Meditation for Healing – The Healing Circles are back – an invitation to give and receive healing energy...

Meditation, and more specifically, imagery, opens the possibility of converting a wish for healing into reality. We all have times when we need healing. We all have times when we wish healing would come for someone we care for and love.

Is this just a pipe-dream, or can we actually do something meaningful? The simple and clear answer is – yes we can. Subtle energy is a real thing. 

We all know the comfort of someone with a “healing touch”. I remember the local GP when I was small. He would gently place his hand on my shoulder or arm, and whatever was the issue, things immediately felt much better. There was reassurance, comfort and an energy transfer that reeked of healing. Soft and gentle, yet powerful. A real thing.

There is much more, but first

           Thought for the day

   The mind has no form, colour, or substance.


   It does not exist outside or inside the body, nor in between.


   Even if you search for it in every direction, it is unreal.


   It has no origin, location, or destination.


   It is not nothing; your mind is vividly lucid.


   It is not single, for it arises diversely as anything.


   It is not multiple, for everything has one essence.

                   Karma Chakme Rinpoche 17th C 

I have a long history of meeting with and learning from powerful healers who practiced what they call “distance healing”. The mind is not limited by time and space. We can imagine the past and future. We can imagine being with someone who is on the other side of the planet. Using focused imagery practices, we can imagine another person and direct healing energy towards them. 

There are many accounts of this type of distant healing “coinciding” with unexpected major healing. Maybe you have felt this yourself – either as a giver or a receiver? Some people call it prayer. A real thing...

So in the days of the Allevi8 app, a very popular feature was the monthly Healing Circles. 

Now with the advent of the Meditation Community and its steady development, it is timely to reinstate these. 

Starting in February, we will hold a Healing Circle on the first Monday of the month at 8pm AET. 

These Healing Circles will be led by myself and Melissa Borich whom many will know for her work in this area; plus helping directly to co-facilitate meditation retreats and meditation teacher trainings with Ruth and myself.

So we all calling for those altruists amongst you who would like to offer healing to those in need to gather and provide your support. And there is the invitation to join us if you are in need of healing. 

You do need to be a member of the Meditation Community to join in, but that means you have access to all the Community’s other benefits. We are starting live morning meditation practice sessions in February. These will add to the regular live Teaching Circles and Discussion Circles. Plus there are recordings of a wide range of things meditation, the recorded practices you can use like a meditation App to support and guide your practice; and of course the interaction with other like-minded meditators and teachers via the chatroom.

During the Healing Circles, if you do join those giving healing, you will be guided how to do this; so you will learn a new skill you can use for other loved-ones as the need arises. 

For those in need of healing, we can say those who attended the Allevi8 Healing Circles found them very helpful. 

We look forward to the first of these new Healing Circles on the Meditation Community 

and invite you to join us...

What? Monthly Healing Circles on the Meditation Community

When? First Monday of every month at 8pm AET, starting Monday February 2nd, 8pm AEDT

Who with? Ian Gawler and Melissa Borich

How? Open to all members of the Meditation Community – if not a member already, you can join here: 

 

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Meditation in the Forest – The Heart of Meditation; its wisdom and its experience

Sunday 7th to Saturday 13th June

Ruth and I have been presenting the annual 7 day meditation retreat Meditation in the Forest at the Yarra Valley Living Centre for many years. 

This year, the retreat focus will be the heart of meditation – the experience and the wisdom of Stillness. 

Highly experiential, we will delve into the theoretical structure that provides the knowledge and the wisdom that helps us to approach this profound inner experience.

Then together, we will practice the techniques that progressively lead us into the direct experience of our own stillness – our own inner essence. Joyful...

There will also be optional yoga sessions with the incomparable Melissa Borich, plus all the delights of the Upper Yarra environment along with the care and food provided by the Yarra Valley Living Centre.

Many do come regularly to this annual retreat, but we always welcome newcomers. Due to its fundamental simplicity, the retreat is accessible to those newer to meditation, as well as those more experienced.

To enquire re bookings, view our website, or contact our retreat manager Mel Crow on mel@insighthealth.com.au. Mel will be happy to talk with you if you do need more details.

Meditation Teacher Trainings 

May and November 2026 

And now for something new... with also a certain sense of familiarity...

Actually, not so very new. 

