Anton Eastick
Anton grew up in Marrar, (not to be confused with Mara the buddhist mythological figure) a farming community north of Wagga Wagga in country NSW. Marrar is a great community and I still love going there, but there was always a sense there was more to life and I found myself really curious to find out what that might be. So after a few years on the family farm, some travelling in Europe and studying computers at CSU I went looking. In 1991, I started meditation with The School of Philosophy, which led to yoga and then, Goenkaji's vipassana and then India in 1995. First stop in India was Bodhgaya, the place where the Buddha awakened under the Bodhi tree. As soon as I walked into the Mahabodhi temple, the place where the Bodhi tree is, I felt like I had come home. Who knew? Here, I also heard my first Insight Meditation dharma talk and I was hooked. It was so beautiful and tears flowed as I realised that without knowing it, I had waited my whole life to hear these sweet teachings. It still touches me to look back on that time.
So since then I've been on the path of dharma. Apart from a year at Gaia House and some time with Kittisaro and Thanissara in South Africa in 1997-8, India then largely became a refuge and home and supported me through many intensive meditation & yoga retreats and much extended spiritual practice until 2007. In this time I was blessed to be involved with the annual Insight meditation retreats with Christopher Titmuss at the Thai temple in Bodhgaya and Opendharma.
Once back in Australia, it became clear I needed to understand more about the psyche and this lead to Hakomi psychotherapy training, a Buddhist, Taoist based body psychotherapy that continues to be a major source of inspiration.
The Dharma is my true love but over the years I've also studied and benefitted from Plant medicines and shamanic practices, Yoga, Qigong, The Diamond Approach, Voice Dialogue, Integrated Awareness, Common Ground for Men, Internal Family Systems and completed initial leadership trainings with The Pathways to Manhood program among quite a few others. I continue to be open to learning and have a "whatever works" approach to new possibilities. In recent years James Baraz, Reggie Ray and Robert Masters have been influential. In India, Jaya from Opendharma was a wonderful friend and along with Christopher Titmuss encouraged me to teach. Diane Long lovingly helped tear my ideas of yoga apart and leave them aside.