.
