This has been such a rich and productive month of reflecting on the Self in our hearts and in recognizing the Self in the hearts of those around us. At the beginning of this year, we shared a message of hopefulness and a call to deepening our meditation practice. As we come to the end of the first quarter, is there something meaningful you took away from this shared Vishu celebration to help fuel your deeper practice?
Please enjoy this 3 minute video clip of Easwaran sharing Vishu’s truest meaning: learning to see the divine in ourselves and others – what the mystics call the Face behind all faces.
We are invigorated to hear about the many ways you participated in our worldwide community practice day on Vishu last Sunday. It was special to be connected with our friends at Ramagiri Ashram and with all of you as we took part in ways to deepen our practice of passage meditation. This week, consider simply reading, refreshing or memorizing one of the mirror-themed passages below that speaks to you of your true Self, or a passage that Easwaran reminded us of in his article “Bringing Heaven to Earth”. You may already have chosen one as part of the Vishu mirror ceremony on April 14. Here are a few more suggestions…
We’re all looking forward to the opportunity to ‘gather together’ for shared contemplative practice along with our friends at Ramagiri Ashram. Although we won’t be physically together, the spiritual forces that connect us are far beyond the borders of time and space. Together, we can collectively deepen our meditation to light the lamp of wisdom within us all. As you are able, we invite you to ‘join in’ on the activities scheduled at Ramagiri Ashram (Pacific Time). You might follow the schedule in your own home, or gather with a few satsang friends for some of the activities – find a way to make it work for you!
Friends at Ramagiri Ashram will celebrate Vishu on Sunday, April 14 and invite us to join them from wherever we are in the world in a day of shared contemplative practice. There are suggested activities throughout the day providing us with many opportunities to connect with each other virtually.
Let’s continue preparing ourselves for Vishu by finishing Easwaran’s article from last week. This week Easwaran shares the symbolism of looking at one’s reflection in a mirror on Vishu. We’re reminded that to see our true beauty, we must clean the dust from past conditioning a little each day to break free from self-will.
We’re really thrilled to share our focus for the month of April because it is anchored in an invitation to participate in a special shared practice day for our worldwide community.
In honor of Easwaran’s grandmother, Ramagiri celebrates the yearly Kerala Spring holiday called Vishu. The significance of Vishu is to mirror the pure spark of divinity within each of us, making this ancient ritual a very modern remedy for our times.
Friends at Ramagiri Ashram will celebrate Vishu on Sunday, April 14 and welcome us to join them in a day of shared contemplative practice. Would you like to participate?
In the reading below, Easwaran reminds us that there is a divine source of love, wisdom, beauty and compassion in all of us. Please share what stands out to you in the comments section below. We look forward to hearing from you!
We’re thrilled to devote January to a study of the special issue of the Blue Mountain Journal, with a focus on applying the mantram to prayers for peace. This Journal arrived at the close of 2018 as a response to many friends asking the BMCM for guidance during these difficult times. In this Journal, we find practical spiritual guidance from Eknath Easwaran and Christine Easwaran, who offer us inspiration, encouragement, and hope.
Two decades ago, Easwaran told us, “People look around with fear and suspicion in their hearts, and they see a world to be afraid of, a world of danger. I see a world of choices, a world of hope.” A big question we’d like to discuss this month is: How can we contribute to a sense of hopefulness during these trying times for ourselves and others?
Our goal is to brainstorm this question as a community, and to encourage each other to keep focusing our minds the long list of reasons Easwaran gives us for being hopeful, even in the hardest of times. This week we’ll begin to try and answer this question by sharing our thoughts on Easwaran’s message for hope in the article shared on the eSatsang site.
Join us for the mantram relay on January 1! Help our world-wide BMCM community collectively to keep the mantram going for all 24 hours of January 1, 2019, and start the new year off with a positive force to deepen our practice and spread peace to the world.
On this final post for 2018, we’d like to invite you to reflect on the past year of your practice of the eight-point program. What was something you learned that had an impact on your practice, or that contributed to a success you had? Also, feel free to share any words about your gratitude for your eSatsang friends!
