|
|
----- East Kent’s 1st Hindu Temple ----- |
|
|
The
Shiva-Shakti Mandir, located in the
Whilst it is multi-ethnic in nature, the
|
|
|
----- East Kent’s 1st Hindu Temple ----- |
|
|
The
Shiva-Shakti Mandir, located in the
Whilst it is multi-ethnic in nature, the
|
|
Click on the image to open a photo gallery of the temple and its garden.
|
A beautiful garden with a sacred fire lamp leads to the temple space.
This houses two shrine rooms – a Shiva shrine with a brass Murti (sacred image) of the Hindu god Shiva in meditation, and an adjacent room, the Shakti shrine, with a powerful wall Murti of the goddess Kali.
Visitors may perform Puja (worship) in both shrines, and/or book Guru Darshan - enabling them to receive meditational guidance, talks or personal spiritual and psychological counselling from Acharya Peter Wilberg.
The Shiva shrine contains a library of books on Indian religious philosophy, yoga, tantra and meditation.
There is sitting space for visitors and refreshment may be taken before or after Puja (worship).
For special events an additional purpose-built public room is available for hire.
To obtain more information, arrange an individual or group visit or organise a religious event or festival, phone the temple's Secretary Ms K. Heinitz: 01227 273 580
The Mandir (temple shrine) is part of an Ashram (retreat) and Matha (school of learning) offering classes in Hindu religious worship, philosophy and meditation, given by the temple's Pandit (priest): Acharya Peter Wilberg
|
|
The
SHIVA-SHAKTI MANDIR -
As well as individual counselling and group teaching (Guru Darshan) visitors to the Shiva-Shakti Mandir may request and receive the following forms of assistance from the temple’s teacher and priest, Acharya Peter Wilberg:
1. Guidance for adults and school classes in understanding basic aspects of Indian religious philosophy, the symbolism of the Hindu deities, and the Hindu Tantric concept of the Divine as an androgynous unity - 'Shiva-Shakti'.
2. Guidance in understanding the true nature and meaning of Hindu 'idol' worship - in contrast to the idolatry of money, holy books or religious leaders.
3. Guidance in practicing Murti Darshan and Upasaka (sitting in the presence of a Murti or god-form) as a profound form of meditation leading to ‘Shaktipat’ (Divine Empowerment), ‘Chitananda’ (Awareness Bliss) and ‘Yoga’ (Unity with the Divine).
4. Guidance in using meditation and worship to cultivate higher awareness of self and others, as a vehicle of empowerment and healing, and as a way of receiving answers to personal existential and religious questions.
Talks for Schools
Acharya Peter Wilberg offers talks for Religious Studies and Education teachers and their classes intended to dispel superficial notions of Hinduism and stereotypical images of Hindu religious practices – instead explaining in simple terms the essential principles of Hindu religious philosophy. The talks will offer answers to the following basic questions:
If you would like to speak to Peter Wilberg or invite him to give a talk to your class e-mail acharya@thenewyoga.org or phone the Temple's Secretary Ms K. Heinitz: 01227 273 580
|
Introduction to ‘Shiva-Shakti’
In the Hindu-Tantric religious philosophy, God is not seen as some sort of Supreme Being ‘with’ consciousness. Instead God is consciousness. This is not a consciousness of the sort that can be said to be ‘yours’ or ‘mine’, the private property of persons, but one which is trans-personal and all-pervasive and the very essence of the Divine. Every thing, being and person is a unique expression, portion or personification of a Universal and Divine Consciousness Field - one which can no more be encapsulated in our bodies or brains than can the infinite field of cosmic space be encapsulated by any object within it.
The Hindu god Shiva, together with his feminine side and counterpart (‘Shakti’) is a personification of the Divine-Universal Consciousness in human form – male, female and androgynous. ‘Shakti’ is the innate power (Sanskrit Shak) through which the Divine-Universal Consciousness constantly actualises its infinite potentials in the form of All That Is - manifesting as the entire cosmos.
Like two sides of the same coin, Shiva and Shakti are distinct yet inseparable – two faces of the One Universal and Divine Consciousness that is ‘Shiva-Shakti’.
