ABOUT ARIAN YOUNG

The Early Days

How did a former Tibetan Buddhist Nun with over 30-plus years of meditation experience, find herself returning to Melbourne after living in Asia, Europe and the USA?  At the confused age of 18, Arian discovered meditation using a sequence of mind stilling techniques through a friend who was a psychiatric nurse. 
These meditative tools helped her enormously with anxiety and uncertainty. Proving meditation to be a god-send in the same year when she naively indulged on one too many psychedelic mushrooms, she consequently hallucinated for several days which resulted in a temporary nervous breakdown. As part of her recovery, meditation amongst other modalities, helped to ground and anchor her back to health. Meditation was a safer way to experience positive states of altered consciousness. 

Arian on daily duties with her dharma sisters at Hsi Lai Temple Monastery Los Angeles 1988

At La Trobe University in 1981, she stumbled upon the book, 'Zen Mind, Beginners Mind' by Shunryu Suzuki, one enigmatic phrase jumped out, “In the beginners mind, there are endless possibilities, in the expert’s mind, a few.” The innocence of this powerful enquiry resonated deeply, triggering questions about life’s deeper meaning, its purpose and how to live. 

Life And Death

In the early 1980s at Queenlsand University, Arian was introduced to Inta Mckimm, a fiercely bright, eccentric woman who was also a Tibetan Buddhihst Teacher, Jungian Analyst and Artist.

Arian taking a rest from being a nun and having some fun. Fo Guang Shan Monastery, Kaohsiung Taiwan 1989

Fascinated by her early experiences in meditation and Buddhist Psychology, Inta confimed to Arian that her near death experiences of nearly drowning between the ages of 21-23 in the Southern Ocean and in Northern Queensland, replicated a surrender and authentic trust that one can often experience in meditation. Now Arian claims you don’t have to go to great extremes to experience serenity, but what was clearly evident was that when one gives in to the power of meditation, a-near-death like experience occurs, inducing profound states of insightful awareness and embodied being. No matter what situation you're in; it’s never as bad as you think.

This completely defied conventional thinking and existence as she knew it. Soon after, she met one of her main teachers, Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Buddhist Nun

Her various Buddhist teachers expanded further on these meditative experiences as she travelled the world, engaging the Gelugpa Tradition of Lama Tsong Khapa Tibetan Buddhism, Chu’an Zen Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism. Eventually this lead to her ordination in the late 1980s, with Geshe Tsultrim Gyeltsen and Master Hsing Yun, at the Triple Platform Ordination for Novice Nuns and for Nuns seeking higher ordination at the Hsi Lai Temple Monastery, Los Angeles. Living in monasteries and women’s hermitages in Asia, Europe and the USA, inspired a life of service, devotion and rebellion, especially when prompted by one teacher who said, “Everything you have ever known, leave at the front gate.”

Arian with one of her delightful dharma sisters. Fo Guang Shan Monastery, Kaohsiung Taiwan 1989

East Meets West

Living in a forest monastery in Taiwan and visiting the adjoining Traditional Chinese Medicine clinic regularly, eventually inspired the desire to learn Chinese Medicine. Arian's journey in Oriental Healing and the Intuitive Arts was born. This led to further training and study which included Chi Gong, Wai Dan Gong and Wu Chi in the USA, under the supervision of Dr. Chiu Nan Lai (Cancer Researcher) and Jennifer Sun. This complemented her training and love for Body Work, Soul Centred Psychotherapy, Jungian Analysis and Dream Work, and studied under the supervison of Kevin Toohey (Jungian Analyst) and Dr Kaali Cargill & Andrew Cargill (Psychologist & Soul Centred Psychotherapists). Training in Thought Field Therapy and Ecstatic Trance Dance fostered further integratation in her belief that, intrinsic wellness must include the embodied, soulful, spiritual and psychological inclusion of the indiviudual.  Several years of part time actor training at the VCA and a passion for script writing which she studied at RMIT University, prepared her for future roles as an engaging speaker, facilitator and trainer. These diverse experiences helped Arian to infuse her approach for living and teaching meditation in the 21st century.

Arian was fortunate enough to receive teachings from H.H. The Dalai Lama in India and the USA. Los Angeles 1989

Today

With over 30 years of meditation experience, Arian feels like an absolute beginner in meditation. Why? 
Because meditation continues to delight and intrigue her.

This enduring knowledge embodies a capacity to intuit a client’s needs and discover together, what their optimal mind and body states are for wellness, creativity, life purpose and spiritual development.

Vajra Yogini Institute (formerly the castle of painter Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec) in the hills of Tarn, east of Toulouse France 1990

Arian has been training and coaching executives, professionals and communities in meditation for 10 years.

Taking Meditation To the Masses

In 2009 Arian was selected as one of a panel of eight national experts in the field of wellness to help launch the nation’s first comprehensive Health and Happiness test of all Australians. She continues to be actively engaged in her own education and self-development to help promote to all Australians, the benefits of meditation as part of a holistic approach to health and its inextricable link to happiness.

Her diverse and creative lineage of teachers and mentors over the years include:

Arian resides in Melbourne with her beloved husband Alan - an Entrepeneur, Business Strategist, Executive Coach. With a love for her god-children, script writing, improvisional theatre, frisbee, yoga, cooking, being in nature & surfing, she savours occassionally exquisite chocolate and oysters; but not in the same mouthful.

Arian is currently completely her first book.