Welcome to the School of Meditation. Since 1961 everyone who’s walked through our door has done so with one common aim - to learn, enjoy and share the benefits of meditation.
Here we help you understand what meditation is, how to practise it and how you can apply it to your life beyond our door. Visit us and find out for yourself what meditation can do.
Learn to Meditate
Introductory Course
Guided meditation, discussion of experiences, learning about a lasting meditation practice.
Straight to Meditation
One to one meeting, teaching of mantra, lifetime membership and ongoing support.
What is Meditation
Meditation is any process that stills the mind and brings the attention to nothing but what is here in the present moment.
People find that with the focus on the here and now, fears and anxieties about things that happened yesterday or might happen tomorrow can simply be let go. You can feel more at one with the world instead of feeling at odds with it. And life can be viewed with an easy understanding and clarity where it might otherwise seem difficult and complicated.
Regularly practised, the meditation can lead to that ease of understanding and clarity becoming more and more part of your everyday.
About the School
The School of Meditation is 59 years old and has taught meditation to thousands of people. It’s a non-profit, registered charity based in London but also has branches around the UK as well as further afield in Greece and Holland.
The meditation we teach comes from an ancient Indian tradition called Advaita Vedanta. It involves sitting quietly in a relaxed uncomplicated position and repeating a mantra in your head. No contortions, no chanting, no burning of incense. All you need is a relatively quiet space and a chair.
The process of learning the meditation is delightful and simple. It doesn’t require you to follow any particular philosophy or figurehead or special diet, just the mantra. And when the mantra’s received, so is membership of the school. Not for a term, or a year, but for life. In return, the school makes no demands of members, it’s purely there for them to use as much or as little as they wish in mutual support of their practice.
Four Week Introductory Course
The next course starts on Thursday 23rd September 2021 and runs weekly until 14 October 2021. Each session will begin at 7.00pm and finish at 8.00pm. We are hoping to hold these sessions live. Places are strictly limited, and must be booked online via the website in advance.
The course is designed to give people the experience of stillness and quiet, using guided meditation exercises. Open discussion of the group's experience of these exercises is encouraged. The course is also a preparation for those interested in taking up meditation. Read more on our blog.
Cost : £50 (participants receive a £50 discount if they subsequently become School members)
To book a place please click the date below.
Enquiries: 02076036116 / 447341702034 or message info@schoolofmeditation.org / @SoM_London
Thursday - 23rd September 2021 - Class FullThursday - 28th October 2021
Open Door
Open Door is open to all, free of charge - and offers everyone the opportunity to find inner peace and stillness...
Open Door LIVE will be returning to 158 Holland Park Avenue on Wednesday 1st September at 11am - and will continue at the same time each week until the end of November.
The sessions will last for 45 minutes. Everyone is welcome and there is no charge. Places are strictly limited and must be booked in advance online due to the health pandemic.
Open Door Live will run in parallel with the School's existing Open Doors on Zoom (see below), please see link and dates/times below for more details:
Wednesday - 29th September 2021Wednesday - 6th October 2021
Wednesday - 13th October 2021
Wednesday - 20th October 2021
Wednesday - 27th October 2021
Wednesday - 3rd November 2021
Wednesday - 10th November 2021
Wednesday - 17th November 2021
Open Door Online happens 4 x weekly, every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 11am, and on Tuesdays and Thursday at 7pm. If you wish, you can remain anonymous.
The link for Open Door Online is always the same:
https://zoom.us/j/99539766942?pwd=bVdSOU94V3RiMDhkaHg1UlVnckJ0dz09
(If prompted, use the passcode 'som')
Staying apart in body, but together in consciousness.
The School is a registered charity, and we depend on donations from the public to help with the School's ongoing running costs. Those who have been enjoying Open Door sessions may like to contribute by clicking the following link. Thank you for your generosity. Donate Now
Straight to Meditation
If you would like to go straight to learning meditation and join the school or, having attended a couple of Evening Stillness sessions, would like to be given the method, then you can book an appointment through the office.
Having learnt to meditate you will have lifetime membership of The School and receive one to one guidance for as long as you require. You will be welcome to join a termly group for a small fee or continue to attend Evening Stillness and Open Door sessions.
Contact one of our administrators, Lucinda or Tom, at the contact information below to arrange a date and time.