All it takes is just closing your eyes
and focusing on her voice. When you get lost, simply start over. You can only get better at meditation.
Tara Melwani has taught meditation for 5 years and has been a student of meditation for 12 years. We speak with her about being an 1880 member and our Meditation Resident. She reminds us that the practice is not a religion. The breath has no religion, neither does the mind nor the heart. Starting November, she will be conducting 30-minute guided meditation classes on Monday evenings.
What are you most grateful for in life?
Tara: Meeting my main spiritual teacher, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He calls himself “a simple Buddhist monk”. What a teaching in humility for a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Watch John Oliver’s YouTube interview with His Holiness. Epic.
How has meditation influenced the way you live?
Tara: Meditation has helped me stabilise my emotions and tame my monkey mind which is constantly wandering from one random thought to another.
Negative emotions arise some times when I get triggered by loved ones, or people I have a slight aversion towards, like friends whom I don’t want to see and strangers too. Like when some idiot cuts into “my” lane on the road! It’s not funny when you see your mind disturbed. I am only human after all.
Being more controlled inwardly and learning to tame anger, attachment, and an ego-driven self-centred attitude through my practice has helped me to feel a lot happier, calmer, and peaceful. Although I still have negative emotions, I’m continuously working on myself to reduce them.
What do you hope to give as our Meditation Resident?
Tara: I am here to help members who attend the sessions become wiser, kinder people so that they spread that to their families and colleagues at work. That is how peace in the world is achieved. One person at a time. That’s my only objective.
Who or what would you most like to see at 1880?
Tara: Practical conversations among members who are strangers that would help 1880’s vision for making a difference in Singapore and the world, greatly influenced by the club’s inspiring and forward thinking ways for introducing meditation classes. I am not sure if there are any other member clubs that teach meditation.
Meditation for teenagers is something I would like to get to trained in if I can find the resource, to help teenagers develop awareness of their inner world and how to overcome difficult emotions.
Any last words?
Tara: His Holiness the Dalai Lama once quipped, “if you think that you are too small to make a difference, try going to bed with a mosquito!”
