Still to Come in 2024
Live-streamed online contemplative gathering series via Zoom
Śravana, Smaraṇa, Saṃsthāna: “Listening, Remembering, Coming Together.”
In each of these ongoing sessions, held every three weeks, we listen to a short teaching from one of the great wisdom traditions and then take time to contemplate it together in a spirit of mutual support. Each session will also include a period of meditation.
Participation is free of charge, and everybody is welcome.
The next session will be
Saturday September 7, 2024.
1:00–1:45pm Eastern USA Time.
More information and the Zoom link will be sent to my mailing list before each session.
You can join that list by pressing the ‘”Connect with Bill” button on this Website and leave me a message.
You can also write me via [email protected].
*** Four-week live-streamed online course ***
Studies in Foundations of Yoga Philosophy: Teachings from The Upanishads
Sundays, October 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2024
1:00–3:00pm Eastern US/Canada time.
To register, write Beryl at [email protected].
You are warmly invited to take part in this four-part online set of sessions. We will study, contemplate, and discuss the philosophy of the Upanishads.
The Upanishads are collections of sacred teachings from India that have inspired spiritual seekers for well over two thousand years. The wisdom they hold can guide us as we deepen and refine our own spiritual lives in today’s world. The core teaching of the Upanishads is that there is a splendid, divine presence within all that exists and that this same splendor shines within each of us at the deepest and truest level of our being. Such an idea stands at the center of much subsequent yoga philosophy. As such, the Upanishads stand as some of most important of foundational yoga texts.
If you are drawn to yogic philosophy as an interested student, teacher, spiritual practitioner, or contemplative seeker, then this course will inform and support you as you explore its sources and deepen your understanding of its wisdom.
This course will consist of four 120-minute weekly sessions. The schedule and descriptions of topics appears below.
Each session will include readings of passages from selected Upanishads, contemplative reflection on the teachings those passages present, group discussion, and a period of quiet meditation.
I will distribute my translations of the original Sanskrit passages ahead of time and will suggest other translations people may read, if they wish to do so.
Each session will be recorded so that registrants who missed any particular session will be able to watch it.
Schedule:
October 6. Teachings from the Chandogya Upanishad.
One of the two oldest (and longest) of the Upanishads, the Chandogya Upanishad presents a wide range of themes. In this session, we will focus on a number of short conversations in which teachers gently guide their students in coming to know the true Self (Atman) dwelling within them and of the Self’s essential identity with an essential universal presence within all things (Brahman).
October 13. Teachings from the Taittiriya Upanishad.
Teachings in this beautiful text link the structure and dynamics of individual personal embodiment with those of the entirety of existence itself. The Taittiriya Upanishad also presents perhaps the earliest model of a layered model of embodiment as consisting of physical form, living energy, mental functioning, innate wisdom, and unconditional expansive joy. (Some later philosophers referred to these as the five koshas or “sheaths.”) The Upanishad leads students to deeper understanding of the importance of joyfully appreciating the gift of life and of acting in the world in a way that respects and supports others and the larger world itself.
October 20. Teachings from the Katha Upanishad.
The narrative frame of this Upanishad consists of a conversation between a young yet already wise student who ponders the reality of change and death. The student seeks deeper understanding both of the spiritual life and of nature of the true Self. His teacher is the narrative figure of Death itself and teaches his student the value of seeking what is timeless and good rather than what is temporal and merely pleasant. Here, the student learns the role and importance of attentive awareness and of the practice of meditation in coming to a deeper understanding and experience of the true Self.
October 27. Teachings from the Maitri, Shvetashvatara, and Shandilya Upanishads.
These Upanishads were likely composed several centuries after the earlier ones and shows the continuing emphasis on the value of knowing and delighting in the subtle, divine essence within all things. Like earlier Upanishads, they teach the value of meditation. Perhaps more thoroughly than earlier Upanishads, though, they also mention particular techniques of meditation practices. In terms of the history of the Upanishads, these texts share some of the Classical Yoga ideas and practices presented elsewhere in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra and, in the case of the Shvetashvatara Upanished, an emerging influence on Vedantic thought of devotional, theistic sensibilities.
Cost:
Early bird registration by September 24 : $ 108 (US).
After September 24 : $ 160 (US).
Financial assistance is possible.
For information and to register, write Beryl at [email protected].
Weeklong retreat in Portugal
November 5-11, 2024.
With Bridget Woods Kramer.
Cocoon, Portugal.
Produced by Georgie Fearn Yoga.
This retreat is currently SOLD OUT. To join the wait list, please write Georgie at [email protected].
Weekend yoga philosophy and practice workshop in Spain
Tales of the Adorable One: Stories of Krishna as a Resource for Contemplation and Practice.
November 23-24, 2024.
Madrid, Spain.
With Gisela Vásguez Rodriguez.
Philosophy sessions in English with Spanish translation by Gisela.
For more information, please contact Gisela at [email protected].
Additional events are being planned, including more live-streamed online courses.
So, please return regularly to this Schedule Page to keep informed.
If you would like information regarding scheduling an event, please wrote Beryl at [email protected].
Please stay safe and well.
