A Passage for August

To continue the theme of our last couple of posts, deepening our meditation, we chose a passage this month that speaks to that very subject. One thing we always find appealing about Easwaran is his emphasis that the concept and practice of meditation is present in all the major world religions, although various terms may be applied to it. In the Judeo-Christian context, meditation is often referred to as “contemplative prayer” and many Western mystics have described in their writings that through absorption in prayer, they have reached the unitive state of existence that Eastern mystics call nirvana or samadhi. 

This month, to inspire us to give our best effort in meditation, we chose a passage that describes this very state of total absorption, deep concentration, in meditation. Easwaran explains in his book, Passage Meditation, that there are three stages of meditation in which we realize first, that we are not the body, then, that we are not the mind, until at last, in the final stage, we make a great discovery. “In this absorption,” Easwaran says, “we break through the surface of consciousness and plummet deep, deep into our real nature.” In this passage, the “World of Thought” that Dov Baer refers to is another way of describing this breakthrough.
We invite you to join us this month in memorizing or refreshing “You Must Forget Yourself in Prayer.”

And, as always, don’t be shy! Share with us in the comments what struck you about this passage.

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You Must Forget Yourself in Prayer – Dov Baer of Mezhirech

You must forget yourself in prayer. 
Think of yourself as nothing and pray only for the sake of God.
In such prayer you may come to transcend time, entering the highest realms of the World of Thought.
There all things are as one;
Distinctions between “life” and “death,” “land” and “sea,” have lost their meaning.
But none of this can happen as long as you remain attached to the reality of the material world.
Here you are bound to the distinctions between good and evil that emerge only in the lower realms of God.
How can one who remains attached to his own self go beyond time to the world where all is one?

Images of the 2015 YA Cohort Program

Earlier this month, YAs from around the world gathered together for a weeklong retreat at the BMCM headquarters in Tomales, California, and then spent a weekend together in a spiritual household at nearby Dillon Beach. 

The weeklong retreat, with the theme "Deepening Meditation," was a precious chance to spend one day unpacking each of the eight points and thinking about how that point could be used throughout the day to help deepen our meditation. 

The schedule had plenty of time for reading in the gardens, memorizing new passages, mantram beach walks, and spiritual fellowship with other retreatants. There was also the traditional YA volleyball and ice cream outing and this year – a brand new tradition – mantram hula hooping!

When the retreat ended, YA Cohorts packed up and moved to a house at Dillon Beach. We got lucky with warm and sunny beach weather (often unheard of in Northern California!) and spent a lot of time taking beach walks, beach naps, and other beach shenanigans.

Spending the weekend together was a great opportunity to see what living in a spiritual household is like. The group set our own schedule, took turns cooking, ate meals together, enjoyed spiritual reading, worked out times for meditations which would work for everyone, and even tried a meditation session on the dunes! We had great satsang, relaxation, and a lot of fun, and we also appreciated the transition from the intense retreat atmosphere to a YA spiritual household, which helped us transition again into our everyday lives at home afterwards.

We had a great time with the 2015 Cohorts and are looking forward to next year's program!

"Deepening Meditation" & "The Goal of Life"

The YA Blog Team just finished a weeklong retreat with the theme "Deepening Meditation." We'll tell you more about the retreat and the conclusion of the 2015 Cohort Program next week, but we wanted to share the theme as food for thought first!

Dillon Beach, California site of mantram beach walks during the weeklong retreat.

This week, as we ease ourselves back into our daily lives after the retreat, we've been revisiting the Easwaran mp3s on the blog and have been re-listening to Easwaran's talk "The Goal of Life" which we posted in the beginning of 2014. Obviously the topic has been inspiring, but we've also enjoyed how Easwaran's slow way of speaking in this talk has helped us keep our minds slowed down.

We invite you to join us in re-listening to the Goal of Life Part 1 and Part 2. We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. If you've listened before, we'd be especially interested if anything new stands out to you!