Jonathan Harrison teaches people how to remove stress through becoming more realistic. Inspired by masters of the nondual wisdom traditions Zen, Dzogchen, Tao, Mahamudra, Madhyamika and Advaita, Born in 1943 in Manchester, England, Jonathan Harrison shows people the way to cultivate natural awareness through nondual meditation.
Inspiration
From childhood Jonathan Harrison was drawn to understanding the nature of reality. He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. As an amateur magician he learnt the way appearances can differ from reality. Playing modern jazz, he discovered how creativity and improvisation emerge spontaneously, bypassing our deliberate cognitive process. Through studying western psychotherapy he appreciated the power and weight of historical mental conditioning in forming our current images of ourselves and the world.
Discovery
While occupied in hi-tech management, an encounter with Australian philosopher and western nondual Buddhist pioneer Dr. Peter Fenner led Jonathan Harrison to the study of nondual mental awareness as expressed within Buddhist and non-Buddhist nondual wisdom traditions. He began to meditate regularly, practice Tai-Chi and use Tibetan chants and Dzogchen meditation to wind down from the stress of managerial work. Following annual retreats in the French Alps with a group lead by Peter Fenner, in 2001 he traveled to the Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen Monastery in Karnataka, Southern India, in search of deeper understanding, studying with the Dzogchen Rinpoche.
Teaching
Jonathan Harrison started teaching group and individual Buddhist and nondual therapeutic meditation, stress reduction and relaxation. He developed a reputation as a sensitive, attentive, non-judgmental and knowledgeable teacher able to make nondual Buddhist understanding relevant. As his reputation spread he was asked to teach clinical psychologists, psychoanalysts, social workers, doctors and lawyers.
Writing
In response to students’ requests for something to keep at home to remind them of the insights they learned in individual and group study, in 2013 Jonathan Harrison published the best-selling Ending Stress – A Practical Guide to Nondual Meditation and Therapy. The book encapsulates his teaching in the form of a highly practical guide for people wishing to reduce or eliminate stress in their and others’ lives.
Jonathan Harrison currently
Jonathan Harrison continues to teach, meditate, research and test the mechanisms that generate and eliminate mental stress. He maintains that his background in physics, mathematics, psychotherapy, management and even magic all contribute to his ability to teach this work. To him, the understandings he learned and currently teaches have made his life much easier. He is deeply devoted to helping others find the same ease and happiness.