In fact, I have presented Meditation Teacher Trainings since 1988, but these new trainings – to be frank – are much better developed than those earlier versions! 

We have developed 3 training modules: Meditation, Contemplation and Imagery. 

The Meditation module goes into how to present the 8 week Mindfulness-Based Stillness program that is elaborated in my most recent meditation book – Blue Sky Mind. 

The other 2 modules, cover the very basics of meditation, but give most attention to these very important, but rarely taught aspects of meditation – Contemplation and Imagery.

We now have individual manuals for each training that are at least 180 pages each. 

The trainings are solid in theory, yet highly experiential. You will get to practice leading meditations and groups, while receiving measured feedback from the staff and peers. 

Many who have completed these trainings have now qualified for full membership of Meditation Australia, and have the knowledge and confidence to teach in their own right. 

As part of our commitment to provide ongoing support as you develop your skills and experience, we have established an online Meditation Teacher’s Community that does just that. There is peer support, ongoing professional development, a mass of resources, and opportunities to practice and develop your teaching skills with the audience of the closely allied Meditation Community.

Currently, I have a strong commitment to training and supporting the development of new meditation teachers, so if you are considering this as a possibility, and do meet the criteria, please do join us.

Each year we provide the basic Meditation Teacher Training, this year: 11 - 15 May 2026

Also, this year we will once more present the wonderful Contemplation Training: 31 October – 4 November 2026.

Next year, 2027, we are likely to present the Imagery Training once again; along with the basic Meditation module. 

Attending 2 of these trainings meets MA’s criteria for membership. While you can attend the 3 modules in whatever order that suits, and each module does stand in its own right, we do encourage everyone interested in our approach to complete the Meditation module at least.

You will be welcome; and be joining a group of amazing, like-minded peers.

As with the retreat, to enquire re bookings, view our website, or contact our retreat manager Mel Crow on mel@insighthealth.com.au  Mel will be happy to talk with you if you do need more details.

 

The Comfort of Familiarity – a tribute to Pellegrini’s - and how amidst impermanence, some things appear the same...

Sixty years of eating in the same establishment. The comfort of familiarity...

As a teenager, happening upon Pellegrini’s café at 66 Bourke St in Melbourne, was evocative of walking into one of the Hemingway novels I was reading at the time, A Farewell to Arms. Melbourne in the ’60s was very parochial. Pellegrini’s was very different. European. Very Italian. An eye opener to not just a new cuisine - as opposed to the meat and 3 veg of the day – but a new style, a new culture. A precursor of what was about to unfold as Melbourne transitioned from a white bastion into a genuine multi-cultural society, but first

Thought for the day

     Sogyal Rinpoche while sitting quietly 

     In the front seat of a car, 

     Silently chanting mantras: 

     "You know people think it is about the beads, 

     But it is actually about the string!"

Best of all, Pellegrini’s had a bar where one could sit down on one’s own to a decent meal; and avoid feeling awkward. So it became a regular haunt. Whether as a student at university, a veterinarian in an incredible hurry, a father bringing children to the city, or while working and looking for a heart-warming meal, Pellegrini’s was the place of comfort and ease.

The years have passed by, so much has changed, and yet Pellegrini’s remains. And so now, an incredible 60 years later, the comfort of familiarity. 

We all know everything changes. Everything. Even Pellegrini’s. 

Staff have come and gone. 

The original owners, brothers Leo and Vildo Pellegrini, opened their restaurant in 1954. 

I have only vague memories of these two, but many more of the wonderful duo they sold to in 1974, fellow Italian migrants Nino Pangrazio and Sisto Malaspina.

In a stark reminder of how precious human life is, and how fragile it is, Melbourne was rocked when Sisto, attempting to help a man in life-threatening danger, was stabbed to death in a terrorist attack in the city in 2018. 

So sad...

Impermanence is tough in some ways. 

Yet without change, we would be continually stuck in the same old... Life would not be possible without change. Life is only possible with change. Yet this wonderful comfort with familiarity.

When I return to Pellegrini’s now, as I do regularly; to my eyes and heart, it feels just like it did all those 60 years ago. The menu, strips of writing draped across a plank of wood hanging from the ceiling has not changed in my memory. Just become more obscured by the accumulation of time. The regulars never even look at it. They know what they will order. 

I rarely eat anything other than the fabulous minestrone, or the spaghetti Napoli. 