If you are relatively new to the eSatsang, or joined in the last several months, we’d love for you to take this opportunity to introduce yourself. You could tell us how you found out about passage meditation, and about a recent success or challenge you’ve experienced.
Have you decided to set a positive intention for 2019? If so, share it with others below to help solidify it.
In a year when many friends have been asking the BMCM for guidance, the BMCM is sharing Easwaran’s message of hope through this special edition of the Blue Mountain Journal. You’ll find inspiration and practical advice in two articles from Easwaran, two short pieces that Christine Easwaran wrote after 9/11, and a new, previously unpublished passage for meditation.
Here on the eSatsang, we will be studying articles in this journal together throughout January 2019. We’re sharing today however, so that you could have this resource at hand right away.
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When we’re more slowed down and one-pointed during the day, we’re more likely to be aware of our conditioned habits. This awareness provides us with opportunities to begin reversing or reengineering our conditioned patterns. We invite you to try a tiny experiment this month. Please make it very small! Ideally, it will fit into something you are already doing.
Please let us know what experiment you’d like to try and if you have ideas of other small ways we can give the gifts of time and attention throughout our days and busy lives!
To inspire us for the week ahead, enjoy this reading below by Easwaran from the book Passage Meditation.
We welcome you to join us today for our Online Workshop and explore Spiritual Reading in the company of other passage meditators. We’d love to share this live satsang with you, today on November 10 at 9:00 a.m. San Francisco time. It’s not too late to register for the event, and you can pay on the sliding scale from $0–25. (The standard fee is $10.)
In the reading below, Easwaran describes our need for “transcendent companionship.” He describes the richness we can find in reading the mystics and meditating on their words in order to bring their presence into daily life through the eight points.
If you’re unable to attend the Online Workshop live, don’t worry – register below and we’ll send you the recording in a few days.
This month, we’re taking a deeper look at one of the eight points that we touch upon lightly during retreats and satsangs: Spiritual Reading.
During the online workshop we’ll be studying an excerpt from the Blue Mountain Journal, Spring/Summer 2016, focusing on Easwaran’s teachings on Spiritual Reading. Here on the eSatsang, we’ll have the opportunity to study/discuss the excerpt featured in the online workshop in more depth, and to develop our understanding of the eighth point through reviewing additional readings throughout the month.
In the reading below, Easwaran reminds us that the purpose of spiritual reading is to inspire our daily spiritual practice.
Please share any reflections you have on the reading below. We are always eager to hear from you!
To get us started on this topic, we have a reading study below! This reading will also prepare us for next week’s optional live real-time satsang opportunity during our Online Workshop.
Thank you all for your engagement during this rich period of reflection. As we enter the final week of October, we encourage you to choose one or more of the suggestions below.
Watch the Easwaran video below that will also be played in Shanti, the meditation hall at Ramagiri Ashram, on October 27. Try to watch with as much concentration as possible, and find Easwaran’s personal message for you.
Reflect on this theme, the process of your study, your experiment, or on joining together in spirit with the worldwide community. How has it helped you? What did you discover?
Share with others how you participated in Easwaran's Life Celebration – we’d love to hear from you! Tell us what you did, what your experience was like, and share a photo. It could be of yourself or your group, a page of mantrams you wrote, or your meditation spot where you meditated. Please share your photos in the Facebook Group!
Create worldwide satsang by reading comments, replying, and adding your own.
Reflect on how you could integrate something you learned or experienced into your practice next month. Feel free to share on the Event or in the BMCM Living & Learning Group in future weeks as you work on your practice.
Please continue sharing your wonderful comments and reflections with us as they show us how much we have in common wherever we are! It’s always fantastic hearing from you.
Next Saturday, October 27, 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 passage meditator friends. You could do it on October 27, 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? Create a plan and share it with us!
Here are some possible activities:
Try out any of the activities in Week One and Week Two that you haven’t tried already.
Meditate for 30 minutes.
Watch the Life Celebration video, a special Easwaran video created for the event. The video will be available on Monday October 22 – it’s a great resource for your own celebration!
Write your mantram dedicated to peace and well-being in the world, or for a person or situation you’re concerned about.
Take a silent walk, repeating your mantram.
