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01-01-2018, 02:17 AM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,944
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Want a really intensive 40 Day meditation experience?
Sri Vasudeva offers an 40 Day retreat experience like no other - every year from March 25 to May 5th.
He will be announcing the topic for 2018 likely early in March or even before and he always gives some preparatory talks and workshops leading up to it.
Here are some details in the meantime 40 Day 2018
There is always the option to watch for free online but the ashram experience is really incredible.
I just wanted to give everybody a head's up well ahead of time.
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25-03-2018, 08:22 PM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,944
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The 40 Days retreat starts today
Once again from March 25 to May 5th Sri Vasudeva will host a marvellous 40 Days of high energy talks about expanding consciousness using the tools of devotional singing (kirtan), meditation, and contemplation.
This year is extra special as it marks the 40th anniversary of the 40 Days.
Here are some links for those who are interested...
live & upcoming meditation retreat - talks, guided meditations, kirtan, and a chance to ask your questions and get a direct response from the Guru: (link)
Facebook videos (link)
Some random and awesome guided meditations by Sri Vasudeva (link)
The first Satsang of the 40 Days begins this evening 6pm E.S.T.
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19-02-2019, 04:00 AM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,944
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The 2019 40 Days - an Introduction
Sri Vasudeva's introduction for this year's 40 Day retreat March 26th - May 4th, 2019: link
Last edited by Uma : 19-02-2019 at 05:03 AM.
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19-02-2019, 02:59 PM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,944
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Themes for my 2019 40 Day Meditation Practice
These are the themes for the upcoming retreat as they just announced it:
Master Your Meditation Practice
Week 1 The Consciousness Space
Week 2 The Emotional Landscape
Week 3 Tap into your Core Vitality
Week 4 Appreciate the Physical Being
Week 5 Integrative Meditation
I will post here as I reflect on it this year (if life allows). The weeks leading up to the 40 Days (begins evening of March 25th, 2019) are a time to prepare so I can get the maximum benefit of the practice. The energy stream throughout the 40 Days is exceptionally high so it is a chance to boost my everyday practice. Sri Vasudeva has something different in mind this year and also the planetary transits are coming together in a very powerful way (Pluto, South Node-Ketu, Saturn and Jupiter straddling together into Sagittarius - particularly Jupiter, Ketu and Pluto on the cusp which is powerful for transitions of all kinds). These are all spiritual planets in the very religious-oriented sign of Sagittarius. (I use the sidereal astrology system.) So this will have a global effect - and considering how many religions treat this time period as the most sacred - it is the Spring Equinox - there will also be the momentum of these transit changes creating a virtual global network of change in the religious/spiritual domain. So I'm quite excited!
Sri Vasudeva from the link I posted above, said he will be talking about the key to self-transformation, changing the karmas, the key to self-transformation in meditation:
Quote:
You have the key to self-transformation. As you begin to know yourself more, as you begin to open up to that conscious field inside of you (understanding it, appreciating it, realizing it) you become enlightened, as you (who you are) becomes more self-enlightened. And the more you know who you are, and the more you can channel energies from that space, guess what? The more "wellness" you can have. So this is the key to personal transformation and enlightenment and optimal wellbeing. We may not have perfect wellbeing (body may not allow it) but we may have optimal wellbeing: the best that we can have under the conditions (or the constraints) that are there. That's the 40 Days. [Sri Vasudeva, paraphrased]
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So it doesn't matter what one's goals are - this is like a package deal. Something for anyone who sincerely wants and makes right effort will receive grace.
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21-02-2019, 09:23 PM
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21-02-2019, 09:38 PM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,944
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Quote:
Originally Posted by janielee
This should be pinned!
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Not up to me - up to administrators.
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19-03-2019, 01:55 PM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,944
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More joyous this year
At Saturday's Satsang Guruji announced that this year's 40 Day Observance will be a little different:
Quote:
"In 1978 I went through these 40 Days of deep experiences and I was in seclusion (I was secluded - I wasn't speaking to people, I was instructed not to speak to people by this Energy). And after this 40 Days was finished and I came out of this thing I didn't want to be secluded. I wanted to be so happy and I wanted to be with everybody and I was like a little child. And you know last year was the fortieth anniversary of the 40 Days. So in this forty-first year I want it to be celebratory. You can see how the Divine is creating that. It's going to be a different 40 Days. It's going to be more joyous but yet it's going to have the strength of the sadhana," ~ Sri Vasudeva
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I'm so looking forward to that!!
It begins as usual on the eve of March 25th with an evening of chanting. Guruji said that chanting is one of the best sadhanas to do during the Kali Yuga (the dark period of spiritual ignorance we are creeping out of right now) - because it's difficult to meditate during the dark period, when so many dark energies challenge us (just read what's going on in the world today). In the Blue Star yoga ashram chanting is a way of getting powerfully centered, and that prepares a clean space for meditating. It makes the meditation simpler, easier, more automatic and deeper. The space itself becomes energized through the chanting experience.
He said chanting is a pathway to the Divine - bhakti yoga, the way of the heart - and it purifies the heart, the mind and even the body, when you really put your whole being into it. (Here's a link that explains all about it.) So as always and throughout the 40 Days, it will begin with chanting.
And there are many many other spiritual tools to use for purifying and centering that is all part and parcel of a very strong and powerful meditation practice.
Meditation the Blue Star way, is really about getting into the "silence" [non thinking space] by tapping into all that you are - and then expressing it in the world.
