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?
Last week, Easwaran described inspirational passages as “blueprints” for the mind. Have a read through the passage “Entering Into Joy” below as a blueprint for re-engineering the internal freeways of your mind. Can you pull out some of the phrases you see that might help you with re-engineering? We’re also pleased to offer an audio clip of Easwaran reading “Entering Into Joy”. (Click the title to read more.)
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.)
We are thrilled to share an new addition to the eSatsang website: our Resources page! We invite you to explore this new page, and let us know what you think. On this new page, you'll find study guides for 72 of Easwaran's Video of the Month, resources to help you plan a regional satsang event, and more. To close our discussion of One-Pointed Attention, we’d like to finish with a 5-minute video talk by Easwaran. (Click the title 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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In this audio talk, Easwaran describes his visit to Gandhi’s ashram, where he watched Gandhi meditating on verses from the Bhagavad Gita.
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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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Welcome to the new eSatsang! We are so glad you made it. To kick off the new eSatsang, we wanted to celebrate by offering a full 30-minute talk from Easwaran right here on our site.
We also wanted to take this opportunity and invite you to introduce yourselves. . .
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