At the Threshold of A Sweet Surprise 2016

December 1, 2015

Dear all,

Happy Holidays! During the month of December, people around the world are filled with the joyous spirit of celebration. This is a time when family, friends, and neighbors share good wishes and cheer.

On the Siddha Yoga path, this month gives us another opportunity to recognize the divinity in ourselves, each other, and our world. Throughout this year, Gurumayi has guided us in experiencing our own divine nature through the gift of her Message:

Turn
Inward
Meditate
Easefully

As 2015 draws to a close, we look forward to a new year on the Siddha Yoga path. It is a time to prepare for the Global Siddha Yoga Satsang for New Year’s Day: A Sweet Surprise.

Last year at this time, eager to receive Gurumayi’s Message, my family participated in the audio webcast talk, The Power of Listening to Learn, The Power of Learning to Listen.

The teacher, Swami Ishwarananda, gives such clear instructions on how to prepare to receive Gurumayi’s words—how to listen with our whole being. One of the methods Swami ji suggests for honing our listening skills is to listen with focused attention to the sounds in nature.

My family really enjoys spending time in nature so we embraced this practice with great enthusiasm. My eight-year-old daughter says that she loves listening to sounds in nature because “it always sounds a little bit different each time, and afterwards I feel refreshed.”

In the days leading up to A Sweet Surprise satsang, as I focused on listening with my whole being, new insights and inspirations sprang up within me. I also noticed that some of my challenges came into sharp focus. And right alongside the challenges, crystal-clear inner guidance as to how to overcome them emerged.

When I received Gurumayi?s Message in A Sweet Surprise satsang, I was amazed and grateful to hear Gurumayi teach about the same themes that had been arising within me. Wanting to receive the gift of Gurumayi’s Message as fully as possible, I made a focused effort to study her Message and teachings over the course of the year on my own, and together with my family.

I learned that sitting quietly in nature is a potent entry point for me to practice Gurumayi’s Message. As I sit outside, often in my own backyard, I listen to the sounds and observe the movements of the wind and the creatures with a curious alertness. As time passes, I experience a sense of both deep connection and gentle detachment. My attention, very naturally, is drawn inside.

This experience has informed my meditation practice. I see that, just as I am able to gradually shift to a witness state while sitting in and observing nature, the same process takes place for me when I sit for meditation. I sink deeper, detach from my thoughts, and experience my own inner divinity.

Throughout 2015, as a family, we continued to practice absorbing ourselves in nature both outdoors where we live and through the series of Commune with Nature video vignettes. As we have connected more deeply to nature, we find that our understanding of time has deepened. We experience heightened gratitude for the changing seasons and the blessings each new season brings us. As we observe the moon going through its phases, we sense its gift of marking the gentle passing of time. Amidst these changes, we perceive an underlying sense of timelessness, an ever-present current of grace.

We are so grateful for Gurumayi’s teachings in A Sweet Surpise 2015. They have borne such great fruit! Now, as a family, we are enthusiastically preparing for A Sweet Surprise 2016. It will be my eight-year-old daughter’s first time to participate in the entire satsang, and she is filled with a contagious excitement.

We are preparing in very practical ways. For example, we plan to participate again in the audio webcast, The Power of Learning to Listen, The Power of Listening to Learn, and reflect on how we can further implement what Swami ji is teaching us.

We plan to get ample rest and exercise in the days leading up to A Sweet Surprise satsang to support us in listening with our full attention, our whole being. We are also setting aside time prior to the satsang to reflect on what it means to us to receive Gurumayi’s Message. And we will make time after the satsang for further reflection and sharing with our friends and family who have participated.

We look forward to joining all of you in the Universal Hall for A Sweet Surprise satsang in January 2016!

May you, your loved ones, and people everywhere experience great joy, peace, and love in this month of December, and in the year to come.

Warmly,
Beth Dubois

 

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    Recently an activity that had seemed very beneficial for my son came to an unexpected end. For a few days, I was disheartened, although my son, who doesn’t usually speak in this way, assured me, “Everything happens for the best.”
     