Religion and Politics in the Context of Hinduism A disclaimer by Acharya Peter Wilberg:
On the basis of its Hindu-Tantric religious philosophy, the Shiva-Shakti Mandir rejects all forms of discrimination on the bases of caste, class, gender, nationality and ethnic origin - as well as all forms of narrow religious nationalism or regional communalism. Instead it seeks to disseminate the universal truths of Hinduism in a way relevant to today’s world: advocating spiritual socialism in opposition to the idolisation of money and consumer commodities, the worship of Money and the Market - and the crass commercialisation of Indian spiritual traditions such as yoga, tantra and meditation.
The religious-political standpoint of the Shiva-Shakti Mandir is that the many ills and inequalities of class society and global capitalism can only be overcome through recognition of a deeper spiritual truth. This is the truth that neither mind and body, material objects, nor individual consciousness and identity are essentially private property. Instead they are all creative expressions and manifestations of the One Universal Consciousness that is the Divine.
|
|
Acharya Peter Wilberg
Acharya Peter Wilberg is an Indian spiritual teacher reborn in North-West London in 1952 of German and German-Jewish parentage. Peter Wilberg’s past-life and inter-life spiritual knowledge, psychic abilities and profound intellect came to expression in his early childhood - during which he already cultivated and practiced advanced yogic powers or ‘Siddhis’. When only eight years old he spontaneously wrote an essay for his Religious Education class which expressed the essence of the Hindu- Tantric philosophy of time (Kaala), creative vibration (Spanda), and ‘energy’ (Shakti). Whilst still in primary school he practiced the yoga of dreaming - the ability to visualise and enter a dream directly from the waking state with his dream body - and retain full awareness within the dream. He also used daily classical music listening to cultivate a yoga of ‘inner sound’ and ‘feeling tone’. This involved using his face and eyes as an instrument by which to express, embody and amplify the inner music of the soul – its tonal qualities of feeling. Later he assiduously cultivated a new ‘yoga of the face’ with which, simply by meditating the ‘inner sound’ of their look and facial expression, he could directly sense the inner feeling tones or ‘soul’ of another person within his own body.
Acharya Peter Wilberg first practiced the yoga of ‘out-of-body’ travel as an adolescent. In early adulthood, at Oxford’s Magdalen College, he was a frequent invisible flyer over its quads. Whilst studying philosophy Acharya Peter Wilberg gave deep attention to Eastern as well as Western thought. His subsequent MA dissertation in Humanistic Psychology was an expression of his experience of the yoga of dreaming - being based on experiential research into inter-personal dimensions of ‘lucid dreaming’. In his own lucid dreams he encountered numerous teachers and Gurus, travelled beyond our planetary system and experienced planes of awareness beyond the dream state.
It was out of this rich history of continuous yogic practice and aware inner experiencing that Acharya Peter Wilberg was able to fulfill his life-mission and to formulate, over many decades, the original Principles and Practices of Awareness which make up ‘The New Yoga’. In doing so, Peter Wilberg has not only become the preceptor or Acharya of a new spiritual teaching. He has also become an empowered and initiatory ‘Guru’ (‘Siddha Guru’ or ‘Diksha Guru’) in the most traditional sense – capable not only of embodying Divine potentials and powers of awareness (‘Siddhis’) but also awakening them in others - thus bestowing initiation (‘Diksha’).
Together with his lifelong studies of both Indian and European philosophies, this extraordinary experiential history enabled Acharya Peter Wilberg to evolve, over several decades, the metaphysical principles and meditational practices which together make up what he calls ‘The New Yoga’ – a yoga of pure awareness (Shiva) and its innate potentials and powers of manifestation (Shakti).
Having a lifetime’s study of profound European thinkers and philosophies behind it, The New Yoga is - in the most literal sense - a European ‘reincarnation’ of the sublime tradition of tantric teachings known collectively as ‘Kashmir Shaivism’. For in the same spirit as its great 10th century adept and teacher – Acharya Abhinavagupta – Acharya Peter Wilberg has again, after a gap of ten centuries, further clarified and refined the principles and practices of this tradition. The New Yoga makes them profoundly relevant to today’s world - capable of being applied directly in everyday life and relationships as well as to numerous modern fields of knowledge. That is why, in addition to his many essays and books on The New Yoga, Acharya Peter Wilberg has also contributed several articles to journals of philosophical psychology, written countless essays and published a variety of books on themes ranging from science and religion to medicine and psychiatry, politics and economics, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. |
|
|
|
|
|
Back to Homepage Download the Brochure as .pdf file
THE NEW YOGA MATHA School of Applied Yogic Philosophy
“Philosophy
is an elaboration of different kinds of spiritual experience. The
abstractions of high-grade metaphysics are based on spiritual experience and
derive their whole value from the experiences they symbolise.” Acharya Abhinavagupta Shankaracharya
Hindu monastic
schools or ‘Matha’ were first established by the renowned Indian
thinker Adi Shankara with the intent of fostering the
religious-philosophical tradition of Advaita (‘non-duality’) under the
disciplined supervision of learned and experienced teachers or Acharya.
