Sunday, November 22, 2009
Hello and Welcome to My Blog
Hello. If you are visiting this blog to learn more about my work, please check the April archive for postings describing various aspects of what I offer. Welcome, scroll away, and thanks for coming.
Meditation Classes in Historic Kingston Village in Central NJ
Sitting in the Great Bowl of Silence:
Meditation for Everyone
Meditation for Everyone
Monday Evenings, beginning December 7th
Meditation is a mysterious thing. We sit. We watch our breath. We practice mantra, visualization, and contemplation. It often seems like nothing much is happening… yet, something very much is happening. We meditate to wake up to the truth of who and what we are, to experience our essential wholeness, to discover the great shining Self of the heart. Along the way, meditation teaches us the art of being fully present with what is, to lighten up and laugh at all our human frailties, to accept ourselves exactly as we are.
6:30-7:15 pm
This class covers the basics of meditation, offering students a gentle approach to developing their own practice. We answer questions like: Will meditation really help me manage stress? Why do I have such a hard time doing it on my own? Why are there so many different techniques? Which technique is right for me? Do I really have to chant om ? This introductory class also prepares students to join the Mixed Levels Class.
Mixed Levels Class
7:30-9:00 pm
This class combines meditation, chanting, and teaching talks with special emphasis on holding steady through whatever is arising in your life. We reinforce the basics: posture, breathing, mantra and visualization; deepen understanding of key concepts like chakras and kundalini; and immerse ourselves in sacred texts and poetry of the world’s wisdom traditions. Give yourself a potent recharge for the week. Check out this class—inspiring, uplifting, and relevant to daily life, it might just change the way you move through yours.
Cost: $20/class
Schedule a soak before or after class and receive a $5 discount on your soak.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Mondays in Princeton, NJ
After several years of living and working in Manhattan, I've decided to spend more time back home in the Princeton (NJ) area. I'm now seeing individuals and couples for private sessions on Mondays in NJ. If you're based in central or southern NJ or around Philadelphia, this is much easier than seeing me in NYC.
If you'd like to know more about this work, follow these links:
http://suzingreen.blogspot.com/2009/01/tools-for-holding-steady-through-best.html
http://suzingreen.blogspot.com/2009/04/faqs-about-eyes-closed-work-wsg.html
http://suzingreen.blogspot.com/2009/04/faqs-about-eyes-closed-work-wsg.html
If you'd like to receive notices about classes or schedule private sessions, please email:
suzingreen@mindspring.com
suzingreen@mindspring.com
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Autumn Garden
I was recently walking in a perfectly manicured September garden. Summer blooms had been replaced by the more humble offerings of fall and the garden had a sparseness and simplicity that took my breath away. I've always loved the magnificent abundance of the Fall: the harvest, the foliage, the moon. This year though, I'm experiencing Fall through different eyes: autumn eyes. Eyes that seek out spaciousness and simplicity; eyes that find comfort in brown grass dying back down into the earth. There is a softness to the autumn garden I've not seen before. And a silence that roars in my heart.
The silence speaks its own special language, pulling me deep inside myself. Absorbing me in that inner sense of knowing. This listening to silence has a fierceness to it. It moves me into unexpected places, pushing me up against notions of who I am and why I'm here. It laughs at me too, testing my trust in myself. Am I willing to rest in the air of my being. Am I really okay with how fluid the ground I want so solid beneath me truly is. Can I sit still, can I wait, can I look and see what is, rather than what I want it to be.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sitting in the Great Bowl of Silence
Many years ago, one of my spiritual mentors gave a beautiful teaching on the syllable "om." He said that if we really listened, we could hear "om" vibrating inside every sound. I performed this practice diligently and while I can't say I began to hear that subtle om within the cacophony of daily life, something else happened: my capacity to listen went deeper.
I began to sense a great bowl of silence inside me, and worked to root my listening as far down into it as I could manage. This allowed me to listen with very clean ears and opened me into hearing what I think of as the deep song. Which is not a song at all. It's a presence. The more I learned to listen to my own deep song, the more I began to recognize it in others. And that was when I realized my calling as a transformational healer and teacher.
Several years later, when I began to study Sanskrit, I was astounded by the way the sound of "om" moves through us. Try it and you'll see. It begins deep in the belly with the mouth wide open and ends on the lips with the mouth fully closed. It was then that I finally got it. In the way that making the sound of "om" mimics the opening and closing of any process, metaphorically at least, "om" does contain everything.
