Testimonials

Enjoy the experiences from the Santa clara AOL team:

I took the Art of Living Course when I was in school doing my masters in Dec 2003. I am a software profession working in the Bay Area. The course is loaded with lot of things. When I took it the first time, what stuck to me was the Sudarshan Kriya practice, the breathing technique they teach on the course. After, I repeated the course later on, I learnt other snippets of wisdom and giving 100% percent etc. The practice of Sudarshan kriya regularly greatly helped me not just in terms of my physical energy levels, clarity and focus. More importantly for me it brought in my enthusiasm and zeal for life that I had as a child. Additionally it helped me improve my self-esteem and become more confident in life :). "Overall, I would say taking the Art of Living Course, opened up new avenues I could explore in life and greatly enhanced my quality of life. "

Sridhar

I did the course July 2007. I am breathing in a way I had never done before. 5 Golden Rules which mad me reconsider my thought Process. "Learning to accept people as they are made me patient and in acceptance of people around who had different behavior traits. Every golden rule brightened up my life .Every time I repeat the course a new point dawns on me . It was an amazing turning point in my life when I did the course and the awesome journey began...which continues... "

Mrudul

Sudarshan Kriya and some seemingly simple knowledge points which still continue to unfold and help in various situations in life "- I had asthma problem. Since I've started practicing Sudarshan Kriya, I have not had any attacks.- My ability to focus has greatly increased.- I used to get react to people and situations hastily. After the course, I have much more clarity in my thoughts and act with more awareness.- I could not drop things easily. The course shifted something in me. Now, I don't hold onto negative things as much. It became much easier to let go."

Madhavi

Interviews

Excerpt from an interview with Jim Larsen, Senior International Art of Living Teacher:

Q: Can you please tell us how you started meditation? When was it?
Jim: My first introduction of meditation was from a book when I was in high school. I took this book on Yoga and Meditation, went to my room and practiced the meditation that the book had. I did that for a little while but didn’t stick with it. The meditation was very relaxing but I didn’t have a profound experience. That was in 1970.
[Almost 40 years back?]
Jim: Yeah! Then I went to college 3 years later. There I saw a poster for meditation and I went and took the initiation for meditation. In the very first meditation I knew I found real meditation. And I knew, I was a teacher. Meaning, after first meditation, I came out and asked where is the training for teaching meditation.
I just turned 19 then. It took me 2 years to complete all the teacher training requirements. So, I think I was 20..21 when I started teaching meditation. So, now I have been teaching for 36 years.

Q: What attracted you to meditation? You teach meditation full-time, correct?
Jim: For 10 years I have been full-time with The Art of Living, traveling, mostly in US, but I have also been to South America and Haiti. Before that I spent half my time teaching throughout 90’s. Before that I taught Transcendental Meditation [TM]. I had centers and I taught full time for certain periods.
10 years ago, even though I was very active, since I worked for myself, I had the freedom to spend half of my time teaching. Actually, I realized right when I started meditating that I couldn’t have a regular job. Because, I wanted to spend so much time teaching and attending retreats & Advance Courses. So, right at the beginning I decided to never have a job, so I never got one.
So, I worked for myself. That gave me the freedom to take off whenever I wanted, to teach and be on advance courses. I have been attending advance courses/retreats every single year since 1974. In the beginning, the silence courses were one, two or even three months long.
[The silence retreats were one full month long?]
Jim: Oh yeah! Some were even 3 months long.

Q: Can you please share the benefits you have seen in meditation? How did it help you?
Jim: You know, now that it [meditation] has been practically my entire life, adult life, everything I talk about is well established in my life. Living with dispassion. Living in the present moment. My mind not getting stuck in past and future. So, it is just a life full of peace and of course, very dynamically working. Peace doesn’t mean apathy. It just means that you are not upset, worried and anxious. I have never really known that [being upset, worried etc]. I hear from other people how anxious and worried they are and stuff. I don’t really relate to it.
Apparently its very common [being anxious, worried etc], but it has never been significant part of my life. So, the main reason for that is I have been meditating all these years.

Q: You may come across people who have not started meditation. What would you recommend to them, if they are interested in starting meditation?
Jim: They may want to take a course from an experienced instructor. Right now, I would recommend learning both Sudharshan Kriya [SK] and Sahaj Samadhi Meditation [SSM]. Because, they work together. When I started teaching meditation in the 70’s, I thought, in my lifetime, meditation would become easier for people to do. Actually, its been the opposite. It has become harder for people to meditate. People’s mind is just so busy that when they sit to meditate, thoughts dominate their mind and they have difficulty settling the mind.
So, I encourage people rather than learn silent meditation first, they should learn SK first. Because that works with the breath. And it doesn’t matter what is going on in the mind. If you follow the rythms of SK, the mind automatically settles down. The only thing you need to do is breath. And anyone can breath.
If you do SK first, which is down to 10 mins, then you are in a space where it is very easy to go in to meditation. So, by learning SK and SSM, you have SK that puts you in to that space where your meditation is much quieter and deeper.
It is also very important that you understand the mechanics of meditation. Many people, including those who learnt SSM, where they learn on a course with 1000 people and with one or very few teachers who quickly go through the technique. Although they learn the technique, they don’t thoroughly understand the mechanics of the practice. They come here and take the course with me and understand the mechanics of it. Otherwise, they sit in meditation with too many questions: “Am I doing this right, Am I having right experience …”.
People have the notion that they sit down for meditation and mind goes quite or blank and that’s meditation. They don’t realize that there is a wide range of experiences in meditation and thoughts are going to be there in the mind, for most of the time. Now, the thoughts will go quieter and quieter, but it doesn’t mean that mind will go blank in meditation. There could be periods of no thought and that is also an experience of meditation but not the only experience of meditation.
Understanding full range of experiences allows people to do meditation properly. Otherwise, people sit in meditation and question their practice and no longer do the practice. Meditation doesn’t happen because you cannot do the practice and question the experience at the same time.
Meditation has to be effortless. Which means total acceptance of whatever is happening in present moment. But if you question “Oh, what is happening? why is this happening?” then, you are no longer meditating but analyzing.
This understanding has to be made very clear and so I spend quite a bit of time explaining the theory of behind meditation so everyone understands all the experiences and how to handle it and then come away and they start to have very good meditation.
This is why learning out of a book never works. So many people I have taught meditation learnt meditation from a book, just like I did, and it didn’t really work for them. Many, or all the techniques in the book, the best they can do is produce a state of relaxation. And this is why many books continue because getting relaxation is something. They feel relaxed and that’s a big improvement.
Now, its not the same as deep meditation. But its something and that’s only as far as you are going to get with a book. Meditation is much deeper and profound state of consciousness.

