|
Lifeflow Studio
8 / 259 Glen Osmond Rd,
Frewville SA 5063
AUSTRALIA
T: 61 8 8379 9001
F: 61 8 8379 9012
E: info@lifeflow.com.au
|
|
Dr Graham Williams
 Founder and
Director of Teaching
PhD (Adelaide), B Mus,
Grad Dip Ed, Dip Concert (Paris).
Adjunct Lecturer, School of Medicine, Flinders University
Graham originally trained as a concert pianist, scholar and teacher at Adelaide University in South Australia where he gained his Ph D and Graduate Diploma of Education. His doctoral dissertation had required studies in philosophy and psychology and he was fortunate to have access to teachers in both these fields. He then won a scholarship to study for three years at the Paris Conservatoire.
His first meeting with the meditation tradition occurred when he was taken by a friend to meet the 16th Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, in Paris. He realized that music itself was one of the few living traditions of meditation in our culture, and that he had been introduced to a tradition of training the mind and emotions which our culture did not have. Feeling the need to study this new discipline, he took the opportunity to ask the Canadian teacher Namgyal Rinpoche to teach him when introduced to him.
On completing his music studies in Paris he spent a full year in retreat in Assisi, Italy, and then returned to Adelaide to take up a position at the University of Adelaide where he taught for over 15 years. At the same time he spent 10 years training in both the Burmese mindfulness and Tibetan mahamudra traditions. As well as studying with his own teacher he received teaching from the Karmapa, who gave him an ordination as a Lama, Kalu Rinpoche, and Sharchoe Lobsang Rinpoche (abbot of the Gyuto Tantric University). He spent three years in retreat and still maintains his practice with regular retreats every year. He is one of few Western teachers invited to be listed on the Tibetan Lamas website.
Graham began teaching meditation in Adelaide in 1980 at the request of a group of music students at the University. Although trained in the Buddhist tradition he has always seen meditation as a discipline and a skill, taught in exactly the same way as music, and not a belief. Therefore, on founding the Lifeflow Meditation Centre in 1981, he created a curriculum of meditation practice and jargon-free theory which is easy to learn while retaining depth and richness. It combines the discoveries of neuro-science and psychology with the rich practice and experience of the meditation tradition. And it is uniquely Australian in that it embraces our natural environment and Australian art and music.
Graham is also an adjunct lecturer in the School of Medicine at Flinders University, a consultant to an organizational psychology company and still teaches piano to advanced students.
His retreats in the mallee country of South Australia, near the River Murray, have engendered a love of this timeless, peaceful land and he has become a passionate advocate for the conservation of this unique part of Australia’s heritage. He loves bushwalking, swimming and bike riding, and also cooking for friends.
|
|
Sign up here for
our email newsletter |
|
|
Life in Balance
A practical Australian handbook for understanding and getting what you want from your meditation practice. Find out more |
|
meditation courses