“The idea of a spiritual teacher is actually quite simple. Just as you need a guide to scale a mountain peak for the first time— someone who has gone before— you need an experienced guide on the spiritual path. You need someone who can show you the way and help you when you get tied up in your ropes. The teacher should know every inch of the ascent, from the foothills to the summit. He should be able to warn the students where there are ice fields and crevasses and tell them where they can pitch their tents and rest.” – Eknath Easwaran
The BMCM 2023 Celebration of Easwaran’s Life & Teachings
Every year since his passing in 1999, the BMCM has celebrated Easwaran’s life and teachings in late October, and his students have used this time to honor their teacher and rededicate themselves to their spiritual practice. For the past four years, this Celebration has expanded to include the worldwide community of Easwaran’s students. This has been a wonderful time of collective striving with each of us deepening our own practice and our connection with Easwaran.
The theme of this year’s Celebration is “Teacher and Student,” drawing on Easwaran’s teachings in the Fall/Winter 2017 Blue Mountain Journal with the same title.
Read on to learn more about how you can join in the BMCM’s five week-long study on the theme of “Teacher and Student” and participate in the Celebration mantram day on Sunday, October 29.
Five-Week Journal Study
The BMCM will be using the five weeks leading up to the Celebration on Sunday, October 29 to dive deep into the Fall/Winter 2017 Blue Mountain Journal. We’ll be hosting the study via two of our existing satsangs: BMCM Satsang Live, and the eSatsang. You are welcome to choose one of these satsangs to follow along with, or to join both. You can also choose to join the complete five-week study or to participate only in the weeks that work for your schedule.
BMCM Satsang Live
BMCM Satsang Live is a video satsang hosted by BMCM presenters that is offered twice a week, on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time and Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Beginning on Tuesday, September 26, BMCM Satsang Live will spend five weeks reading through the journal. BMCM Satsang Live intentionally repeats the satsang material on Sunday to make it accessible for friends around the world. You are welcome to attend either session, or both!
BMCM eSatsang
The eSatsang is an online community that provides passage meditators with a space to engage with Easwaran’s teachings and to discuss his eight-point program. The eSatsang shares weekly content for personal study and reflection and offers opportunities to share comments with other passage meditators. The eSatsang will begin studying the journal on Friday, September 29.
Celebration on Sunday, October 29
On Sunday, October 29 we invite Easwaran’s students around the world to participate in a day of mantrams dedicated to peace and healing in the world. We invite you to make BMCM Satsang Live the centerpiece of your mantram day and join us there at 9:40 a.m. Pacific Time to write the mantram before the program begins at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. As part of BMCM Satsang Live, we’ll all watch a video on the theme of “Teacher and Student.”
Our collective effort to keep our mantrams going as much of the day as possible, from the time we wake up until the time we drift off to sleep at night, is a wonderful offering to Easwaran to celebrate his life and teachings.
We’ll leave you with a continuation of the excerpt from Easwaran from the “Teacher and Student” Fall/Winter 2017 Blue Mountain Journal.
“I am talking from my own personal experience of traveling along this path, over many years, and through my teacher’s grace reaching journey’s end. The path is a gradient. In the early years it’s not very steep, and we can climb, but as our muscles get stronger, as our determination and will get stronger, this gradient slowly begins to get steeper. That’s why I say go slow, don’t try to rush up those steep gradients, because if your body has not been well trained, if your will is not firm and your capacity to act in emergencies is not very good, then there is great danger on this path.
That is why it takes a long, long time to make this climb, and that’s why an experienced teacher is always necessary. As the gradient changes, as more challenges come, the teacher will be able to guide you, help you, support you, pull you away from the precipice, not because he has read books, but because he has been along that way, and knows where the avalanches may come.”