Working with us
Starting where we are.
We explore with people rather than teach them.
You don’t need to believe anything in particular or know anything about non-duality, meditation or self-enquiry. You don’t need to arrive feeling peaceful or clear either. We start wherever you are and with whatever is actually happening.
You might come with a question, something that’s troubling you, or simply a growing sense that the things you’ve always looked towards for happiness or fulfilment aren’t quite doing it anymore.
Most of us spend a lot of our lives looking for something. We want circumstances to change, relationships to be different, problems to be resolved. We want to feel more secure, more peaceful, more certain of ourselves. And when we turn towards spirituality, the search can carry on there too. We start looking for awakening, presence, a quieter mind or an experience that will finally settle everything.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting any of this. But we can look a little more closely at what’s underneath it.
What are we really looking for? What do we imagine will happen when we find it? And is what we’re looking for actually absent now?
We don’t have an answer we want you to arrive at. We look together and see what we find.
What it’s like to be with us
There’s no fixed formula for our meetings. We may begin with something we want to explore, but we don’t necessarily know where it will take us.
Someone might ask a question or talk about something that’s happening in their life. Marcus may pick up on an assumption that’s gone unnoticed, or ask a question that takes the conversation somewhere completely different. I may bring attention to what’s happening in the body. We might sit quietly for a while, explore something through meditation or movement, or leave a question hanging rather than trying to find an answer for it.
Sometimes there’s a lot of conversation. Sometimes there’s silence. And there’s usually plenty of laughter.
“The atmosphere is a mix of relaxation, learning, reflecting and sharing.”
— Harald, Germany
Self-enquiry, the body, meditation, movement, silence and stillness all find their way into what we do. We don’t really think of them as separate techniques or practices. They’re simply different ways of looking more closely at our experience, before thought has had a chance to explain what it means.
When understanding isn’t quite enough
You can understand a great deal about awareness, presence or our true nature and still find yourself caught up in the familiar experience of being “me”, with all the fears, wants and worries that come with it.
You can have a very clear glimpse of what you are and later wonder where it went. You can unders
tand that there’s nowhere you need to get to and find yourself striving to get there anyway. You can know something very clearly in your mind while the body seems to be telling a completely different story.
The sense of being someone isn’t only something we think. We experience it.
It might be a contraction in the belly, a tightening in the chest, a feeling of holding back or bracing against something. Sometimes it’s difficult to put into words at all. It’s simply that very familiar feeling of being “me”.
So rather than immediately trying to change it, we can stay with what’s actually being experienced.
What does the sensation feel like before we name it? What happens if we don’t try to get rid of it or work out why it’s there? Can it be allowed to be exactly as it is?
This is often where something that has made complete sense intellectually begins to be known in a much more immediate way.
“I’d experienced this before, but it wasn't easy to access in ordinary everyday moments. Now my awareness goes straight to the wider space, and I find it happening while I'm working and talking.”
— Anastasia, Greece
In ordinary life
And all of this has to make sense while you’re making breakfast, walking the dog, talking to your partner, worrying about money, sitting in traffic, grieving someone you love, laughing with friends or lying awake at three in the morning.
Otherwise it can remain another interesting thing we understand.
You may start to catch yourself moving away from what’s here towards the next thing that will finally make everything okay. Or notice the body tighten before you’ve even realised what you’re thinking. You might see yourself pushing against something you don’t want, or reaching towards something you hope will make you feel better.
And then there are those little moments when you’re doing none of that.
Standing at the kettle. Looking out of the window. Hearing a bird outside. Walking without thinking about where you’re going. A moment when, for no particular reason, there’s no problem to solve and nobody you need to become.
What’s here then?
For us, this is where the enquiry comes alive. Our essential nature isn't something confined to moments of insight, meditation or spiritual experience. It can be explored in the midst of ordinary life.
There’s no particular experience you need to have and nothing you need to hold on to afterwards.
We begin with what's here in the moment.