Webinar: Behind the Scenes

Last week was a momentous week in YA Outreach, and the BMCM in general, because we held the first ever passage meditation webinar! When the YA Outreach team began brainstorming the project, we thought, "How amazing would it be if 50 people signed up?" By the time we held the webinar last Saturday, 441 people had registered from over 20 countries. Talk about exceeding expectations!

The breakdown of registration was really interesting: 13% were YAs, 42%  have an established passage meditation practice, and 23% were from outside the US. See the graphs below for some other stats:

We originally envisioned the webinar as an event primarily for newcomers who had no background in passage meditation. But as we looked at registrations, we saw something really interesting developing. . . lots of registrations were coming in from long-time passage meditators. The webinar turned into a real community event, with webinar-viewing-parties taking place at satsangs around the world. 

As it was a new venture, we ran into a number of challenges along the way: organizing the right lighting and backdrops, setting up microphones to equalize the volumes, filming and streaming video clips, fielding virtual questions, and remembering to mute our microphones during the video clips - we learned so much! 

Thinking of our international friends, we decided to hold the webinar at 7 a.m. in California, which meant we had to gather at 6 a.m. for a lighting and sound check (needless to say our meditation was EARLY!). Check out the photos below for a behind-the-scenes peek at the set-up.

Apart from just the technology aspect, this was a great foray into figuring out how to reach a new audience. We tried a variety of promotion and got some great data about how to reach our audience. This will be handy not just in YA Outreach, but across the BMCM organization!

The webinar shared an overview of the practice of passage meditation and its foundations, then shared the basic instructions in meditation. There were video clips from two longtime passage meditators, as well as a video clip from Easwaran. Before ending with Q&A, the presenters led everyone in a 5-minute passage meditation simulation to give newcomers a taste of what the practice is like. We received wonderful questions from newcomers about choosing passages, finding the right pace for going through the passage, timing, etc. The questions themselves were inspiring!

To close, we just wanted to share a few comments from participants:

The presenters and the moderator all exuded a joy that was infectious. It was refreshing also that there was no pretense, no need for special accoutrements (e.g. the flowing robes and incense themes) but they were regular people to whom I could relate and feel like if we met, we would easily be friends. Thank you for sharing the joy of this practice!

I hope you offer more of these. I have read several of Easwaran's books, but I learned a lot from the webinar. Online is probably my only option other than the books because there are no seminars near me and the cost of the seminar + airfare would be too much. So I am grateful for the free webinar. 

Thank you for sharing passage meditation with the world. It was a great feeling that for five minutes many people all over the world were focused on the Prayer of St. Francis! 

If you attended the webinar, we'd love to hear from you in the comments below. Where were you watching from? What was your experience like?

Easwaran: The Lofty and the Practical

We loved Jan's story last week of "meeting Easwaran online", and it really got us thinking about how YAs can "meet" Easwaran through many types of media. We've shared readings and audio talks from Easwaran on the blog in the past, and this week we're filling in the media gaps with two video clips.

Our YA friends often tell us that they love how Easwaran combines his presentation of lofty ideals with practical day-to-day pointers, sometimes even in the same sentence! We chose the two video clips below thinking about this balance of the lofty and the practical. We really enjoy these clips, and would love to hear your thoughts on them.

In the comments below, share your thoughts!

• Is there any line or idea in either clip that stands out to you?
• Is there anything specific about Easwaran's speaking style that resonates with you?
• Anything else?

Meeting Easwaran Online

Throughout the past year, our YA Outreach team has been thinking about the question: Where are YAs going when they want to learn about meditation?

One answer? Online!

In an effort to share passage meditation in a new online capacity, the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation will be offering its very first free introductory webinar on Saturday, January 25th, at 10—11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. We already have 200+ people registered from over 20 countries from Trinidad and Tobago to Iceland! 

Here at YA Blog HQ, we think this is a GREAT opportunity for our YA friends. This is a really accessible, free, and simple way for YAs to explore passage meditation. If it appeals, there are lots of free resources for continued support and inspiration. It's also a great opportunity for our long-distance friends who can't get to Northern California to check out our programs and have a dose of virtual satsang!

Lots of passage meditators have shared information and the flyer above with friends and family who have expressed interest or asked questions about passage meditation (you can also find a pdf version of the flyer here). They've told us how surprised they've been by the enthusiastic take-up. The webinar is open to people of all ages, faith traditions (including none!), and levels of experience with passage meditation, though it's geared towards complete newcomers. Find out more and register at www.easwaran.org/webinar.

So what's it like to meet Easwaran online in our digital age? Jan shares his story here.

I met Easwaran online. 

Ever since getting into the college of my choice, I had been consciously searching for a new goal in life. What contribution can I make? How can I use my skills? What are my skills?

Half a year later, I came across Mahatma Gandhi and his way of deliberately crafting his life into an instrument of peace. 

At the time, I was also supplementing my college courses with YouTube’s educational section, where big universities like Harvard, Oxford, and MIT posted entire semesters of their most popular courses.

I stumbled on a course offered by UC Berkeley, in which Gandhi’s lifestyle of nonviolence was presented as a systematic way to create peace in the world. Anecdotes from our times of love triumphing over terrorism in the most surprising ways offered hope that Gandhi’s nonviolence was also as relevant now as it was in the last century.

Most important, the course answered the question of how I can contribute to the urgent problems facing our world. I heard an underlying message—that the most effective way to change the world is to change yourself, and the only way to do that—in a lasting, fundamental way—is to meditate. 

Googling the professor, I soon arrived at Easwaran.org.

Having heard of how Gandhi used a mantram, I went to the tab “Free Resources to Learn Passage Meditation” and then to “Full Instructions in Passage Meditation,” which includes the complete text of Easwaran’s basic book, Passage Meditation.

I read the entire book online, which is free.

Less than a month later, I started meditating daily.

A month into the practice, I used easwaran.org to find a fellowship group, or satsang, near me. At the same time, I signed up for the Young Adult eSatsang, an email group where young adult passage meditators from around the world can write in to share inspiration, challenges, and tips.

Since then I have used Easwaran.org to watch videos of Easwaran's inspirational talks and to sign up for both regional retreats and retreats in Tomales, Northern California–especially the young adult retreats in Tomales.

Easwaran had taught what is believed to be the first accredited meditation course at a major Western university, teaching over a thousand UC Berkeley students at a time. “Why not share these teachings at my college too?” I soon asked.

So I started a meditation student group, a picture of which you can see here. We met for an hour a week, using tools like the free introductory online course and always ending with a half hour of meditation. One friend in the group, a bassoonist, commented on the changes in his life since meditating: “I just feel happier.”

More than anyone else I met in person during college, Easwaran, whom I “met” online, has made the most far-reaching changes in my life. Thanks to Easwaran’s eight-point program, I feel confident that I am slowly and systematically making my life a contribution to the world. 

These days, I meditate in the evening also, and I remind myself of a quote by Easwaran before beginning, “Remember, meditation is not for your benefit alone—it is for the benefit of the whole world.”