Living Transcendence: the Blissful Life Programme℠—Three Months of Transcendental Meditation, Nature, and Sisterhood

As the Uber turned off the highway at Wainui in Silverdale and curved around the roundabout, I saw a turnoff up ahead. Sure enough, the car swung into this gravel avenue, with a Montessori School parking lot and playground on one side and the sheltering forest on the other.

Driving past a few vastu houses set back off the road on the left, one small vastu buried in the forest on the right, we emerged into a large open space with a few more vastu homes around the left side perimeter and the Peace Palace occupying the right side, in the middle of a large well kept lawn outlined by a wooden vastu fence. Just beyond, ahead of the Uber, we stopped in front of a residence that turned out to be where Mother Divine lives and where I would spend the better part of the next three months.

This building is also vastu, containing ten on suite bedrooms and one laundry/storage room that surround a central meeting area with a tiny corner kitchen for residents’ convenience. Charming. All five rooms on the north side also have sliding glass doors that open on to a long, shared wooden porch, looking over a bigger open area of field, containing a runoff pond with cattails and lotus flowers in bloom. Frogs serenade the evenings, and mallard ducks and Australasian Swamp Hens, also known as Pukeko here, roam freely about the open spaces.

Our first meditations together were very special. Our appointed flying hall was comfortable, spacious and conveniently located in the Peace Palace, just a few steps away from our sleeping quarters. We would also enjoy our Knowledge Meetings, our Experience Meetings and take our meals in the Dining Hall together there.

Experiences only deepened and got better with each programme. Because each lady there was focused on the routine and rest, we realised after just a few experience meetings, that we were a coherent group, moving together, sharing feelings and experiences in the transcendent as one. It was amazing and exciting, and everyone looked forward to group meditations with like minded buddies.

We found our minds relaxing, our hearts expanding and our feelings softening as a result of our group practice of Transcendental Meditation and its advanced practices. Walks along the driveway and even along the road off campus were gentle. We felt safe and protected in our little nook in the forest, and even coming out to visit the Fallow Deer in the adjoining field down the road was pleasant and uplifting.

Until next time

Main building with meditation, dining, and meeting halls to left; Mother Divine residence to right

Pukeko in the meadow north of the residence

North side of residence with glass sliding doors and wooden deck

Majestic tree ferns ring the campus

Mother DIvine meditation hall

Water lilies blooming in the pond north of the residence

Morning light streams into the dining hall

Path from MSCONZ to the Montessori school next door

Main building nestled in lush landscaping

Typical Mother Divine room on the north side of the residence