YA Blog: Archived!

You may or may not have noticed a recent new addition to the navigation bar at the top of the YA blog . . . it's our archive! We realized that we've become lucky enough to have such a wealth of tips and stories from our YA community that we needed a better system, or any system, for looking at them as a whole.

On the archive page, YAmeditation.org/archive, you'll find the posts from the blog categorized as either Stories from YAs, Stories from Eknath Easwaran, or Passages. A neat feature at the top is that we've created two short collections, perfect for newcomers to the site, or newcomers to passage meditation in general. The first collection of posts focus on passage meditation, sharing everything from instructions to practical tips about day-do-day practice. The second collection shares posts with tips about using one of the other 7 points. 

As we gear up to share a bunch of new posts from YAs with you, we'd love to hear from you: is there a particular post that really got you thinking? Were there any tips that you've tried out in your practice? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

A Passage for March

Here at YA Headquarters in Northern California, we've been getting some much-needed rain which has really kicked nature into high gear! With spring now out in full force, we've really been appreciating the natural world around us. The nature surrounding us reminded us of a passage we've read in God Makes the Rivers to Flow , "Great Life-Giving Spirit", from the Native American tradition. The connection between our day-to-day life and the words of the passage is so strong . . . we were inspired and memorized it last week!

This got us to thinking about how memorizing passages can tie into our daily life. The inspiration can go both ways: daily life inspiring passage choices, and passage choices inspiring daily life. We thought we'd pose the topic to the YA Blog community and would love to hear from YA and non-YA readers alike!

In the comments below, share your answers to the following questions, or any of your other thoughts. 

• When have you been inspired to memorize a specific passage? What was the inspiration?
• Is there a line in the passage that sticks out to you? Why?

If you're looking for a new passage to memorize, this one is certainly recommended!

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Great Life-Giving Spirit – Native American Tradition

Great Spirit of Love, come to me with the power of the North. Make me courageous when the cold winds of life fall upon me.

Give me strength and endurance for everything that is harsh, everything that hurts, everything that makes me squint. Make me move through life ready to take what comes from the North.

Spirit who comes out of the East, come to me with the power of the rising sun. Let there be light in my word. Let there be light on the path that I walk. Let me remember always that you give the gift of a new day. Never let me be burdened with sorrow by not starting over.

Great Spirit of creation, send me the warm and soothing winds from the South. Comfort me and caress me when I am tired and cold. Enfold me as your gentle breezes enfold your leaves on the trees. And as you give to all the earth your warm, moving wind, give to me so that I may grow close to you in warmth.

Great life-giving Spirit, I face the West, the direction of sundown. Let me remember every day that the moment will come when my sun will go down. Never let me forget that I must fade into you. Give me beautiful color. Give me a great sky for setting, and when it is time for meet you, I come with glory.

And Giver of all life, I pray to you from the earth, help me to remember as I touch the earth that I am little and need your pity. Help me to be thankful for the gift of the earth and never to walk hurtfully on the world. Bless me to love what comes from mother earth and teach me to love your gifts.

Great Spirit of the heavens, lift me up to you that my heart may worship you and come to you in glory. Hold in my memory that you are my Creator, greater than I, eager for my good life. Let everything that is in the world lift my mind, and my heart, and my life to you so that we may come always to you in truth and in heart.

Images of the February YA Retreat

Just a few weeks ago, 20 YAs gathered at the BMCM retreat center in Northern California for a YA weekend retreat. Several were new to the practice, so they explored how and why passage meditation works in their workshops. Others were long-time meditators, and they focused on developing strategies to deepen their passage meditation practice. Outside of the workshops, all our activities were together, and it only took a few hours before everyone felt like old friends.

After our November YA retreat, we shared some of the more "academic" aspects of the retreat: workshops, book study sessions, and bringing questions to other YAs. After this past retreat, we thought we'd give you an inside look at one of the treasured, long-time traditions of YA weekend retreats – the Saturday night evening program.

The theme of the awesomely fun Saturday night evening program is "right recreation." After so much deep discussion and reflection, it's equally important to figure out how to have fun together and relax. The YA retreats provide a unique opportunity to bond together with fellow YAs through activities that support our spiritual practice.

The February YA retreat always falls on, or near, Valentine's Day. This year, we took it as an opportunity to be extra creative, and asked each YA to make an anonymous mantram valentine. All the valentines were put in a bowl and each YA chose one for themselves. We've seen mantram art before, in Derek's blog post, and these valentines were great examples of that!

The main event of the Saturday evening program has always been the skits. There is zero acting talent or experience required, and there's always a role for YAs who don't want to be center stage, e.g., being a rock/tree/you name it, or a narrator. Each skit is based on a story from one of Easwaran's books. For example, two of the stories from this retreat were "The physicist and his coffee" and "King Dharmaputra and his dog". After the YAs are broken into skit teams, the skits proceed as follows:

Step 1: Read and Analyze. Read through the story together, discuss the story and its thesis. Once you've got a good grasp of the story, you're ready to move on.

Step 2: Scheme & Rehearse. Every good skit is helped out by a good prop. This year featured flashlights, wooden spoons, paper crowns, and plenty of blankets and scarves as costumes.

Step 3: Perform. Now, we're sorry to say that we don't have any photos of the grand performance to show you – we were all too busy watching to take any!  Needless to say, performing at a YA weekend retreat means performing for one of the best audiences out there, and it goes without saying they're just waiting to appreciate your performance.

To finish out this behind-the-scenes look at "Right Recreation" at a YA weekend retreat, we thought we'd be remiss not to share some photos of meal times. Meal times are some of the best times for casual conversation with YAs to talk about topics big and small . . . plus the food is delicious!

We'd love to hear from you on the topic of right recreation! In the comments below, share your favorite things to do for right recreation. What has been successful for you?