Share a meal with others.
Plan on taking a photo and sending it in! We’d love to share some photos afterwards of all the groups all over the world taking part in this event. You can post your photo in the Facebook Group or send it to us at satsang@easwaran.org.
We are beginning a special month of celebration. Each October, a local group gathers at Ramagiri Ashram in Tomales, California, to honor Eawaran’s life and teachings. We invite our worldwide community of passage meditators to join in and to look upon the whole month of October as a time of re-dedication to our spiritual life through Easwaran’s eight-point program.
Please read the excerpt from Easwaran’s article, “Our Real Identity” below. What speaks to you in this reading?
Try an experiment. Over the next few days, look for a small instance of when you feel an inner tension between your yearning to be a spiritual being and your past conditioning as a separate, physical creature, “like a ball batted back and forth.” For example, you could be trying to put someone else first, or resist a small selfish desire. In that moment, recall Easwaran’s story about the two forces within, and try putting more effort into one of the eight points. What do you notice?
Thank you all for such a rich period of immersion in the eight-point program. Each of your contributions and endeavors at home has helped us to get a better taste of “bringing the retreat home”. It’s been a wonderful time for reflecting individually and as a community of passage meditators.
To close, we’ll have an opportunity to hear from Easwaran. In this 18-minute video he reminds us about all the opportunities that our numerous desires offer to us for gaining a firmer, fitter will. He will also discuss the practical ways in which we can make great strides towards realizing our real Self within. We hope you have been deeply inspired by this satsang together. At the same time, we know that attending a weeklong retreat can take your practice and your dedication to a new level. For that reason, we offer sliding scale fees as well as financial aid for our Tomales retreats. If this is your hope, even if it feels like a wild dream today, don’t lose sight of that dream. As Gandhiji says, “What is impossible for man is child’s play for God.”
This week, we’ll continue to look at the retreat theme of building the will, and this time through the lens of the mantram.
In light of that, you might carve out some dedicated mantram time this week in a way that works for you. Is there one activity you can do to focus on the mantram? During retreats there are many opportunities for repeating the mantram such as just before eating a meal, or while taking a walk, lying down for a nap, writing mantrams at the beginning of a workshop, or creating mantram art for someone… you choose!
In the spirit of bringing the retreat experience home, you could consider sitting down to write the mantram for a period of time, dedicating your mantrams to someone who needs them. You could do this in unison with Christine Easwaran and friends at Ramagiri Ashram on Sunday.
This week, our reading from Easwaran emphasizes using the mantram to build the will so we can be kind in challenging situations. Please feel free to share particular lines or sections from the reading that stand out to you, and tell us how they might apply to your own life.
We’d like to share one last reminder with you about our online workshop tomorrow: Saturday, June 23 at 2:00p.m. –3:15p.m. San Francisco time. We look forward to enjoying the satsang with you! Even if you’re not able to watch the workshop live, if you register now we’ll send you the recording afterwards.
Can you identify some ways in which you currently enjoy fellowship with other spiritual aspirants? Is there another time during your week that might offer an opportunity for satsang? Think of a small experiment you’d like to try for this purpose.
We’d really love to hear your ideas for cultivating satsang opportunities this coming week! Next week, we’ll ask you to share any results you experienced. Your comments will inspire others, so consider sharing as a way of putting your eSatsang friends first!
To celebrate Earth Day this Sunday, April 22, we’re having a “Mantram Relay for Earth.” Will you join us?
To participate, choose a time of the day that you are available (any of the 24 hours), and fill out your name and location on the sheet. During your chosen time, we invite you to write your mantram with as much concentration as possible, in honor of Mother Earth. Feel free to write your mantram outside or near natural surroundings.
This month, we’ll focus on the subtle point of Slowing Down. When we’re more slowed down during the day, we’re more likely to be aware of our conditioned habits. It can include prioritizing effectively on those inevitable days when not everything can get finished or the unexpected emerges. If you haven’t yet seen the New Year’s Day Mantram Relay, please check out the Facebook Group, and help us collectively keep the mantram going for all 24 hours of January 1, 2018. Is there something you have done in your life to help you slow down effectively? Please share your tips with us.