I was looking back at some things he taught us last year. He really clarified it for me about getting into the flow, deepening the experience of the flow - and how to recognize the flow in the first place. Flow is the Tao - "the flow" of life - and it is an experience of spiritual energy and spiritual consciousness.
What flow means for me is getting into that space of joy where I feel carried by the Divine - and everything is happening on my behalf, I'm just cooperating with it, surfing the wave, observing - actively inactive and inactively active as Paramahansa Yogananda said. But flow doesn't just magically appear (except in rare grace-filled karmic moments) - there is an entire science in bringing the flow of life into your space and then maintaining the flowing with it.
How often do I feel out of sync with life - like life is a battle and everything is against me! This is the "normal" consciousness of the ordinary human experience. But when things are in the flow, every experience becomes, as Guruji says, extraordinary. And that requires a shift in consciousness. And a shift in consciousness is where the tough spiritual practices ( sadhana) come into play.
That's what I want to focus on this year - the joy of the flow, the joy of living in happiness in every moment. It's incredibly difficult to achieve that kind of moment-to-moment awareness but I know it is possible. That's what meditation is all about to me. And that's my goal.
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20-03-2019, 03:35 PM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,944
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Morning warmups and periodic check ins
Just making notes to myself in this post... in the same way I should prepare before exercise, prepare before making a presentation, prepare the table before a meal... I need to prepare my chakras.
Guruji spoke about this during the 2018 40 Days, Day 19 (sacred conversations) - the part I'm now contemplating:
Quote:
"....What we can do when we are on the inside is find stability at every consciousness level within us through which the ego operates – so the root chakra, the sacral chakra, the navel chakra, the heart chakra, the throat chakra - because these are the chakras we are going to use on the outside." ~ Sri Vasudeva
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These are the chakras dealing with the senses. I connect with the elements of Nature through my 10 senses (the indryias) that perceive the subtle energy field of the elements (the tanmatras) - so my experience of the outer world is really an ongoing inner experience. He taught a lot about these things in the last couple of years (since 2015). Then he went on to say:
Quote:
"So you stabilize them in the meditation. You go to each one and you breathe the prana into each one until you feel that area becoming stable. You're stable in the body, you're stable in the sexual energy, you're stable in the vitality, you're stable in the emotional energy, you're stable in the mental energy - and you work that stability on the inside with prana, with the chakras and with your focus (your dedicated focus), with your intention. And when you really do that in the meditation (under the guidance of the Kundalini of course) you will actually feel so nourished that when you walk out of here you are ready to meet the world armed with that kind of strength that you have. That is what is required," ~ Sri Vasudeva
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This is the centering, the stretching, the belly breathing, the muscle flexing, the pulling up of energy, the mental focus - keeping intention and attention on the areas as I go up the spine or wherever Kundalini is urging me to go because She is the Inner Guide. I am doing an inventory of what's going inside and clearing what I can and energizing what I can, and making note of things that are blocked and noticing areas of extremes - oh there is too much thinking in my mind, I need to focus on grounding today, or oh dear I have some emotional pain, so just breathe more slowly and decompress first, then try to bring in an uplifting thought and emotion and if all else fails just direct prana there and pray and use an affirmation. I use every tool I've learned. All of this is warmups. And Guruji continues:
Quote:
:That is what I love - to sit to mediate to do because then I can go to every part of my body and I can nourish it - because we become depleted by the things of life: the emotional exchanges we may have; the physical environments that we are in; the food that we eat; the communication exchanges we have; the type of the day (whether it's too hot or whether it's rainy…) – we are affected by all of these things. And sometimes our energies at different levels deplete because we respond or react to things differently, so we might be depleted in different areas, and we are tired at some point during the day – but if we are conscious of every area and maintaining the energy store in every area whilst we are active, we can enjoy an entire day amazingly," ~ Sri Vasudeva
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So this part is a reminder to do check-ins. For the enlightened master, every moment is continual inner experience - the checking in is constant, unless they are overworking and neglecting some part. For me I need to keep checking in, so I don't get depleted.
And this is a basic practice. I practice in sitting meditation. And then I bring it out into the world. And when things go awry it means I'm neglecting this and I need to do it more often - because it gets easier to do with practice.
We are multidimensional beings - we can do the sitting mediation whilst acting in the world. I need to keep reminding myself of that, by actually doing that.
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20-03-2019, 03:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Uma
And Guruji continues:
So this part is a reminder to do check-ins. For the enlightened master, every moment is continual inner experience - the checking in is constant, unless they are overworking and neglecting some part. For me I need to keep checking in, so I don't get depleted.
And this is a basic practice. I practice in sitting meditation. And then I bring it out into the world. And when things go awry it means I'm neglecting this and I need to do it more often - because it gets easier to do with practice.
We are multidimensional beings - we can do the sitting mediation whilst acting in the world. I need to keep reminding myself of that, by actually doing that.
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Thanks Uma.
Namaste,
JL
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21-03-2019, 01:02 AM
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Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 3,944
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Schedule
Here's the schedule for the 2019 40 Days (times are EST for Trinidad)
LECTURE: Mon-Fri 10:30 a.m. to 12:00pm Sri Vasudeva’s 40 Days main Workshop
GROUP DISCUSSION: Saturday from 10:30 am to 12:00 noon Conversations about the workshops
HEALING CIRCLE: Wednesday from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
CHANTING:
Sundays starting at 6 a.m. chanting of Guru Gita live-streamed
Every second Saturday - Satsang
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