Awake – Meditation on Love, Justice, and Healing is a unique meditation and movement experience that combines an exploration of the body and mind with social justice. The program was created by Jesus Diaz Jr., an Austin-based Kundalini Yoga teacher, and musician.
During the two-hour Sunday session, participants explore love, justice and healing through a combination of sound and movement therapy, meditative practices, and mental exercises. Through powerful music, mantra recitations, gentle movements, and breathwork, Jesus guides his guests to a state of deep relaxation and expanded awareness.
Throughout the class, questions related to social justice are invited to explore in order to connect to our collective power of compassion and self-care. As we look inwards during meditation time, we can access inner wisdom to come up with meaningful solutions for our community needs.
Beyond the interesting soundscapes created by Jesus’ eclectic mix of cultural rhythms – Afro-Cuban percussion, Brazilian rhythms, Indigenous sounds – his Awaken Meditation classes offer an authentic journey that can potentially open new perspectives on relationships we have with the world around us. If you’re looking for meaningful inner exploration through physical creativity and collective consciousness building activities combined with music experiments – this is probably one of the most interesting events you can attend in Austin these days!
In a world characterized by violence, hatred and emotional upheaval, the need for transformative change has never been greater. Awake – Meditation on Love, Justice, and Healing is a unique program that offers hope to those seeking the healing of past hurts, the recovery of personal power, and the renewal of individuals’ relationship with the world.
The Awake program is widely regarded as one of the most successful efforts to bridge the boundaries between meditation and social transformation. Developed over five years and four continents by visionary spiritual teacher Lama Palden Drolma, Awake combines an ancient Buddhist practice of deep concentration and transcendence of duality with conscious activities of empathy and embodied practices to promote loving-kindness and social justice. Through this powerful fusion of meditative insight and engaged wisdom, Awake energizes the healing process for individuals and helps build bridges for collective liberation.
Since its launch in 2009, many Dharma centers, spiritual venues and retreat centers around the world have run their own Awake programs and helped launch dozens of “Awake Circles” in communities from Canada to Chile. Through 1-day, 2-day or 10-day retreats, attendees are able to explore meditation techniques such as Tonglen (Breathing In & Breathing Out), visualizations for loving-kindness and compassion, interreligious dialogue for understanding between faiths, roleplays, small group learning circles, cultural awakening practices and compassionate action. These activities help participants “awaken” their inner genius so they can consciously align their emotions with higher knowledge while cultivating self-love through compassionate action.
Ultimately, Awake – Meditation on Love, Justice, and Healing show us all our interconnectedness as humans on a common journey through life. It offers us an opportunity to become instruments of peace utilizing compassion as our foundation — profoundly impacting ourselves as well as contributing to loving relationships worldwide.