The Quiet Place is my offering and my service.
I have ever had strong, but often frustrated, spiritual inclinations.
As a young child I was an altar boy.
I imagined that I would be a priest when I was older.
I would look up at the beams of light passing through the clouds and picture them radiating from God way up there.
In my teens, during the late 70s, there was too much that felt too wrong to me in the orthodox Catholicism within which I was raised.
My instinctive search for Truth widened.
I discovered Yoga in a book, to start with, in the mid-80s.
I went to my first simple Hatha Yoga classes in the early 90s.
From then on I attended many classes and workshops in various styles with many teachers.
I also practised bodywork(yoga asana) at home, albeit without much idea of how to do that effectively.
Nor did I know how to make that physical practice a spiritual practice.
Nevertheless, change happened.
In the early 00s I discovered Classical Yoga in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
The whole Yoga-as-spiritual-practice thing opened up for me in a big way.
Here was what I was missing.
In April 2004 I committed to daily practice, for the first ten years or so supported by regular one-to-one tuition, using the Yoga Sutras as the core guide.
I have kept this commitment to this day, although now I feel qualified to listen inside and lead my own practice, applying as I go the principles and techniques I have pursued and, to some degree, mastered.
I am so grateful for all that this discipline has given to me.
I completed intensive, high-quality, 4-year Yoga teacher-training in 2008.
This included emphasis on personal development, Yoga as therapy and on learning to deliver one-to-one tuition.
I have studied with many teachers, and absorbed many books with a particular interest in the commentaries and translations of ancient texts, which seem to me free of much of the clutter of the modern mind.
I have delivered regular classes, irregular workshops and one-to-one tuition.
After a few years exploring various approaches to meditation, including two solid years of twice-daily mantra, I completed my first 10-day Vipassana meditation course in July 2011.
Again, the journey deepened; the changes were immediate and profound.
I added Vipassana to my ongoing daily commitment.
But the most important qualification for teaching is having walked the path, day-in day-out, for a long time.
Having passed through milestones and landmarks - physical, energetic, cerebral, emotional and transcendent - on the journey.
And experienced the changes that focussed, appropriate, conscious journeying inevitably achieve.
As I have progressed, at times slipping back, tripping over, getting lost, return to the practice has stabilised, centred and oriented me.
It has fed me, supported me, nurtured me and given to me more than I can say, probably more than I myself am aware of.
It has saved me from the worst of my smaller self, whilst steadily, and on grace-filled occasion explosively, revealing something bigger that was previously hidden.
I no longer attend classes or workshops, apart from Vipassana courses whenever possible.
Which is not to claim that I know it all.
I do not … the path is long.
Yet my practice has become internalised, personal and direct between me and The Highest Teacher.
The Quiet Place is my giving back.
It is a dream realised.
My service and my offering.
A deepening of my own practice.
In committing to it I move into a new phase on my journey.
And I now picture the beams of light radiating from within.
I look forward to sharing with anyone with whom this resonates and who wishes to travel awhile together.
With my opening heart,
Rich.
Autumn 2025.
Om shanti
Om shanti
Om shanti shanti shanti-hi
(“Shanti” means “Peace”)
More about the Yoga Sutras here (external link to sister website)