Gradual Practice, Instant Awakening: Meet Meditation Teacher Manoj Dias
Written by: Angelique Redwood
Minimalistic Yoga Studio
In a new age, the post-pandemic era, keeping our heads up is a downright challenge. When the sky always seems to be falling, there’s no better place to look than to mindfulness and meditation. You can join one of this generation’s best mindfulness coaches, Manoj Dias, on a meditative journey down a fulfilling path of healing and growth. Are you ready to reimagine your reality?
Woman in yoga
In a world filled with chaos and disorder, it can be hard to find our Zen moments. The global pandemic left a collective trauma in its wake: we’re all feeling the aftereffects. It’s no surprise that so many have turned inward to focus on their mental health, and this is where Manoj Dias, a man who has spent his life cultivating global mindfulness, excels.
The title “teacher” barely scratches the surface when it comes to labeling Dias and his magnetic personality. His resume touts his skills in writing, speaking, and brand consultation. Learning from greats like Sharon Salzberg Maty Ezraty, Dias has adapted Buddhist teachings into a beautifully digestible form, certifying him as a mindfulness expert.
There’s an earthly root to Dias’s meditative work. Moments of strife, ailments, and frustrations were the catalysts to his realization that he was not his thoughts. This realization led him on his current path, shaping the spiritual leader he is today.
“… I had this intuitive, maybe knowing, that the root cause of my suffering was my own mind,” Dias acknowledged. “It was nothing that was happening externally. I say, ‘There’s something I need to understand within my mind.’ And so, I knew one of the best ways to fix my mind was to sit down and observe it, and that was the start of my meditation journey.”
Manoj Dias in white coat
women meditating
Manoj Dias in white coat
women meditating
Dias’s influential nature is palpable, and I’m convinced it’s due to his devotion to digging deep below the surface for his answers. Dedicating time to detailed research and gaining a thorough understanding of somatic psychology, Dias has gracefully molded himself into a living example of mindfulness, all while providing the facts to back it up.
“Trying to meditate was not something that was easy, but I had this knowing that, that was going to be the thing that changed my life, and I stuck with it,” Dias declares about his journey toward mental fitness, meditation, and overall renewal.
Where most find ways to cope with their stress in an attempt to heal, Dias finds a way to grow by allowing his mind to live in more than just survival mode. Dias insists that minds everywhere, his included, are living in a thriving reality.
After escaping the corporate world, Dias co-founded Australia’s first multidisciplinary drop-in meditation studio, A—SPACE. Created in Melbourne, it was the realization of Dias and his close friend Josh Lynch’s innovative visions for the future.
“It was really born out of the fact that we didn’t see people that looked like us in meditation studios or yoga studios.” As young, Black business owners looking for answers to life’s more “worldly” questions, the pair found a lack of inclusive spaces and decided to create one themselves.
Reminiscing on A—SPACE’s start, Dias explains, “It was a little bit of an experiment to see [if] people are going to get together and talk about these things and relate it to how meditation can help them navigate that. And so, that first studio was really an experiment that showed me that… there was a bigger opportunity to bring more people to these practices.”
Dias’s entrepreneurial ventures eventually led him to become co-founder of Open, a modern mindfulness studio that uses powers like sound work to realign the body and mind. Acquiring A—SPACE in 2020, Open is based in Venice, CA, and offers spiritual practice teaching directly from Dias.
When initially pondering the idea of a new space, Dias thought, “Who are the people that can’t ever get to this specific place of presence and connection? And then let’s develop practices to bring them there, and that was really the inception of Open with my two other co-founders.”
Stone on spiral
Manoj Dias’ Inclusive Take on Meditation
While Buddhism is known to lead to enlightenment, not many Buddhists leave their monasteries after the fact. Dias, however, is drawn to engaging with humanity and sharing his teachings.
“This, for me… it’s a dedicated path. Like, it’s my whole life’s work, is really bringing people that have never had access to this level of healing and this level of care or this level of wisdom and understanding into the practice.”
Now, Dias has decided to transmit his compassion outward as much as inward in a style similar to Engaged Buddhism, a term coined by the late monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh. It’s a concept that speaks of an active faith pushing for social change.
Like the rest of us, Dias was deeply affected by the pandemic, something that became a reminder of both his imperfections and his immense internal growth. While fighting for social justice, Dias published his book Still Together: Connection Through Meditation in 2021. Dias realized that he could turn his anger into kinetic energy.
Dias stays busy traveling for speaking and teaching engagements where he shows others how truly connected we can be. Everything he teaches ties to our present moment and involves setting rational expectations for mindfulness and meditation in today’s digital age. Dias also co-founded the Australia/New Zealand branch of EVRYMAN, a global movement based on fostering today’s men’s emotional intelligence.
“So in the future I have a lot of really interesting things planned, a lot more collaborations, a lot more partnerships. I want to move more into a mentoring role at some point, you know, to see more BIPOC teachers out there in the world sharing and teaching.”
Touching on the worldwide inequities he’s recognized, Dias continues, “And so I also think that the next iteration of these practices, which has been around for 2,500 years… is going to be a lot more relevant to people.”
Buddha statue archway
Dias embraces the responsibility of spreading positive energy with open arms. His resilience, faith, and spirit shine from within. His positivity has grown to reach large and small businesses, family and friends, and clients ready to revolutionize how they work and, most importantly, live.
With loose, relaxed limbs, an easy smile, and a lanky frame, Dias allows his soothing voice to add to his self-assured energy. He exudes a calm confidence, leading me to envision a smiling Manoj Dias floating through his days with a charismatic personality and level head.
Each day, I struggle to ascertain the answers to my own anxieties. Mindfulness has been a long, intense process for me, a labor of self-love. Sometimes, it’s challenging to keep the mind in the present. Yet, even when mindfulness is hard to attain, I still discover ways it blends into my psyche. When meditation goes right, my perspective becomes reimagined. It provides clarity that is impossible to achieve when in a mental fog.
When asked for his advice for new meditators like myself, Dias states, “I think we have to think of meditation, for example, as a lifelong journey… If you have a community, if you have a teacher, if you have a practice, you have everything you need, and then it just takes patience and it takes time.”
My personal and professional aspirations are just as large as Dias’s and so many others. Dias has become the universal proof that everyone can create the lives they want with a life their bodies and minds need. My adventures in yoga, spirituality, and mindfulness have only drawn me toward more luminaries like Dias, proving meditation’s captivating and healing energy.
There are countless Buddhists and gurus, spiritual guides, meditators, philosophers, and mindfulness teachers who bring something vibrant and unique to the definition of a well-balanced life.
It doesn’t matter if you know him as a business mogul, a proud father, a mindful guru, or a friend and ally; Dias continues to transform lives. While contemplating personal dreams of reaching enlightenment, I remember a Zen quote Dias shared: “Gradual practice, instant awakening.”
From here on out, I’ll spend my days persevering in my meditation journey. Even if I don’t accomplish everything on my wish list, I can still sleep peacefully, knowing that people exist in the here and now, rooted in healing the entire human race. And yet, in that sea of kind and empathetic people, there will always be only one Manoj Dias. 
TrooRa Magazine
Words
Angelique Redwood
Pennsylvania, USA