    Now, several days later, I have begun to get glimpses of how this unexpected change will be beneficial. Today, when I read this line from the December letter, “We experience heightened gratitude for the changing seasons and the blessings each new season brings us,” it spoke so beautifully to my current situation, and I palpably experienced the current of grace running through my family’s life. 

    California, USA

    Many times during the year 2015, I too experienced hearing Gurumayi teach about the same themes that had been arising within me. I found that I would start a practice, or begin contemplating a teaching, and then find that the particular teaching was subsequently posted on the website.
     
    It is a reminder that the shakti that guides us from within is one with and the same as the outer Guru. It has been a tremendous year of deepening experience and understanding of the Self through contemplation of Gurumayi’s Message for 2015. And I look forward with my entire being to A Sweet Surprise satsang for 2016.

    Thank you, Gurumayi, for your constant blessings and teachings, and for the grace that supports us in having a direct experience of their meaning.
     

    New Jersey, USA

    After I read the letter I went outside to listen to sounds in nature. Instead of hearing something, I saw something. It was a golden-crowned sparrow, but it wasn’t only golden-crowned. Part of the crown was made of deep, bright orange. I didn’t know what had brought it near me, but I knew it was truly a gift.
     
    When I saw that bird, I realized I was already getting ready for A Sweet Surprise satsang even though it is a month away.
     
    I am so grateful that there’s a new letter for each month because there is always something new to learn.
     

    an eight-year-old Siddha Yogi from California, USA

    I read this inspiring letter last night before I went to sleep. This morning when I sat for meditation, I remembered the writer’s listening to the sounds of nature “with a curious alertness.” I decided to listen during meditation with the same “curious alertness.” As I listened attentively to the sound of my breath moving in and out, I was quickly drawn inside to the blissful space of the inner Witness.
     
    Later, when I took my morning walk, I maintained that same attentiveness and noticed the beautiful shapes of the leafless trees and the lovely deep green of spruce and pine trees. That attitude of alertness kept me completely in the present moment, observing everything around me.
     
    I feel this letter is truly helping me prepare to receive Gurumayi’s Message for 2016.

    Massachusetts, USA

    Since we are just one month away from A Sweet Surprise satsang and Gurumayi’s Message for 2016, I’m inspired to pause for reflection on 2015. Throughout this year, I have experienced a paradigm shift not only in meditation, but also in how I feel about this practice. Meditation has transformed from something that felt like I "should” do to an incredible gift that holds unexpected treasures, and, dare I say, adventure. Meditation has come alive for me. It is a living, growing, breathing, evolving, fluid, mysterious, humbling, creative, and compelling practice.
     
    I bow at the Guru’s feet with respect and gratitude for her grace and for the gift of meditation.

    West Vancouver, Canada

    I love this time of year, and I’m especially happy that in December, as the writer says, we have “another opportunity to recognize the divinity in ourselves, each other, and the world.”
     
    When I read this letter, I was reminded that on the Siddha Yoga path, we are guided in advance so that we can prepare ourselves fully to receive Gurumayi’s teachings.  I am planning to listen to the webcast talk, The Power of Listening to Learn, The Power of Learning to Listen, as many times as possible.
     
    I am extremely excited to receive Gurumayi’s Message in A Sweet Surprise satsang. And I’m looking forward to being with all of you in the Universal Hall.
     

    Gandhinagar, India

    As I read this letter after returning from a week-long Thanksgiving visit with extended family, I realized the profound value of the gifts that have come from the sustained practice of cultivating the virtues.
     
    Over the years, my relationship to these holiday visits has transformed: I’ve moved from dreading them, to taking them as an opportunity to practice witnessing my state and develop a greater sense of tolerance and ease—to experiencing them as pure enjoyment, filled with love for my family. And nothing about my family had to change!
     
    Welcome December! I can truly experience the love and joy of the season.
     
    Thank you, Gurumayi, for teaching us to recognize the virtues as our own, and for giving us so much support in cultivating them.

    New Hampshire, USA