Since Acem was founded in 1966, the organisation has taught meditation in a number of languages, including Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese. This year another language has been added to the list. Irudayaraj Jayaraj, who is an assistant instructor in Acem Meditation, began to give courses in the city of Trichy in Tamil Nadu province in India in February. This was the third Acem course to be held in the city, but the first one to be conducted in the Tamil language.

“Forty-eight persons enrolled in the course,” said Mr Jayaraj. “They showed great interest and usually turned up long before the course meetings started. They were also very active in formulating questions relating to their meditation practice. After the course, the first pocket meetings were held in Trichy – regular meetings for people who practise Acem Meditation.”

Many of the participants had learnt other forms of meditation before, but wanted to switch to Acem Meditation, which they felt had more to offer. Although Mr Jayaraj lives in New Delhi, more than 2000 kilometres away, he will return to Trichy and give new Acem courses in Tamil later this year.

If you want to know whether Tamil is a difficult language, try this simple test: Say the city name Trichy in its original form: “Tiruchchirappally”! You might prefer the Tamil version of Acem Meditation: “Aakkam Dhiyanam”.