A Passage for August

Mantram art from a recent YA retreat.

We've been thinking a lot about the mantram recently at YA Blog HQ. Nearly a year ago we looked at another passage focusing on the mantram, but this month we've been looking for other passages that really emphasize the mantram and we picked "Weaving Your Name" by Kabir. What we love about this passage is the poetry of the words and the imagery he uses about integrating the mantram into all parts of our day. 

If you'd like to learn more about the mantram, and see mantrams recommended by Easwaran, you can do so here. We recently re-read the section "How to Choose and Use a Mantram" and highly recommend it for new and long-time users of the mantram – it's such a great refresher!

We'd love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts in the comments below:

• Which aspects of this passage appeal to you, or intrigue you?
• What is a way the mantram has helped you recently?

Have a great month of August!

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Weaving Your Name – Kabir

I weave your name on the loom of my mind, to make my garment when you come to me. My loom has ten thousand threads to make my garment when you come to me. The sun and moon watch while I weave your name; the sun and moon hear while I count your name. These are the wages I get by day and night to deposit in the lotus bank of my heart.

I weave your name on the loom of my mind to clean and soften ten thousand threads and to comb the twists and knots of my thoughts. No more shall I weave a garment of pain. For you have come to me, drawn by my weaving – my ceaselessly weaving your name on the loom of my mind.

Maintaining a Regular Practice as an International YA

Meet Fleur, a meditator who lives in the Netherlands. This week, Fleur shares some of her strategies for sustaining a practice as an international YA without access to a local passage meditator community. Regardless of where we live, Fleur has great tips for strengthening a daily meditation practice.

Hello dear meditator friends,

As a native of the Netherlands I have been practicing Easwaran’s method of meditation since my undergraduate years. While in Holland YA meditators are not that thick on the ground, meditation as an international YA has its own special strategy for maintaining a regular practice. In this blog I would love to share with you how I managed to build, and keep up, a solid meditation practice as an international YA. 

The UC Berkeley campus, where Fleur first discovered Easwaran and passage mediation.

Let me first share with you how I stumbled upon Easwaran’s method of meditation. During my undergraduate years, I came to UC Berkeley on an exchange program. As a pre-medical student, I certainly needed stress relief, so I started looking for meditation classes. Coincidentally, I was about to study at the only university in the United States offering a meditation course for credit! The course was taught by an experienced professor who welcomed us by mentioning that this may be the most important skill we will ever learn. We meditated three mornings a week at 7 a.m. with 90 students on the beautiful Berkeley campus. In addition, we studied the book Passage Meditation, containing all the basic instructions to start your own practice. In this book, Eknath Easwaran says “All I ask is 30 minutes a day.” This seemed like a reasonable demand. I could not have expected that this small-time investment would slowly start to change my life.

In the midst of a busy medical and research career, and currently finding myself in medical residencies, meditation has proved itself invaluable in more ways than I can express. It has not only helped me reduce stress and increase my focus and work efficiency, but it has allowed access to inner resources to stay balanced, healthy, and happy in an overly busy life. Once I started tasting these ‘fruits’ of meditation, I knew I needed to stick with it. But how do we keep up a meditation practice in the midst of the hubbub of daily life? And how can we successfully keep up a meditation practice as an international YA?

Sustaining your enthusiasm is key

To maintain a daily meditation practice, finding ways to boost our enthusiasm is key. What are some of the things that have helped me to get up early in the morning and hit the pillow?

Firstly, I have found that spiritual fellowship is essential in keeping up my enthusiasm. In many ways, meditation is going against the current, externally in terms of what other peers are doing, as well as internally in going against our own conditioning and undesirable habits. Finding ‘allies’ who also practice meditation is very helpful, if not essential. During my student years, I found an established satsang nearby that I attended on a monthly basis. For some time we even had a YA Satsang in Amsterdam, which was very helpful and a lot of fun. We would read, do a video study and meditate together, and follow it with a shared dinner. Sometimes we’d organize an entertaining event. As my YA friends found jobs in other areas and moved away, I had to resort to alternative ways of finding spiritual fellowship. Some of us kept up a YA phone or Skype satsang, which was most useful, and the YA eSatsang turned out to be a great e-replacement! Connecting with fellow YA meditators through the eSatsang, whether actively participating myself or not, greatly inspires me.

Fleur at a retreat in Tomales, California.

Attending Retreats

Attending a retreat is another powerful way to boost your meditation practice in a fun way while also getting plenty of opportunities for rest and relaxation. You can check out the website or BMCM Journal to see if any regional retreats are offered in your area. In my case, there weren’t any regional retreats, so I have given myself the advantage of attending a retreat in Tomales, California, once a year. Despite the long flight, airfare, and jetlag, it has always been entirely worth it flying over from Europe, and I would highly recommend attending retreats to anyone! There is nothing else that replenishes my physical and spiritual energy as much as a retreat.  Scholarships and reduced prices are available for YAs.

Website/ blogpost

You’ve already made it to our weblog, and hopefully you like it. Although it is relatively new (we just had our one-year anniversary), it is a great way to stay connected. Inspiring stories, passages, and fun events remind me of what is really important in life.

Reading the mystics/ books

Ever since I started meditating, I have realised there is great power in spiritual literature. Although, I have to admit, it sounded boring before I ever tried it, it is very uplifting and fun. There are usually two books on my nightstand, one book by Easwaran for spiritual instruction, and one spiritual book by another author to read from before I go to bed. There are so many great, inspiring and entertaining stories out there, such as (auto) biographies about the lives of the mystics. Just tap into your YA network if you’d like any suggestions!

Regular practice

Above all, I would like to highlight the importance of maintaining regularity in our practice. The time it costs to sit down and meditate will pay itself back in so many ways. It is something that you can verify only for yourself.

Images of the YA Cohort Program

All month long we've been talking about the YAs visiting BMCM headquarters in Tomales, CA, and we're so excited to share some more about the past month!

Two weeks ago, YAs from around the world gathered in Tomales for a weeklong retreat, the culmination of our six-month long Cohort Program. Since January, the Cohorts have been gathering every other month for an online video workshop on topics like personal relationships, or finding our purpose in life. Most of us were able to attend the February YA retreat, and this month the Cohorts gathered for a weeklong retreat, and then a weekend at Dillon Beach!

For three of the YAs, this was their first weeklong retreat, and over the coming months we'll be hearing more from them about their experience. Besides the opportunity for spiritual fellowship with other YAs (and what's a retreat without a game of YA volleyball?), weeklong retreats also offer the chance to engage with dedicated passage meditators of all ages from all over the world. It was amazing to get perspectives from such a wide variety of people! The retreat's theme was "Building the Will" and the week was spent looking at different ways we can use each of the eight points to strengthen our will. From the workshops to the dinner table conversations, all the YAs remarked on how many ideas we got to take home and put into practice.

After the retreat ended, the Cohorts were in charge of our own schedule and we had such a great time! We went out to dinner at a local cafe where a country-western band was playing. Since one of our Cohorts is a born-and-raised Texan, she taught us all the two-step and we impressed the band with our enthusiasm, but not necessarily our skill . . .

The Cohorts spent the rest of the weekend at a house on Dillon Beach. We took a beach walk with Christine Easwaran and local friends of the BMCM community, baked a pie to celebrate the birthday of a Cohort, cooked dinner and breakfast together, and - even though there were some late nights of chatting - we all meditated together bright and early in the house's sun room.

This was the first year we've ever offered the Cohort Program and we had such fun planning and participating! We're looking forward to next year!