Tag: Satsang

Spiritual Musings

Silent Retreat with Mooji’s Sangha

Crystal Fleming

Hey y’all. I am so behind in updating this blog. Life has been quite busy. Lots of travel to report on and fabulous experiences with friends and family.  Over the past few months, I enjoyed a wonderful trip to the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Delft, the Hague), excursions to the Hudson valley, New England (Massachusetts and Maine) as well as jaunts to New York City (where, among other things, I had the pleasure of meditating in Time Square, enjoying amazing vegan meals, being moved by musical and dance performances and meeting Savion Glover..)  And then there was last week’s retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh, where, along with a group of friends — and about 1500 other buddies – we sat just a few feet away from him as he gave a Dharma talk and later led us in walking meditation.  It was an incredible day – and my second visit to Blue Cliff Monastery. Lots of pictures coming soon.  I hope.  Maybe.  I’m on sabbatical right now and have my hands full with writing articles and book chapters for my tenure file.  But as soon as I can, I’ll post those pictures. They’re beautiful.

But before I can properly update you, I’ll be fluttering away again — this time for a silent “retreat” with Mooji’s sangha.  I’d planned on attending this in person at the retreat site in Portugal, but things changed.  However, I am thrilled to report that I’ll be joining the group remotely, for a week long intensive.  In between writing, data analysis, work and meetings, I’ll participate in the live satsangs and reflect on whatever it is that Consciousness wants to reveal to me at this time.  I’m very excited.  For the next 7 days, we’ll be minimizing social activity and focusing our attention on awareness.

I’ll see you on the other side . . .

Video

Forget about Enlightenment

Crystal Fleming

What I love about this video is the way Mooji reminds us of this central truth:

There is fundamentally nothing we can do or need to do to “become” enlightened.

What I like about this teaching — though I haven’t heard Mooji put it this way exactly — is that it very much jives with the Christian doctrine of grace.  In other words: there is nothing you can/must do to become liberated/free/enlightened.  From the perspective of Advaita Vedanta, the Self is already awake. What is necessary is not a particular action, but rather a correct recognition of reality as it already is.

From the Christian perspective, there is nothing you can do to earn your salvation.  It was already accomplished by grace, through Christ.  And of course, we spiritual straddlers who draw from multiple traditions know that Christ *is* the Self.  For the uninitiated, please note the distinction between the “Self” (capital ‘S’ – denoting God/All-There-Is) and the “self” (little ‘s’ – denoting the delusional egoic identity and sense of particularistic personhood that pervades most people’s everyday consciousness).