An End to Loneliness is the inspiring title and promise of our current reading study, the Spring 2016 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal. In its introduction, Christine Easwaran writes:
In this issue we broaden spiritual support to include what Easwaran calls “the company of saints and sages”: the great mystics of all religions, whom we discover in our practice of the last point in his program, spiritual reading – and, of course, in the inspired words of the passages we use in meditation every day.
In this week’s reading, pages 14–21, Easwaran describes how we need both the human companionship of others following the same disciplines and the transcendent companionship of those who embody our highest ideals and aspirations.
As we study this message from our teacher together on the eSatsang, we continue to be grateful for the protection and nourishment we receive from this community and our collective effort.
Identify something in your life that you find confusing at this time, and where you wish you could ask Easwaran for his tips. See what he has to say in our readings. How can you apply his words to your situation?
We are taking this journal study as an opportunity to give special attention to our practice of spiritual fellowship. What is a small way you can grow your practice of satsang this week?
In three weeks, on February 25th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s Mantram Handbook. To prepare, make sure you have the book available. If you’d like to buy a copy in our online store you can use the coupon code manymantrams to receive a 40% discount. Please note that shipping may take a little longer than usual – please allow about 2-3 weeks for delivery, so order your books soon. If you are purchasing less than three weeks before the book study begins, you may want to order from an online retailer that offers expedited shipping. Please note that the BMCM discount on books is not available from online retailers.
For this week’s spiritual treat, we’ll try dipping into the Audio Talks section of the Easwaran Digital Library. This is a vast collection of talks that will be permanently available. Let’s start with the Patanjali talks.* If you are new to this series, the player should begin automatically with Talk One. The full talk is over an hour, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with just the first five minutes, where Easwaran begins his introduction of Patanjali’s aphorisms and describes how discrimination comes when we begin to develop the higher knowledge that is associated with spiritual wisdom.
* You’ll need to log in for the link above to work. If it’s your first time, use the button Create new account from the login page.