A Celebration of Community

As 2016 comes to a close, we've been looking back at the past year and appreciating everything we've learned from this community of passage meditators. To celebrate the contributions of everyone, we invite you to look back at some favorites from the past 12 months.

Let us know in the comments below – which of these stories resonate with you? Is there any specific tip you're interested in trying out in your life?

The Mantram as a Tool for Transformation: We love the story of how Chris has used the mantram to transform a difficult work relationship. This story tackles likes and dislikes, managing expectations, and a true example of how our outlook can be reshaped through this practice.

"Conquest of Mind": Beginning a Spiritual Journey: This is Sam's experience of looking for answers to life's big questions and then stumbling upon Easwaran's books and beginning a meditation practice. We enjoyed Sam's account of how beginning to systematically train the mind has helped him find answers to his big questions.

"We Teach By What We Are": Working with Children & the Eight Points: We were inspired by Stephanie's account of how she uses the eight points to strengthen her practices as a teacher of young children. This story gives lots of examples of how we can integrate our practice into the environment and culture around us, and shows us the impact it can have.

Eight-Point Grandparenting: While we're on the topic of children and the eight points, Laura wrote a great article about how she uses the eight points when spending time with her granddaughter. Laura also highlights all the ways her practice benefits from the efforts she makes in the many small interactions.

Video Interview: YA Thoughts on the Book "Passage Meditation": In the fall, the BMCM released its new edition of "Passage Meditation" and we invited some young adult (YA) meditators to reflect on what that book has meant to them. We invite you to also scroll down to the comments to read the stories of other meditators finding the book – we'd love to hear yours too!

Three Articles From Easwaran: Love, Death, & Building the Will

Our Blue Mountain Blog team has been looking at the new material on the website, and we've particularly enjoyed the library of Easwaran's Talks & Writings. Easwaran has a unique perspective on topics that affect us all, such as loving relationships, death, and building the will.

This week we'd like to highlight three articles in which Easwaran comments on these themes, and invite you in turn to dive in!

• A Love That Lasts
• The Mantram at the Time of Death
• Building the Will

We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Is there a particular message of Easwaran's that caught your attention? How has it helped you deepen your spiritual practices?

The New BMCM Website: BMCM.org

Hello Blue Mountain Blog readers,

We, the BMCM Web Team, are very happy to tell you that our newly re-designed website www.bmcm.org is now live! This website is full of new content and resources. 

We invite you to explore the website, and we'd also like to highlight some features that may particularly appeal to Blue Mountain Blog readers:

• A library of Easwaran's talks and writings that you can filter by theme
• Over 150 passages for meditation
• A new 10-minute online workshop that explains the theory and benefits of passage meditation.

Long-time blog readers may see some familiar faces in our collection of stories from the community – stay tuned as we continue to add more stories from our friends world-wide.

If you're interested in reading more about the process of designing the new website, we invite you to visit the News section of the website and peek behind the scenes.

We're looking forward to seeing how this website will evolve with the participation of you, our  Blue Mountain Blog readers, and hope that it will be a valuable resource for our growing international passage meditation community!