To my memory, these dishes; their look and their flavours, have not changed in 60 years. 

Genuine, deeply felt comfort food. 

Is that not wonderful? 

Management having the confidence to continue with something that is working. Not attempting to chase the latest fad; being content to continue with what is loved and welcomed year after year... The comfort of familiarity.

Of course, things do change. 

Back in the 60s the granita was lemon. Loved that. 

For decades now it has been watermelon. I do not drink that. 

Since moving to the city a couple of years ago, the lure of coffee sometimes gets to me. And the coffee at Pellegrini’s is Italian – strong. 

When they opened, they had one of Melbourne’s first Italian expresso machines, and while successive machines have done their service, worn out, and been replaced, the lineage is strong and continuous.

Last week, Ruth and I went to the movies and watched the new documentary film on Pellegrini’s. Imagine that. A documentary of a small café featuring in mainstream theatres. It is a wonderful, nostalgic meander down memory lane. Highly recommended not only to Melbournians, but to anyone whose heart is warmed by, and open to - the comfort of familiarity...

Curious to hear about whatever it is that offers this comfort of familiarity to you...

And speaking of familiarity...

Meditation in the Forest – The Heart of Meditation; its wisdom and its experience

Sunday 7th to Saturday 13th June

Ruth and I have been presenting the annual 7 day meditation retreat Meditation in the Forest at the Yarra Valley Living Centre for many years. 

This year, the retreat focus will be the heart of meditation – the experience and the wisdom of Stillness. 

Highly experiential, we will delve into the theoretical structure that provides the knowledge and the wisdom that helps us to approach this profound inner experience.

Then together, we will practice the techniques that progressively lead us into the direct experience of our own stillness – our own inner essence. Joyful...

There will also be optional yoga sessions with the incomparable Melissa Borich, plus all the delights of the Upper Yarra environment along with the care and food provided by the Yarra Valley Living Centre.

Many do come regularly to this annual retreat, but we always welcome newcomers. Due to its fundamental simplicity, the retreat is accessible to those newer to meditation, as well as those more experienced.

To enquire re bookings, view our website, or contact our retreat manager Mel Crow on mel@insighthealth.com.au. Mel will be happy to talk with you if you do need more details.

Meditation Teacher Trainings 

May and November 2026 

And now for something new... with also a certain sense of familiarity...

Actually, not so very new. 

In fact, I have presented Meditation Teacher Trainings since 1988, but these new trainings – to be frank – are much better developed than those earlier versions! 

We have developed 3 training modules: Meditation, Contemplation and Imagery. 

The Meditation module goes into how to present the 8 week Mindfulness-Based Stillness program that is elaborated in my most recent meditation book – Blue Sky Mind. 

The other 2 modules, cover the very basics of meditation, but give most attention to these very important, but rarely taught aspects of meditation – Contemplation and Imagery.

We now have individual manuals for each training that are at least 180 pages each. 

The trainings are solid in theory, yet highly experiential. You will get to practice leading meditations and groups, while receiving measured feedback from the staff and peers. 

Many who have completed these trainings have now qualified for full membership of Meditation Australia, and have the knowledge and confidence to teach in their own right. 

As part of our commitment to provide ongoing support as you develop your skills and experience, we have established an online Meditation Teacher’s Community that does just that. There is peer support, ongoing professional development, a mass of resources, and opportunities to practice and develop your teaching skills with the audience of the closely allied Meditation Community.

Currently, I have a strong commitment to training and supporting the development of new meditation teachers, so if you are considering this as a possibility, and do meet the criteria, please do join us.

Each year we provide the basic Meditation Teacher Training, this year: 11 - 15 May 2026

Also, this year we will once more present the wonderful Contemplation Training: 31 October – 4 November 2026.

Next year, 2027, we are likely to present the Imagery Training once again; along with the basic Meditation module. 

Attending 2 of these trainings meets MA’s criteria for membership. While you can attend the 3 modules in whatever order that suits, and each module does stand in its own right, we do encourage everyone interested in our approach to complete the Meditation module at least.

You will be welcome; and be joining a group of amazing, like-minded peers.

As with the retreat, to enquire re bookings, view our website, or contact our retreat manager Mel Crow on mel@insighthealth.com.au  Mel will be happy to talk with you if you do need more details.