Given the increasing secularisation of Indian culture, the crass commercialisation of ‘yoga’ in both India and the West, and the continuing ignorance of Indian thought in Western academic institutions, there is a pressing need for new centres of learning on the model of the Hindu monastic school or Matha – not only in India but also in Europe and the West - and not only for Westerners but also for ethnic Hindus wishing to learn more about their own religious-philosophical culture and traditions. The New Yoga Matha is intended to be a trans-sectarian, mixed gender and multi-ethnic residential school for the serious study, practice of applied Hindu religious and yogic philosophy. Its curriculum will be enriched by studies and teaching which show the relation of Indian thought to European philosophy, psychology, science and religion - and its relevance for the spiritual transformation of human beings in today’s globalised Western culture.
As a ‘School of Applied Yogic Philosophy’, the Matha will take as its basic orientation Acharya PeterWilberg’s new interpretation of the yogic philosophical traditions of ‘Advaita’, ‘Tantra’ and ‘Kashmir Shaivism’ – an interpretation based on profound knowledge of European as well as Indian thought, and one which offers a wide range of revolutionary applications in the fields of science and medicine, psychology and sociology, politics and economics, yogic practice and religious worship.
As well as embracing the history and basic questions of Indian religious philosophy, the School’s programme of teaching, teacher training, study and practice will therefore also embrace all of the following four main areas:
The Schools principal teacher will be Peter Wilberg. As Acharaya, he will offer not only class teaching and instruction in meditation and Puja but also highly individualised one-to-one teaching - designed to help individual students orient their studies and meditational practice to their personal life aims and interests, or to whatever vocations they seek to pursue on completing a stay or course of learning at the Matha.
If you wish to become a Matha scholar, or can help in any way in our search for financial sponsorship for scholarships, residential accommodation and further premises, contact Peter Wilberg directly or e-mail matha@thenewyoga.org
Testimonial to Acharya Peter Wilberg
The essence of Hindu Advaita, Shaivam (Shaivism) and Shaiva Advaita is the 'Science of Awareness'. This science is as old as humanity itself but has taken many forms and many names. In the 10th century it took the form of the holistic ‘threefold’ science of awareness (Trika Shaivism) through the grace of Acharya Abhinavagupta. This tradition lived relatively secluded in the valley of Kashmir for many centuries and its teachings were very much considered secret. It was not until modern times (in the 1970's) that this teaching was given to the world through the grace of Swami Lakshmanjoo. I have been studying ‘Trika’ Shaivism for some years now and have benefited from it greatly. What I find attractive in it is its extraordinary ordinariness and its freedom and respect for the individual (that I suspect comes natural when you see and respect every particle in the universe as a manifestation of the Divine Awareness). Yet many of the Trika teachers I have managed to find seems to be more in the field of 'Pay Me-Bless You'-business. Through the teachings of Swami Lakshmanjoo my heart has been filled with more peace, more freedom and more bliss. Yet Swami Lakshmanjoo is gone, and there is no one that ‘walks the talk’. Yet then I discovered Peter Wilberg’s books and website, and upon reading more and more of his teachings my heart is filled with inspiration, joy and hope. Acharya Peter Wilberg has really updated this age-old tradition of Tantrism in a way that makes it totally applicable for a modern mind and a modern humanity. Peter Wilberg speaks from a place where he not only express understanding if the Trika but also seems have such in-depth knowledge of it that he have made it his own and is able to express it in a creative way. I find it interesting that Swami Lakshmanjoo was considered by many of his devotees as the incarnation of Acharya Abhinavagupta's teacher. How appropriate then, that the guiding light of the revived Trika Shaivism and Tantrism of Acharya Peter Wilberg embodies so strongly the spirit of Acharya Abhinavagupta himself.
Visarganath (Associate of the Universal Shaiva Fellowship)
Quotation from the Hindu Tantras
“That
person is ‘Abhinavagupta’ who remains aware in the course of everyday
activities, who is present in the objective domain as well as in the subjective,
Jayaratha
|
|
