Historical Origins
All meditation has its origins in the distant past of India, with seeds in the Rg Veda, which was oral for long before written somewhere between 1700 and 1500 BCE. Meditation and self-enquiry has firmer roots in the Upanisads , which were written about 900 BCE. They report the finding of deep contemplations made by people who left the cities to seek solitude in ancient forests.
These antecedents are the background of Yoga, Buddhism, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism. Indirectly they have also inevitably contributed to Taoism, owing to the flow of information across the Silk Road, and to Sufiism, the mystical aspect of Islam.
And so the discoveries made by ancient forest explorers of the inner world are also the origins of the modern notions of meditation and mindfulness.Tradition
Our particular school is from the tradition of Kashmir Shaivism. Putting that into everyday language means that your own situation is where you will find self-realisation and meditative awareness. You don’t have to go somewhere else or take on a religion or a set of beliefs. You might want to consider how your mind works in developing its beliefs and opinions, though.Recent Connections
Swami Shantananda, Principal of Australian College of Classical Yoga, came through a lineage founded by the great Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. She is normally known as Mataji and is approachable and easy in daily life.