Available Courses

Health Professionals

Organisations Business

Parents Educators

General Public

Meditators

Graham Williams Biography

PhD (Adelaide), B Mus, Grad Dip Ed, Dip Concert (Paris).

Graham Williams is Founder and Director of Teaching at the Lifeflow Meditation Centre, and author of two books recommended by Mindfulness Centre: Insight and Love, and Life in Balance.

Graham originally trained at Adelaide University in South Australia where he gained his PhD and Graduate Diploma of Education. His doctoral dissertation had required studies in philosophy and psychology and he was fortunate to have access to teachers in both these fields.

He then won a scholarship to study for 3 years at the Paris Conservatoire. His first meeting with the Buddhist tradition occurred when he met His Holiness the Karmapa and Kalu Rinpoche in Paris. He realised that even though he had fulfilled his musical ambitions, it still left unresolved the human conflict he saw in himself and others. Therefore, on meeting the Canadian teacher Namgyal Rinpoche he asked him to teach him, as he knew that no matter how much he respected the Tibetan tradition he needed a teacher who understood the background of a Westerner.

On completing his music studies in Paris he was ordained into the Burmese Theravadin tradition by Namgyal Rinpoche. Rinpoche had done his own training in a Burmese monastery and had then been recognised by the Karmapa as a Rinpoche in the Karma Kargyu lineage. Graham then spent a full year in retreat in Assisi, Italy in 1977 and later returned to Adelaide to take up a full time position at the University of Adelaide.

Graham was one of the first Australians to be given a full ordination as a Lama into the Karma Kargyu lineage. He spent 10 years in formal meditation study and training embracing both the Burmese and Tibetan traditions. As well as studying with his own teacher he received teaching and initiations from HH the 16th Karmapa, Kalu Rinpoche, Gyuto Khensur Rinpoche, Beru Khyentze Rinpoche and Lama Thubten Yeshe. He has continued to study all forms of meditation and yoga while continuing regular intensive retreat practice. He has spent a total of 6 years in retreat and maintains his practice with 3 months' retreat every year.

Graham is one of few Western Buddhist teachers listed in Tibetan Lama's website. The Lifeflow Meditation Centre was the first meditation centre established in South Australia based on the Tibetan traditions.

He embarked on his meditation teaching path in Adelaide in 1980, and set out on the course of continuing the work of his teacher in embracing all traditions and of translating them into contemporary language. He also set out to make the Lifeflow Meditation practices simple and directly relevant to everyday life in Australia so that they would be easily accessible. He, along with many other teachers, has attempted to amalgamate Buddhist philosophy and psychology with our own traditions. However, in working with psychologists, he makes a very clear distinction between meditation practice and psychotherapy as they have very different foundations and aims.