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  #301  
Old 01-01-2018, 02:17 AM
Uma Uma is offline
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Fish 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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  #302  
Old 25-03-2018, 08:22 PM
Uma Uma is offline
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Fish 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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  #303  
Old 19-02-2019, 04:00 AM
Uma Uma is offline
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Fish 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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  #304  
Old 19-02-2019, 02:59 PM
Uma Uma is offline
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Fish 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]

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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  #305  
Old 21-02-2019, 09:23 PM
janielee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Uma

My सद्गुरू Satguru, Sri Vasudeva (lineage of Siddha Yoga / Maha Yoga)

The 40 Days Observance is an annual ashram retreat and online meditation experience hosted by my wonderful teacher Sri Vasudeva and his organization Blue Star. In 2015 I began posting my reflections about his teachings and sharing my own practice insights on Spiritual Forums. I tried to make these very profound and esoteric teachings understandable (as much as I understand them) to people not so familiar with the Sanskrit terminology and advanced meditation. I'm not trying to preach to anybody, just sharing what I knew at the time of writing the post, and looking for answers same as anybody else.

2017 40 Days "Lifting the Veil of Maya" reflections (now in progress):
Introductory preambles Introduction ; More about self discipline; Guidance on the journey ; Final introduction
Day 1 Day1 Maya - the dream realities
Day 2 Day 2 Investigating the nature of Consciousness
Live online meditation retreat from March 25, 2017 to May 5, 2017[link]

2016 40 Days "Exploring Maha Yoga" reflections:
Introduction Introduction to the 2016 40 Days Observance and this video link
Night before Preparation = Better Meditation
Day 1 Seeking the Self Within
Day 2 Mind is not a Brain!
Day 3 Being Mindful of BOTH Anatomies
Day 4 That which is beyond mind
Day 5 Deepening the practice
Day 6 Piloting my plane during sitting meditation practice
Day 7 Discriminating & detached observing
Day 8 Uniting head, heart & body
Day 9 Centering
Day 10 The Guru Principle
Day 11 Meditating on the Guru
Day 12 Light my light with your light
Day 13 Observing where I'm blocked
Day 14 Oh Goddess within
Day 15 Spring cleaning
Day 16 Goal of meditation
Day 17 Keeping my private eye on my "I"
Day 18 Acknowledging Divine power & presence and letting go to it
Day 19 Breath to brow <3 the joy of pranayama & More about prana
Day 20 Mantra power
Day 21 Guru Consciousness
Day 22 Present Moment Awareness
Day 23 No Free Lunch!!!
Day 24 From knowing to flowing to flying
Day 25 Surrendering doer-ship
Day 26 Observing ego transforming
Day 27 The super-charger meditation
Day 28 Strengthening my nervous system
Day 29 Striving for Satya Yuga consciousness
Day 30 Sporting with the elements
Day 31 Gut consciousness & power
Day 32 Emotional intelligence in the play
Day 33 Spiritual Intelligence of Crown Consciousness
Day 34 Following my Joy
Day 35 Every spiritual experience is a gift that should be put to work
Day 36 The importance of moment-to-moment meditation
Day 37 Transforming karma from the inside
Day 38 Coming into my own power
Day 39 The final surrender!
Day 40 How a master transforms other people's anger
Day After Appreciating the gifts of the 40 Days

2015 40 Days "Self Mastery - The Practice" reflections:
Introduction to the 2015 40 Days Observance link
Day before 40 Days Self-Mastery = World Mastery
Day 1 The Master within
Day 2 The Field behind form
Day 3 Yogic-Taoist combination technique
Day 4 Experiencing your Essence through relationships
Day 5 How Masters help us back to our centre; Who needs a Guru?
Day 6 Granthis - the Knots also Introduction to our 4 bodies/states
Day 7 The joy of moving from "doer" to "non-doer"
Day 8 Observing the power of the mind to create its reality
Day 9 The 4th state
Day 10 Centred in the Space beyond forms
Day 11 (Easter Sunday)
Day 12 Entering the Zone of pure potential
Day 13 Non-attachment as a proactive thing; Observing thoughts in meditation; Choosing thoughts wisely; Chidakasha - the space of memories
Day 14 Pranayama exercises
Day 15 Opening the chakras - what your yoga teacher doesn't know
Day 16 Prana awareness; Being fed from the inside and (Genesis 3:3)
Day 17 The crown chakra - the only one that is real
Day 18 Conversations with God; The power of sacred space
Day 19 Three brains meditation
Day 20 Mastering my lower nature; The joy of getting to know my chakras
Day 21 My heart chakra - bridge to infinity or limitation; Social function of the heart chakra
Day 22 Meditating to create a world without lawyers, policemen and doctors; spiritual vs religious
Day 23 My body is perfect for my soul's purpose; Moving prana while meditating; chakra teamwork
Day 24 Mastering sexual energy
Day 25 The tragedy of the soul in the human experience;Saraswati - the power of speech; Lakshmi - energy of the heart; Kali - the dismantling energy
Day 26 Karma is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get; Types of karma and other terminology
Day 27 Soul's relationship to the body
Day 28 The Secret to All Relationships & Freedom in Relationships
Day 29 Using the brow chakra effectively in relationships; Why cleanliness is next to Godliness; The best thought form of all
Day 30 Equipoise & letting go
Day 31 Ego battles with itself
Day 32 How to get the most out of mantra repetition

There is more here:
2010 40 Days transcripts: link


This should be pinned!
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  #306  
Old 21-02-2019, 09:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by janielee
This should be pinned!
Not up to me - up to administrators.
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  #307  
Old 19-03-2019, 01:55 PM
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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

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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  #308  
Old 20-03-2019, 03:35 PM
Uma Uma is offline
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Fish 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
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

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
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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  #309  
Old 20-03-2019, 03:59 PM
janielee
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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.

Thanks Uma.

Namaste,

JL
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  #310  
Old 21-03-2019, 01:02 AM
Uma Uma is offline
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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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