Teaching bliss

>> Meditation coach helps busy minds
get a grasp on inner peace

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Joseph Emet

Age: 70

Occupation: Meditation coach

Bio: This freewheelin’ Pointe Claire resident and former high school band instructor had “dabbled with meditation” for most of his life “but just wasn’t very good at it. I could sit and look like I was meditating like anybody else, but not much was happening.” Unfazed after some 40-odd years of trying to figure out this godforsaken meditation thing and determined to score himself a little of that ever elusive internal bliss, in 1995 Joseph journeyed to France to hang in a monastic community and study under one Vietnamese Zen master by the name of Thich Nhat Hanh, where he finally “put it together for the first time, understanding what meditation was all about.” Keen to help others learn how to meditate both quickly and effectively, in 1997 he founded the Mindfulness Meditation Centre (mindfulnessmeditationcentre.org) where he offers personalized one-on-one Mindfulness meditation coaching at their spaces in Pointe Claire and Little Burgundy. He drives a 2007 Toyota Yaris.

One reason why it took him almost half a century to learn to meditate: “Because it’s not easy teaching meditation. If you’re teaching, say, tennis, you can see what the student is doing and suggest different things, but with meditation, with a guy just sitting there, it’s not so clear, you know? There’s nothing to see. That’s why personalized coaching is so helpful. When you participate in a group meditation, you’ll sit for 20 minutes whether it’s working for you or not. Whereas with personal coaching, you can stop anytime and say, ‘Hey, I’m not getting anything out of this, my mind is going every which way.’ So we’ll then see what problems you’re facing and try again. You get instant feedback on what’s preventing your satisfactory meditation experience. And most people get a good grasp on how to do it within three or four private sessions.”

What Mindfulness meditation will do for you: “For starters, it helps you deal with stress. And you’ll gain insight into yourself, how your mind works, affording you a bit of distance. Countless people commit suicide every day, and they do this because they’re in the grips of a thought or an emotion. When you meditate, you’re able to witness your thoughts coming and going like clouds in a windy sky. And when you’re able to put thoughts and feelings into perspective, you’re no longer led by the nose by them.”

Can he teach anyone to meditate, even if they’re too stressed out to concentrate for more than a second at a time or suffer from ADD? “Well, I was a music teacher for years, and I couldn’t teach everyone to play music, so no, you can’t teach everybody. Some people, for whatever reasons, are resistant. But I’ve certainly successfully taught many, many people how to do it.”

Is there much bitchy competition among the various players in the spiritual marketplace? “Oh yeah, for sure. But at the same time it’s often complementary. Massage therapy, various types of yoga, meditation, they’re all paths heading in the same direction, you know?”

Last book read: The Chalice and the Blade, by Riane Eisler.

Musical preferences: Traditional Irish folk, Sting.

Words of wisdom: “Life is so short, we should all move more slowly.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net