A Dublin meditation teacher has opened up about quitting his high-flying corporate job to practise the art of Buddhist meditation.
Kadam Adam originally intended to only take a year long break from the corporate world which quickly turned into 17 years.
The 52-year-old now runs meditation classes in Dalkey Castle and told Dublin Live that if it helped him, it can help anyone.
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He said: "I'm originally from Balydoyle. I left Dublin in 1989 and went to London. I moved into the corporate world basically. I was working as a director for a media company in the area of corporate development.
"I spent about 18 years in London. I mostly spent it travelling around the world, working in different places.
"I met Buddhist meditation which is the tradition I train within and teach in the late 90s. It became very much part of my day to day routine. In the morning I'd normally meditate before I go to work and then sometimes in the evening. It just became more and more a part of my life.
"In about 2005, I took a little break from my corporate world and I decided to go on a meditation retreat. I went to a Buddhist meditation retreat centre in the English countryside for a while. While I was there, I started teaching. I had been teaching in London. It's been rolling on and now for 17 years.
"I was always intending for it just to be this short year long break from my career and 17 years later I'm still on the break.
"I loved my job but it was quite a stressful job and I was travelling all the time. I worked in the area of mergers and acquisitions which is fraught with difficulties and challenges. You're bringing companies together, organisations together.
"That's quite challenging. I was finding that quite a struggle.
"I was only in my mid to late twenties running these big projects and just feeling really overwhelmed."
Introducing meditation into his daily routine really helped the Baldoyle native during some extremely stressful times.
Adam Starr said: "When I started meditation, it just gave me a grounding. I felt a lot more centred and able to deal with things. I was more resilient. I could see things with a lot more clarity and a little bit more wisdom. To be able to deal with challenging situations and people with a little bit more acceptance and compassion.
"I found it super helpful. It became such a part of my day to day life. It completely transformed how I was experiencing work back then. It's what motivated me to teach a little bit. I thought if I can learn it than anyone can learn it! If it can help me it can help anybody.
"Things were going really well with my career and financially I was fine so I was just going to take a year off- to take a bit of a breather.
"It was on the retreat where I got this opportunity to deepen my practice. I spent some time there after the retreat studying and deepening my meditation for a year. It ended up being about five years at that centre.
"I gained a bit more experience that I could share in the various settings that I was teaching in after that.
He believes that Dubliners are far more open to meditation and mindfulness than they were in past with many people looking for something to ground them during challenging times.
Starr said: "I returned to Ireland after about 30 years away. It was a very different Dublin and a very different Ireland when I left.
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"I came back to a much more affluent Ireland. It was more of a European Dublin, much more integrated into Europe.
"I've found a lot of openness in people to explore meditation. We've just been through two years of lockdowns and people are struggling at times with their minds so it often opens that door to people to help deal with it.
"There's an enthusiasm there naturally. Buddhist meditation is a style of mediation. It's a tradition of meditation that's actually for everyone. Everyone can find something in it, whether it's a simple breathing meditation or deeper meditation techniques to heal anxiety and stress.
"People are much more open than when I left. I never even heard of meditation until I got to London.
"We started the classes in Dalkey Castle about a year before the pandemic. It was going well but basically then we went on livestream. We also built a new meditation centre in Templeogue village. It's a very modern, contemporary meditation centre where people can just walk in off the road.
"We re-started in Dalkey and it's been nicely gradually re-building."
The Malahide resident has shared a simple breathing that can help people incorporate meditation into their daily routine:
- Find a quiet place to sit (a chair is fine) that is free of distractions. Partially close your eyes. Back straight but relaxed. Hands resting in your lap. Breathe gently and naturally through the nostrils. Let go of focusing externally and gather your awareness inwards.
- Begin by generating a wish to use the meditation to improve your inner peace, happiness and good qualities, so that it will be of benefit to both yourself and others.
- Next, be aware - without judgement - where your mind is at, in this moment. Is it calm, clear and peaceful? Or, busy and distracted? To let go of agitation and distraction and centre in a calm, clear and peaceful state of mind, focus – without distraction - on the sensation of breath as it enters and leaves through your nostrils.
- When you notice you are following thoughts and distractions, simply acknowledge and accept their presence, and let go of the urge to follow them. Then, relax and return to the breath, allowing your attention to draw closer and closer to the breath each time.
- Eventually your attention will rest on the breath and you will notice the distractions naturally dissolve, like waves returning to an ocean. You will feel a deepening sense of inner calm, clarity and peace of mind.
- Just relax into this inner peace and identify with it as your potential to change, to find a deeper and longer lasting peace of mind and happiness. Thinking, if I can become a little more peaceful, a little happier through a little meditation, it follows I can become a lot more peaceful, a lot happier, through regular meditation.
- Conclude the meditation with a determination to maintain this inner calm and peace throughout your day, so that it naturally, and positively, influences everything you think, say and do.
Kadam Adam's meditation classes are on Wednesdays and are €10. More details are available here.
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