Morning Meditations Workshop
with Dionne Duran

During this workshop, you will experience three meditations, guided by yoga instructor Dionne Duran.  This workshop is an invitation to explore meditation through voice, silence, movement, and mantra. These practices are rooted in the timeless wisdom of India, Japan, and Tibet. The three meditations you will experience are as follows:

We begin with the sacred sound of AUM, the primordial vibration from which all sounds arise.  AUM represents the universal and the infinite. This mantra consists of four parts: A, U, M, and silence. Singing mantras connects us with the fifth chakra (Vishudda), where sound and expression reside. The vibration is carried by stillness, the fertile emptiness from which all arises.

Next we will practice the art of ZaZen, the heart of Japanese Buddhism. We will start with a sitting meditation, cultivating calm awareness, before stepping outside for a 20-minute walking meditation.  Each step becomes a meditation in motion- present, grounded, awake. 

We close by chanting the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum with a mala. Dionne will provide the malas. This Tibetan mantra is known as the Jewel In The Lotus and is recited as an invocation of compassion. Om Mani Padme Hum means, "Salutation to the jewel in the heart of the lotus blossom." With each bead, the mind softens and the heart opens.