Thank you for submitting your choice for our Compassionate Universe passage study. There are so many beautiful passages in God Makes the Rivers to Flow that link nature with the spiritual life. This month, most of you requested “Let Me Walk in Beauty” by Chief Yellow Lark.
Which lines or stanzas of this passage speak most to you? Can you think of the qualities you might gain by meditating on this passage?
If possible, review this passage and reflect on the questions outdoors or by a window while looking onto the outdoors. How does this affect your experience with the passage? Please share your reflections with us. We love to hear from you!
As Spring approaches in Tomales and Earth Day approaches for the globe, we thought it would be timely to learn more about how Easwaran’s teachings encompass caring for the natural world. Over the next two months, we will be immersing ourselves in how the eight-point program relates to stewardship of the environment. In the following excerpt from The Compassionate Universe Easwaran discusses our how we can understand the source of our actions, and what he means by a “compassionate universe”. And a reminder that there's still time to make your selection on the passage we'll study this month!
For next month's theme, we'd like to have your help in selecting a passage to study. Follow the link to cast your vote! Thanks to each of you for contributing your experiments, and for contributing to last week’s online workshop. It was a great boost to continue striving towards Putting Others First.
As promised, we are very interested to hear how your experiments went this past week. What did you learn? Did you try something new? Feel free to share any reflections.
To keep us inspired, we’ll leave Easwaran with the last word. In this six-minute clip, he comments upon how we are all looking for love, and can find it in our own communities, by joining the sea of love that is the Lord.
One last reminder about our online workshop: Saturday, February 24 at 9–10:15a.m. San Francisco time. We look forward to sharing satsang with you!
Part of the online workshop suggests creating an experiment to extend our theme of learning to love in our daily practice of the eight-point program.
Think of a routine time in your daily life when you’d like to be more able to put others first. Come up with a small experiment you’d like to try around your chosen time.
Then, deepen this experiment by thinking of a way to remember your chosen time during the day.
We’d really love to hear all of the ways everyone will be planning to put others first this coming week! Next week, we’ll ask you to share any results. Your example will inspire others, so consider sharing as a way of putting your eSatsang friends first.
We warmly invite you to join us for an online workshop on Saturday, February 24 at 9–10:15 a.m. San Francisco time. This is a 75-minute workshop on the theme of Putting Others First. Many members of our eSatsang will be taking part, so it’s a chance for some real-time satsang!
This week, we’re continuing our reading study from Passage Meditation, on Putting Others First. In the excerpt below, Easwaran shares the lofty purpose for all of our efforts to reduce self-will and put others first: “unitary consciousness.” It can be helpful to have this reminder if the situation you find yourself in is a difficult one.
How does keeping your grandest purpose in the forefront of your mind help with your practice of the eight points in your daily life? We would love to hear your comments and reflections on this topic.
Would you like to meditate with others? Get an extra boost with this month’s theme, and join our passage meditation community for a virtual meditation on Saturday mornings at 6:30 a.m. San Francisco time. We'll start the virtual meditation with a volunteer reading a passage from God Makes the Rivers To Flow aloud. Then we'll silently meditate together for 30 minutes. We’ll ring a bell to signal the end of meditation, and ask for another volunteer to read aloud Easwaran's "Thought for the Day". This week, we’re sharing a video which begins with Easwaran citing Shakespeare’s sonnet 116, and continues with him sharing its similarities to the Bhagavad Gita and the Dhammapada. Easwaran is underscoring Shakepseare’s definition of love, which is something that is unchanging, immutable: “Love is a continuing state.” He also reminds us that love is a skill that each of us can learn. What does lasting love mean to you?
This month we’re delving into the rewarding topic of Putting Others First. Over the coming weeks, we will explore what Easwaran means by loving others, and test out his teachings on love in our daily lives.
This month’s theme will culminate with the next Returnee Online Workshop on Saturday, February 24, at 9:00–10:15 a.m. San Francisco Time. Many members of the eSatsang will be taking part, so it’s a chance for some real-time satsang and discussion on Putting Others First.
Putting Others First can be one of the more challenging of the eight points, so let’s get back to basics, and study a section from Easwaran’s book, Passage Meditation.
