About us

OUR CENTER

• Organisational Purpose
• Mission and Values statement
• About the Institute
• Educational Focus
• Our philosophy on Health and Wellbeing
• Services
• The Team

Organisational Purpose
The Meditation Institute (National provider no. 30834) is international in scope and designed wholly for educational, healing and spiritual well-being. Our programs, products and services reflect the inspiration, committment and creativity of our founder, enlightened yoga master, Shantiji.

Mission and values statement
The Meditation Institute boldly explores new frontiers and advances education, spiritual practices, healing and research for the expansion and wellbeing of mind-body and spirit as well as human consciousness through the teachings and programs of Shanti Gowans. Our services and products are inspirational aids created for the integration of mind, body, spirit and the environment. More and more people from all faiths, back-grounds and different parts of the world are drawn here.They come for many different reasons:
to study and practice the teachings of Shantiji
to hear Shantiji's inspirational dissertations
to attend a private or group retreat
or just have a little rest and relaxation

We offer both an emphirical and theoretical education coupled with a daily program of sadhana for spiritual experiences. The Meditation Institute is the place:

• for healing and discovering inner peace
• for spiritual discovery and truth
• for pilgrimages with a strong sense of community
• to study and practice Yoga, Meditation & Ayurveda
• to develop the skills and insights to live and act in the world with creativity, wisdom and compassion.

We are commited to learning and sharing knowledge to help people enhance their lives; empower individuals to recognise their abilities and responsibility in healing themselves. We also choose to maintain a supportive work environment that fosters our community of teachers, students and the general public.

We demonstrate this commitment through our message which is to:
share
we share a vision of wholeness, higher states of consciousness and embrace the enlightened path
love
we accept people as they are and provide them with inspiration, tools and support they require as we share our knowledge, programs and services.
transform
we honour creative transformations and help others experience a balance and integration of their mind, body and spirit, providing support and guidance while they incorporate these principles into their daily lives.
teach
we offer a variety of educational programs to inspire, inform, enlighten, heal and serve.
heal
we show others how to open their awareness to infinite possibilities for understanding and renewal and offer guidance, treatments and support towards this end.

About The Institute
We can see that peace is disappearing from the world. It is no longer a matter of the environment or the devastation to the animal kingdom, it is humanity itself that is perishing.

The Meditation Institute, Australia's leading education and meditation retreat centre celebrates 34 years of experiential learning, workshops, retreats, conferences. The Meditation Institute was founded on the conviction that a new vision is needed for society, its values and its relationship to the earth. Over the last decade the Institute has become a centre of excellence with an international reputation for the inspiration, quality and breadth of its teaching.

Both on the Gold Coast and in the beautiful Beechmont countryside, away from the pressures of everyday life, participants enjoy a mixture of learning, reflection and the exchange of ideas and experiences.
Whether it is in terms of intellectual and emotional stimulation, spiritual refreshment, multi-cultural vitality or the peace and repose of a great rural estate, The Meditation Institute and Nirvana Meditation Retreat continue to offer an exceptional setting for radical experiment. The environment creates a sense of the wholeness of life and provides the context for a deep and potentially transformative learning experience. Here people find refreshment and often, new direction. They find that they have touched a source of inspiration and are reminded that there are others who share their deepest values about life and its meaning. Much of the unique character of the place comes from the way the community each day creates an expression of a sustainable lifestyle. As well as immersing themselves in course material, participants share in essential activities which include cooking, housekeeping and gardening.

Five main themes reflect TMI's vision:
• Wellbeing
• Wisdom practices
• Arts and culture
• Business and leadership
• World change and serviceOn the Gold Coast, The Meditation Institute's international head-quarters, services are conducted in Southport and at Nirvana, our eco-meditation retreat Beechmont. Programs are also offered at Sydney, Melbourne and affiliated centres. On offer are residential retreats, corporate services, recuperative and restorative programs, daily morning and evening yoga classes, meditation and deep relaxation sessions, spiritually motivating talks, books, products, Yoga teacher training courses, Ayurvedic life-style consultant and practitioner training, all designed to help you discover the best in yourself.

OUR EDUCATIONAL FOCUS
TMI changes people’s lives.
It is a place for reflection and engagement,
for the heart and the head,
for the individual and the community.
Through learning, sharing and celebration it is empowerment in practice and if for a moment an opportunity presents itself to become a “graduate” of this very different place of learning, then seize it.
Through our courses and residential programs the Institute seeks to promote those human values that are against all that is dehumanising in industrial societies and develop modest initiatives based on the human-scale, conjoining the spiritual and the practical that we so passionately believe.
“The volume of education continues to increase, yet so do pollution, exhaustion of resources, and the dangers of ecological catastrophe. If still more education is to save us, it would have to be education of a different kind: an education that takes us into the depth of things.”
E.F. Schumacher
author: Small is Beautiful

TMI focuses its courses on a range of ecological themes:
• globalisation, sustainability and alternative development models
• ecological perspectives on psychology, spirituality and philosophy
• holistic science: chaos, complexity and systems thinking
• ecological design and technology

The Institute offers a variety of drop-in and residential courses including :
• A core programme of two and three week courses
• Five-day courses for business people on the theme of Business and Sustainability
• Five-day courses for educationalists: The Roots of Learning
• A one-year full-time BA in Holistic Peace Whatever the focus of study, each course aims to bring together people who wish to:
• interweave meditation, reflection, shared work, study, field trips and community life
• explore issues of sustainability, equity and wholeness
• take an active part in the self-organising processes that enhance individual and group learning.

OUR PHILOSOPHY ON HEALTH and WELLBEING
To accelerate the shift from a treatment-based perspective to a new, broader and more profound health and wellness culture that reduces expenses, empowers individuals, enhancing their quality of life.
People are seeking solutions. To address the growing dissatisfaction with the current, incomplete, insufficient model applied to human health and seek a more integrated approach to health for the whole person for the mind, body and spirit. Informed, active citizens create a healthy world. Information and education is essential to address a growing concern over chronic health conditions and the state of the world which has now reached a critical mass.

Prevention is preferable to treatment. Individuals, scientific research, local and national governments, corporations and religious institutions need to shift the focus of the culture and its incentives towards wholeness and wellness.

The human body: more than the sum of all its parts. Health approaches that treat the body like a machine limit an individual's ability to heal failing to address the root causes of health problems. To improve life. We need to shift from basic science and limited concepts about health to
multi-disciplinary research and practices that incorporate multiple variables including individual differences.

Environmental wellbeing is linked to our wellbeing. We destroy the nourishment, clean air and clean water that we require to thrive on when we pollute our earth, food, air and rivers.