Q: So, there is certainly a difference between relaxation and deep meditation?
Jim: Absolutely. Just like there is a difference between sleep and meditation. Being asleep is a particular state of consciousness. Being awake is another state of consciousness. And being in meditation is another state of consciousness. Each has its own parameters in mind and body. And each is unique. Dreaming would be the fourth state of consciousness. Most people go through three states of consciousness: Waking, Sleeping and Dreaming.
Those who meditate are adding a fourth state of consciousness, which is not only valuable in life but is necessary. And if you don’t meditation, stress builds up in your system, day by day by day. And over time, you just look at people who are older. Its accepted that people who are older are sick. Their medicine cabinets are full of medicines. They have lots of ailments. And the older they get the worse it gets.
Because people didn’t know the importance of meditation they thought that was normal life. I know that is not normal and people that I know who have been meditating their whole life just as I have know that their life is not one of getting sick as they get older.
I have been asked when filling out forms “Whats the name of your doctor?”. I don’t have a doctor. I don’t have a doctor because I have never needed a doctor. “What medications do you take?”, I don’t take any medications and I am pushing 60 now. People find that puzzling that someone of my age doesn’t have a doctor and doesn’t take any medication.

Q: You raised an interesting point earlier. The responsibilities of an individual is increasing and particularly in Bay Area, everyone seems so busy. That brings us to the question of time. How can one find time to meditate?
Jim: Ok. Finding time to meditation. Do you find time to bathe? Do you find time to brush your teeth? Do you find time to eat? No one questions that. No one says, this week I did not have time to take shower. If you do that they would not even let you in the work place [laughs].
We find time to do things that we feel are essential and important in our life. Once you decide that meditation has to be in my life on daily basis then you’ll find time to fit it in. Because its not that long. Not finding time is an excuse. A minimum would be 30 mins a day. If someone says I don’t have 30 mins a day, that’s just an excuse.

Q: You have recommended Sahaj Samadhi Meditation [SSM] earlier. Before they enroll in SSM, is there something one can try?
Jim: They can. They can do guided meditation. It can be effective. Its not same as being instructed in your own personal practice. There is some advantages to that [personal practice]. But guided meditation is valuable and if that is all you can do now that’s fine. Its definitely going to be beneficial.
There are some good CDs. Art of Living has some good CDs and you can use them. When its convenient, take the time and get personal instructions and really learn how to meditate.

Q: You briefly eluded to Sudharshan Kriya [SK]. It is a breathing technique. Can you please differentiate between breathing techniques and meditation?
Jim: There are many kinds of breathing technique and the traditional name for them is Pranayama. ‘Prana’ being that subtle energy we take in through breath. I bet there are more than 100 pranayama and many yoga studios include this as part of their yoga. Now, Sudharshan Kriya [SK] is not a pranayama. Its really better classified as a meditation. Although breath is used, it produces a state of meditation in the mind. Because you are actively manipulating the breath, that is the technique of SK and you do that continuously for 10 mins and you naturally go in to meditation.

Q: You are involved in helping veterans from Iraq and Afganisthan who suffer from PTSD. Can you tell us something about that project.
Jim: Yes. International Association for Human Values [IAHV] a sister organization of Art of Living Foundation is working on bringing the pranayama and SK techniques to war veterans from Iraq and Afganisthan. The returning veterans suffer from trauma, stress and depression, the technical term for that being Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD]. These pranayama’s and SK techniques are shown to have benefited veterans in coping with these disorders.

Q: Lately, we have seen a lot of research about meditation, breathing and how they help people with Depression, anxiety, PTSD etc. Can you comment from your teaching experience how it helps these folks.
Jim: Veterans undergoing these intense experiences form impressions [or Samskaras]. Samskaras are not the same as memories. Memories fade with time. But impressions are more subtler and lasts longer and influences the individual in much profound way. Meditation, Pranayama and SK helps remove the impressions and provide relief to an individual.

Q: Thanks for giving us your time. One final question. Do you have any time for yourself & family with your travel schedule? What do you like to do in your free time, if any ?
Jim: I do this on a volunteer basis. I have the chance to teach courses at different times of the week and from different parts of the country and I can choose where to go. So, the amount of travel and personal time is entirely my choice. I travel as much as I can, but the freedom to choose which courses to teach and where to travel is in my hands.


Art of Living, Santa Clara