Ian Nuberg
 Meditation Teacher
BSc. Agric. (Hons), MSc. Agric., PhD
Ian Nuberg is a recent member of the Lifeflow teaching team. He has been meditating regularly since 1973 across both Indian and Tibetan traditions. This included a year of ashram life and many retreats in India and Australia before coming to Lifeflow Meditation in 1999. At various stages of his adult life he has been travelling (e.g. riding a bicycle across India and Europe) or working overseas (e.g. in Sri Lanka, USA) for extended periods, or working in agriculture in Australia. His meditation practice is the one constant that helps him find balance in life.
He particularly appreciates Lifeflow Meditation practice because it easily integrates the unbounded awareness of deep meditation into everyday activity. While most Eastern presentations of meditation practice require particular belief systems and lifestyles, he values Lifeflow as a platform for finding one’s authentic self.
His ‘day job’ is as a senior lecturer in agricultural science at the University of Adelaide. Apart from teaching agriculture, he has agroforestry research projects in Papua New Guinea and has travelled extensively across South and Southeast Asia.
Ian Nuberg lives in Port Elliot and will soon be teaching for Lifeflow in the South Coast region. He is married with a teenage son and, apart from meditation, enjoys keeping fit with yoga, running, and surf and sea kayaking. He also plays a loud blues and jazz piano.
Two minutes with Ian Nuberg
What brought you into contact with meditation?
When I was 16 I read a book on Zen Buddhism and became fascinated with the idea of meditation and what it could bring. This was probably a reaction against my strong Methodist upbringing – I wanted a real experience and not just hope and faith. I didn’t develop a regular practice until I was 19 when I learnt Transcendental Meditation in 1973, and after that I never really stopped. I was exposed to Tibetan Buddhism in a one-month retreat in 1976 and later had a teacher in Advaita Vedanta, experimenting with other forms of meditation. I became involved with Lifeflow in 1998 and am still learning a lot about meditation.
Did you have to do anything differently to make room for meditation in your life?
As I started meditating when I was developing my adult lifestyle, it did not seem I was sacrificing anything to find time to meditate. It just became a habit like brushing my teeth. Actually, after about 15 years I experimented with not meditating for a while. It was a revelation to see how much of my identity was wrapped up in being a yogi. I still have a tendency to get too habitual with sitting practice and I find the informal meditation practices taught at Lifeflow a good counterbalance to this tendency.
What difference has it made?
My personality is naturally intense, driven and passionate. If I had not learnt meditation I would probably be depressed, addicted and already have had a heart attack. Thankfully I have none of these problems.
What has surprised you about doing meditation?
When I first began meditating I was surprised and delighted by the vivid liveliness of simple things around me; colours became more intense, shapes stood out in space, sounds were sweeter and my dream life became very interesting. I literally started seeing the world differently. This is why I found it easy to maintain a regular practice.
What continues to surprise me today is that the freshness of this early experience is still there.
What do you enjoy most as a Lifeflow teacher?
You never know what you know until you start teaching it. I’m learning so much that is deepening my own practice. I enjoy the ‘solid silence’ when I’m guiding a group of people meditating.
Any personal suggestions or tips for beginners?
Some beginners make the mistake of thinking that if a little is good then more is better. Don’t think you need a complicated, esoteric practice with long sitting times for deep experience. Simple is best. Informal meditations are a great way to bring the peace and silence felt in formal meditations out into real life.
Is there a piece of advice you have received regarding your meditation practice that stands out?
Yes. I have a sign in my room with the following advice.
“It is all happening as it is.
Feel the body to know what you are doing.
If you are angry, depressed, frustrated or tired
You are not seeing what is.
Listen to your body,
Trust your body,
This is where the wisdom is.”
I received it after I had a bout of pneumonia from pushing myself too far at work. It has made a world of difference to me. I consider it advice on meditation practice because meditation is not just what you do when sitting with eyes closed, it is how you deal with activity as well.
Other passions in life?
I have a surf kayak and a Hobie™ trimaran-sailing kayak for the sea. I’m not sure if it is a passion or an obsession. I also play piano very loudly.
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