Thank you all for sharing your experiences with Slowing Down and for encouraging many of us during this busy time of year to prioritize the eight points. Slowing down is about slowing down our thinking process. We invite you to try a tiny slowing down experiment this month. Please make it very small! Ideally, it will fit into something you are already doing. For example, you might choose to:
Proactively remove one activity or chore from your calendar each week, at the start of that week.
Show up 5–10 minutes early to a weekly or monthly meeting, or an upcoming appointment.
Try consciously speaking more slowly to elders, or children.
Get up just 5–10 minutes earlier than normal, one morning per week.
Create your own slowing down experiment.
To inspire us for the week ahead, enjoy this short reading below by Easwaran from the book, Take your Time.
Join us today for our Online Workshop and explore training the senses in the company of other passage meditators. We’d love to share this live satsang with you, today November 11 at 2 p.m. San Francisco time. You can register for the event for free, or you can pay on the sliding scale from $0–25. (The standard fee is $10.) In this week's reading, Easwaran describes the “fierce satisfaction of self-mastery.” He assures us that there is something more wonderful, more meaningful, and longer lasting than our common experiences of small pleasures.
This month, we’re launching into a timely topic of training the senses. As the holiday season approaches for many of us in November and December, we have found it helpful to focus on the role of training the senses in the eight-point program. We warmly invite you to join us for an online workshop, on Saturday November 11 at 2 p.m. San Francisco time. This is a 75-minute workshop and a chance for some real-time satsang on our theme of training the senses. We’ll be studying a reading from Easwaran’s book, Love Never Faileth in the online workshop, and here on the eSatsang!
Easwaran reminds us that the role of training the senses in daily life is directly tied to being free to choose our actions consciously. Please share your reflections. We are always eager to hear from you!
This week, we have a special invitation for you to consider for the end of the month, and second reading study. On October 28, a local group in Tomales will gather at Ramagiri Ashram with Christine Easwaran to share readings, watch a video, and meditate together. We invite you to set aside time for your own celebration – whether that be a special dedication of your morning meditation, taking a day for a personal retreat, or organizing an event with friends. You could do it on October 28, or find another day and time that works better for you. How would you like to take part in the worldwide celebration of Easwaran’s life and teachings?
Each year at the end of October, a local group gathers at Ramagiri Ashram in Tomales, California, to celebrate Eawaran’s life and teachings. This year we’re inviting our worldwide community to join us in spirit. We’ve created a special curriculum to faciliate this. hoping that, collectively, we can all take some time to dive deep and reflect on the impact that Easwaran and his teachings have had on our lives. This experience is a wonderful complement to the BMCM’s new strategic plan, intended to help us all gain a deeper understanding of Easwaran’s teachings – so this is the perfect time to dive in.
The next edition of the Blue Mountain Journal will be available next week, with the theme “Teacher and Student”. We’re pleased to share a sneak preview of it with you today!
The Journal will include several articles by Easwaran on the role of a spiritual teacher, as well as stories from meditators around the world about how Easwaran influences their lives.
This week we’re sharing an article by Easwaran on the earnestness and enthusiasm we need for the spiritual journey.
Next week we’ll announce a special month-long curriculum — stay tuned!
This week, we face a challenging area when making efforts to deepen our meditation: distractions.
Distractions in meditation will be with us for a long time, and can be tricky to overcome. The good news is that we can always be working on reducing our level of distraction by being aware of our thoughts and actions in daily life. What are your strategies for helping reduce your level of distraction during the day?
Also, please cast your vote for the passage you would most like to study as a satsang next month!
We are continuing to take a close look at specific factors of our meditation practice. This week, we’ll revisit Easwaran’s recommendation on the pace of the passage, and how it can help us slow down and become more loving and aware of life.
Do you experiment with the pace of reciting the passage? What have you noticed?
Easwaran says below, “When you concentrate on the sound of each word, you will also be concentrating on the meaning of the passage. Sound and sense are one.”
This month, we’ll study several subtle factors that influence our passage meditation practice. Over the next four weeks, we’ll look at place, posture, pace, and distractions using Easwaran’s book Passage Meditation as a guide. We’re eager to share this great opportunity to look at some ways to sharpen up our practice. What better way than to do it together?
We’d love to hear about how you keep meditation fresh by adjusting your external surroundings to support you, and how that may have changed over time.
We began in week 1 by talking about successes we’ve had with trying to playfully go against habitual ways of thinking and acting. This week, think of a relatively small dislike that you’d be willing to look at changing playfully. Experiment with being aware of when that dislike comes up for you, and actively apply the mantram. What happened when you became aware of the dislike? How did you apply the mantram and did it have an effect?
We’re continuing our reading from Love Never Faileth, Easwaran’s commentary on St. Augustine’s “Entering Into Joy”. Check out the background to this theme from last week. If you ever miss a week you can always check the Archive page to revisit any of the previous weeks’ content.How do you use passages to deepen your practice? Have you used other passages in God Makes the Rivers to Flow to build your willpower and loosen likes and dislikes? (Click the title to read more.)
This month, we’re embarking on an adventurous study of examining our likes and dislikes. It may sound simple, but the more we look, the deeper this initially playful theme goes. This theme is also a focus of the weeklong retreats in Tomales this year. If you aren’t able to make it to a weeklong, you’ll get some of the benefit of the workshops right here. If you have attended or will attend a weeklong, here’s your chance...(Click here to read more.)
How did your experiment with one-pointed attention go this this past week? If you forgot to try it or weren’t able to find the time, we’d love to hear your insights about that, too! Easwaran provides several encouraging and desirable benefits to a one-pointed mind. What benefits have you noticed from your own experience of practicing one-pointedness during the day? (Click title to read more.)
Over the next three weeks, we’re taking a focused look at one of the eight points: One-Pointed Attention. We’ll have an opportunity to explore this topic through a variety of materials. Let’s start this month’s theme by trying out an experiment. Identify a routine time in daily life when you would like to be more one-pointed... (Click the title to read more.)
Next week, we’ll start an exploration of One-Pointed Attention, and it kicks off with the next Online Workshop, on Saturday June 24. This week, we’ll finish a theme that ties together our efforts from the past three weeks: strengthening the will. This theme is at the crux of gaining access to a more permanent “disposition for benevolence”. Have you experienced the ways a more concentrated meditation has strengthened your will during the day?
Thank you all for such rich discussions and sharing with each other. If you haven't yet joined a discussion, try it out this week! Watch this two-minute video to learn how. This week, Easwaran describes to us the benefits of being able to develop a passion for kindness, a reflex for generosity. Have you tasted the satisfaction in letting go of your own way? . . . (Click the title to read more.)
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We’re continuing our group exploration of how we can practice the eight-point program on its grandest – and most demanding – scale: being extra kind when others are unkind to us, and being exceptionally polite when other are impolite to us.
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Please join us for our upcoming online workshop on Saturday June 24. This 75-minute workshop...
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For the next four weeks, we are delving into an in-depth discussion about putting our spiritual ideals into action. The eSatsang offers a unique venue to take this theme deeper, and engage with each other while holding up our highest ideals to guide these important conversations.
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We are continuing with our exploration of what Easwaran means by satsang. He sheds light on the part that spiritual reading plays in offering us fellowship and encouragement.
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In this excerpt, Easwaran describes not only the benefits, but the necessity of satsang on our spiritual path. What is one way you’ve benefited from satsang? Are there any tips from the reading. . .
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