The examples of love Easwaran describes in the reading below are simple in their description, but daring in their application. Which of the practical examples that Easwaran suggests to show our love do you find the most daring?
Thanks to each of you for sharing your striving with the mantram over these weeks. It has been wonderful to strive together. For the final week of Mantram Month, we invite you think creatively about your current mantram habits. Is there a time recently when you used the mantram in a new way? What was it? How did you remember it? Have you ever been surprised by a time that you remembered to use the mantram? Is there a way you could extend that?
Or, if you could choose any time at all during your regular daily routine that you’d like to say the mantram more, when would it be? Is there something you can do to help you remember, or work towards this time?
We’d love to hear your ideas about creating a new mantram moment, or any general reflections you have about Mantram Month.
This week, we have a special mantram activity for you. It’s special because it involves falling asleep, so you will have a number of chances to practice. As you drift off to sleep this week, try to repeat the mantram. Was your sleep impacted in any way? Did you notice any results the next morning?
If you already fall asleep using the mantram, can you give extra attention to the experience and reflect on the results you notice? Or perhaps you create an opportunity this week for a mantram nap during the day. A mantram nap is a rest, but with focus on saying the mantram and keeping it at the forefront of your mind, with falling asleep as secondary.
Thank you for sharing your mantram experiences this week. It’s great to hear how you are bringing your practice into everyday life. This week, identify a specific time or times during the day when you are physically active and would like to practice the mantram. Maybe you walk to work, or have a scheduled exercise time, or other active time that you already do. While moving with focus and safety, try to consciously apply the mantram. If you already have a “mantram movement” time during the week, can you expand it a bit more ?
Happy New Year eSatsang friends and families! Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Mantram Relay for Peace on January 1, created by one of our eSatsang members. It was wonderful to see all 24 hours filled up – sometimes with five of us repeating the mantram at any one time. Such an inspiration!
To build on the momentum from the Mantram Relay, we invite you to make January Mantram Month. Each week, we’ll have a new practical mantram exercise including guidance from Easwaran. Join us in solidifying a new year’s resolution, or for more mantram repetition as a resolution in itself. Here’s this week’s mantram exercise...(click the title to read more!)
This has been a rich period to explore Slowing Down, as we approach the end of the month and year! Please continue sharing your Slowing Down experiments and experiences with us during the week ahead. Your stories and questions are inspiring to others who may be having similar challenges, and similar successes. To help us understand the loftiest purpose of our efforts in Slowing Down, please enjoy this five-minute video from Easwaran below. In the video, Easwaran makes a connection between cultivating patience and deepening our devotion. We look forward to hearing your reflections and would love to know about any tips you’ll be trying out this week.
A very happy holidays to you and your families, from the eSatsang Team!
This week, we are continuing to apply Slowing Down to our daily lives and are eager to hear how your Slowing Down experiment is going as you’ve had some time to try it out. Were you able to recall it at the time you wanted to? Was there a change in the situation, or interaction? Do you need an extra boost of support to help you slow down? Try joining us for a “virtual meditation” on a Saturday, through our private Facebook Group. Details for the meditation each week are posted in the group. If you don’t have an account, no problem!
Finally, we are sharing an excerpt from Easwaran on the importance of human relationships, which he says “are often the first casualties in a speeded-up way of life.” Are there any practical tips from the reading that you’d like to try for the rest of this month?
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.
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.
We’d love to hear more about how your experiment with training the senses is going. Have you encountered challenges and/or successes? How has your strategy to help you remember the experiment during the day been working? If you don’t have time to comment, feel free to share through this brief check-in below. Finally, for inspiration from Easwaran, we’d like to offer a short clip (five minutes) that was shown in the November 11 Online Workshop. What are your thoughts on Easwaran’s commentary?
We’d like to invite you check out our new ‘Living and Learning’ private Facebook Group. This group is for you to share ideas and resources from both your spiritual practice and your everyday world. In last weekend’s Online Workshop, and in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season, we thought about a routine time in our daily lives during which we could experiment with training the senses. If you didn’t have a chance to join the Online Workshop live, please feel free to join us here and consider trying an experiment. We’d love to hear from you about what you’d like to try out this month.
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!
