Thom Knoles

Learning to meditate

Thom taught me a simple practice: sitting comfortably for approximately 20 minutes, twice each day, using a personally taught mantra.

The technique was simple enough to become part of daily life, but the ideas around it opened an entirely different field of inquiry.

Through Thom, I was introduced to Vedic knowledge, the philosophies explored in the Bhagavad Gita and a tradition of teaching extending back thousands of years.

I attended many of Thom’s courses, talks and teaching sessions. I also spent time with him privately, including travelling to Sydney for one-to-one consultations.

The correspondence that remains shows the continuing nature of that commitment. In July 2019, I flew to Sydney for two private one-hour meetings with Thom on consecutive days and attended his evening teaching, How to Thrive on Change.

When the opportunity was offered, my response was characteristic:

“Lock it in. Where do I meet Thom? Where would be a good place to stay overnight?”

— Scott Banks

I have always believed that if someone has knowledge I genuinely want to understand, distance is not a sufficient reason to miss the opportunity.

Always asking for more

Over the years, Thom taught me progressively advanced techniques and levels of my mantra.

I kept returning and asking what came next. Eventually, after teaching me the highest level available to me, Thom said:

“There is nothing else I can do for you.”

— Thom Knoles, as I remember it

I remember the comment because it reflected my constant desire to keep advancing. I was always looking for the next teaching, the next level or the next piece of knowledge.

Yet perhaps the deeper lesson was that development is not always about acquiring something more. At some point, the work is to live what has already been learnt.

A different kind of evolution

Thom’s teaching began to shift my understanding of personal development.

Until then, much of my learning had been expressed through goals, performance, achievement and measurable progress. Those things still mattered, but meditation introduced me to the distinction between doing and being.

You could spend a great deal of energy telling people what you had achieved, creating an impression or trying to prove something about yourself. Or you could become settled enough in yourself that there was no need to advertise it.

The achievement could remain real without becoming your identity.

This was the beginning of a movement away from needing to impress people. It taught me that there is a quiet confidence in simply being what you have become.

Understatement is not the denial of achievement. It is no longer needing the achievement to speak on your behalf in every room.

Worthy inquiry

One of the most profound ideas Thom introduced to me was worthy inquiry.

A worthy inquiry is not a question asked merely to demonstrate knowledge, defend a position or provoke an argument. It is a genuine question—one you are prepared to be changed by.

That distinction has stayed with me.

Much of life is spent searching for answers, but the quality of the answer is often determined by the quality of the question. A worthwhile question can change what you notice, how you interpret an experience and what becomes possible next.

Worthy inquiry requires curiosity without pretending that you already know. It asks us to listen carefully, suspend certainty and remain open to a deeper understanding.

Established in Being, perform action

Meditation did not teach me to withdraw from life. It taught me to engage with life from a more settled place.

One of the Vedic ideas that has remained with me is:

“Established in Being, perform action.”

To me, this means that effective action does not always need to come from pressure, agitation or the desire to prove yourself. Action can emerge from clarity.

The external work remains: decisions must be made, businesses built, problems solved and commitments honoured. But the internal starting point can change.

This has become increasingly relevant as I think about the next stage of my life. I still want to create, improve and tackle larger challenges. But I want that work to come from alignment rather than noise.

A practice for life

I have now practised Vedic Meditation for more than two decades.

There have been periods when the practice has been more consistent than others, but it has remained a dependable part of my life. Often I meditate twice each day.

Its value is not always dramatic or immediately visible. It appears in the space between an event and my response, in the ability to settle, in clearer thinking and in remembering that I am more than the activity occupying my attention at that moment.

Meditation became one of the few practices that connected every part of my development: business, relationships, health, judgement, creativity and the continuing work of becoming.