Moving Light: Meditation Journeys

By Andrew Dean

This book is for you. It is a series of ten sequential meditation journeys that will develop your imagination, inspire you, and challenge you to rebuild your inner self in a whole new way. There is humor, tenderness, freshness, and a profound underlying sense of care in the way Dr. Andrew Dean presents this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Sep 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781504310123

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Copyright © 2017 Andrew Dean.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Interior Graphics/Art Credit: Lauren Dean

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-0995-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1012-3 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 09/29/2017

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Pre-departure notes

Journey 1: Forest

Journey 2: Desert

Journey 3: Water

Journey 4: Space

Journey 5: Rainforest

Reflections on the Journey 1

Journey 6: Ocean

Journey 7: Fire

Journey 8: Sky

Journey 9: Heart

Journey 10: Forest

Reflections on the Journey 2

Further Journeys

Afterwords

Afterword from Suzanne Chipperfield

Afterword from Darren Drake

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has been made possible as a result of collaboration between three people who share a common interest in meditation and spiritual development. Our meditation group literally spanned the world; one of us is located in England and the other two are in Australia. This book is a result of that experimentation and collaboration.

I acknowledge the encouragement and suggestions from the two other group members, Suzanne Chipperfield and Darren Drake.

To my daughter, Lauren Dean, thank you for the beautiful original artwork created for this book. Your creativity brings something very special to these meditations.

To my wife, Diane, and children, Lauren, Sally and Julian, who are the real ‘moving lights’ in my life, thank you.

Andrew Dean

July 2017

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FOREWORD

I certainly did not intend to write a book about meditation.

I work as an emergency doctor, in a hospital emergency department (also known as an ER). My workplace is very busy, and each day brings patients with diseases or injuries for us to help as best we can. It is a very satisfying career, but can also be exhausting at times. My family life has felt the effects of the long hours that accompany the life of a medical professional.

Following an illness several years ago, caused by being ‘run down’, I realized that I had to institute effective methods for maintaining health and balance in my own life.

Our brains are not designed to run at high speed all the time, and I knew that I needed to develop very efficient techniques for rebalancing my energy after each day at work. In other words, I needed to find what could help me ‘spin down’, to achieve relaxation and quality sleep patterns, without resorting to drugs or alcohol. Not only would I benefit from such an outcome, but also my wife and family would have a husband and father who was hopefully better company!

So my journey has been a long one, involving courses about spiritual growth and healing, and several courses about meditation, from different traditions, including Transcendental Meditation and Buddhism. Since joining life paths, my wife and I have also studied the teachings of Stuart Wilde, whose explorations of spirituality, consciousness and meditation continue to influence our lives today. Tai chi, yoga, hiking in nature regularly, and dietary changes have all been important contributors to our shared balance and growth.

But my progress with meditation itself was sporadic. I found it hard to actually meditate, and certainly did not set aside any regular time for the practice. My meditation results were therefore disappointing, for many years.

But some experiences are hard to forget. Some meditation experiences from forty years ago when I was a beginner in meditation stayed with me. These experiences are hard to explain scientifically, but are commonly described by meditators, or people who practice mindfulness. The subjective reality of these experiences acted as a niggling reminder that perhaps I really did have the tools I