And the thing of it is, one can ride "om" into the very depths of our being. Which is where we find the great bowl of silence. Try it. Sit in a meditative stance and bring your focus to breathing. Just listen. Listen to the in-breath. Listen to the out-breath. Listen to the space between them. Listen for that subtle vibration of "om." Listen for the silence underneath it all. And when you stand up, moving into daily life action, try to move from that silence. Practice this for awhile and see how you feel.
We live in a time when marketing is everything, when the pitch has to tell us what we get before we're willing to buy. So I'll tell you a secret: the great bowl of silence contains everything. Once we begin to touch it in a regular kind of way, life takes on a whole different feel. The poet-saint Kabir expressed this so beautifully when he sang: Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains, and the maker of canyons and pine mountains! All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars. The acid that tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels. And the music from strings no one touches, and the source of all water.
Kabir finishes his song proclaiming, If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth: Friend, listen: the God I love is inside of me. He might as well have named it Silence.
I began to sense a great bowl of silence inside me, and worked to root my listening as far down into it as I could manage. This allowed me to listen with very clean ears and opened me into hearing what I think of as the deep song. Which is not a song at all. It's a presence. The more I learned to listen to my own deep song, the more I began to recognize it in others. And that was when I realized my calling as a transformational healer and teacher.
Several years later, when I began to study Sanskrit, I was astounded by the way the sound of "om" moves through us. Try it and you'll see. It begins deep in the belly with the mouth wide open and ends on the lips with the mouth fully closed. It was then that I finally got it. In the way that making the sound of "om" mimics the opening and closing of any process, metaphorically at least, "om" does contain everything.
And the thing of it is, one can ride "om" into the very depths of our being. Which is where we find the great bowl of silence. Try it. Sit in a meditative stance and bring your focus to breathing. Just listen. Listen to the in-breath. Listen to the out-breath. Listen to the space between them. Listen for that subtle vibration of "om." Listen for the silence underneath it all. And when you stand up, moving into daily life action, try to move from that silence. Practice this for awhile and see how you feel.
We live in a time when marketing is everything, when the pitch has to tell us what we get before we're willing to buy. So I'll tell you a secret: the great bowl of silence contains everything. Once we begin to touch it in a regular kind of way, life takes on a whole different feel. The poet-saint Kabir expressed this so beautifully when he sang: Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains, and the maker of canyons and pine mountains! All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars. The acid that tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels. And the music from strings no one touches, and the source of all water.
Kabir finishes his song proclaiming, If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth: Friend, listen: the God I love is inside of me. He might as well have named it Silence.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Recession Pricing on Private Sessions
While hard times take a toll on all aspects of life, they also remind us how important it is to find grounding and stillness within. Without that anchor, it's easy to be caught in worry, fear, and desperation -- the nasty trio that breeds anxiety, insomnia, paralysis, and really bad decisions. Even in the best of times, not everyone can afford the ongoing expense of guided inner work. During these worst of times, it tends to be the first thing to go. A cruel irony since the nourishment it provides can be truly essential. And so, if you feel drawn to work with me, but are strapped for the means to pay my regular fees, please be in touch. We will make it affordable for you.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Tapping the Essential Self: Life Coaching & Transformational Healing -- Private Sessions w/SG
Private sessions combine hands-on coaching, pragmatic counseling, and communication strategies designed to strengthen relationships and soften the hard edges of life. Sessions also include Eyes-Closed Work, a meditation-based therapy I've developed over many years. The work fosters a sense of ease in the world, creating a container of self that remains extraordinarily resilient regardless of external circumstances or events.
Sessions run approximately two hours with one hour reserved for Eyes-Closed Work and one hour for coaching and counseling. Clients requiring shorter time frames may opt for 60 or 90-minute formats. Telephone & Skype sessions are also available.
People come for many reasons:
¨ to master listening and communication skills
¨ to re-invent or re-position themselves in a changing world
¨ to decipher the riddles of relationships, career, or calling
¨ to ease the experience of living with illness or pain
¨ to neutralize harmful effects of stress
¨ to unravel emotional knots and harmful patterns
¨ to open creative blocks
¨ to cultivate emotional intelligence
¨ to experience deep relaxation
¨ to develop a regular meditation practice
¨ to discover a sense of grounding and stillness in daily life
Office hours in the Princeton, NJ area: Mondays with limited weekend hours also available.
If you're unable to see me in person, phone & Skype sessions are also available.
If you have questions or would like to schedule a session, please call or email:
suzingreen@mindspring.com
212.724.0265 (NYC)
212.724.0265 (NYC)
609.915.1392 (Princeton area)
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