Sometimes I like to imagine how it was for our ancestors when we women huddled around the fire pit, talking and singing while cooking and raising children, singing songs, making loud noises and our men were out hunting, silent and intent on capturing the prize: food for our empty stomachs.
I then contemplate the time when agriculture took hold and we had some time to sit together after the sun goes down in some warmer shelter. What did we think? What stories did we tell?
At many points throughout, we had people break away to go and contemplate in caves and forests and mountaintops about the meaning of life. A voice within a few must have started to grow with questions about life, its purpose, our interconnection with the earth and the sky and the stars.
And answers came from who knows where. It must have been from out of silence.
The fact that suffering comes along with existence, I believe, was always a given. In our human evolution, in the midst of life’s unfoldment, some people began to question and look within for guidance. Others looked outside for answers. The big questions of life—Why am I here? Who am I? What is suffering? Can suffering be avoided? Can we free ourselves from suffering? What is the purpose of life?—stirred the human soul then, as they do now.
Today we are inundated with change and speed.
There are many teachings, many paths, many means. But I believe that the pulse of evolution that moves from within us is calling upon us to gather in community to heighten our collective capacity to bring in more light, more awareness, more joy, more peace, more creativity, more truth - in our ever increasing / decreasing universe.
Meeting in this way is called ‘satsang’ in Sanskrit, derived from ‘sat’ which means truth, and ‘sangha’, which means assembly or community.
We are four teachers coming with our resourceful backgrounds. Here is our offering: A weekly satsang speakers series to both soothe and inspire the community of Bowen Island. We are in this together. We have much to offer each other as we grow ourselves from within to create spaciousness and openings in our bodies, hearts, and minds. Let us meet together to discover what we create.
The Satsang Speaker Series happens on Sunday nights, 7-8:30pm through December 13 at Bowen Island Yoga (585 Prometheus Place, lower road of Artisan Square). Visit BowenIslandYoga.com for more details, including dates, speakers, and topics.
