THE CALL TO AWAKEN - SMALL GROUPS:
CONTINUING OUR JOURNEY INTO THE BHAGAVAD-GITA
Tuesday evenings at 6pm ET, starting March 5, 2024
In The Call to Awaken, we explored, in brief, the core themes of The Bhagavad-Gita and tried on bite-size applications of these. It was a lot of ground to cover with so many new ideas and paradigms that clash with our existing world-view, and raise many, many questions.
Looking forward, we want to create the space for greater understanding and assimilation of these concepts into our daily life – a space where these theoretical constructs become deep frameworks that help navigate the complex interaction of matter and spirit with clarity, determination and faith.
What will this space look like? We will facilitate small groups that follow the same arc of themes as The Call to Awaken. Each session will be guided by one or two questions that will create the platform for our discussion, and will help us foray deeper into these topics, grapple with challenges, and apply these themes in our daily life. Another very exciting part of the journey, as you have all experienced, is the relationships with other fellow travelers, which we hope to strengthen and further enrich our own journeys.
The Gita moves in an iterative manner, as Krsna intentionally spirals deeper into topics that He introduces very early in the conversation. He continues to guide Arjuna into more powerful applications of these teachings for increasing realization.
Session Arc:
1. Checkmate: The Yoga of Existential Crisis
What are you going through right now that may be designed for your spiritual growth? What do you think you need to grow out of and grow into, spiritually?
2. Identity: Unveiling the Existence of the Soul
The existential crisis is the soul trapped in a material body. How are you avoiding experiencing this crisis in your life today?
3. Cracking Karma: The Universal Network of Actions
What are your biggest attachments? How do you see them implicating you karmically?
4. Where’s My Mind?: Understanding Vedic Psychology
In what ways does your mind prevent you from experiencing the soul now? Pay attention to the doubts and desires that are pulling at you.
5. Awakening: Plugging the Mind into the Soul – Part 1
What would it take for you to center your life around the soul instead of the body and the mind? What are you waiting for?
6. Awakening: Plugging the Mind into the Soul – Part 2
Taking Stock of Our Journey Thus Far – Small Groups Q&A
7. Moods and Modes: How the Material World Affects Us
What is your predominant mode of material nature and why do you think that? What would you need to change to fix yourself fully in the mode of goodness?
8. Faith and Knowledge: The Gateway to Experience
Where are you stuck regarding your faith in the spiritual paradigm? What’s at stake if you’re to remain stuck?
9. The “Super-String” Theory: Exploring the Origins of the Soul
1. There is an intelligent design behind all existence
2. That intelligent design points to a god
3. This God is the God of the Bible, the Koran, the Gita, and all genuine spiritual traditions unanimously
What are your challenges with each of these axioms of the Gita asserted by Krsna?
10. Bhakti: The Yoga of Devotion
The Four Blocks to Embracing a Personal God:
1. The imperfection of personalities we know
2. Wanting God to conform to our will
3. Thinking anthropomorphism to be childish
4. Not wanting someone better than us
The fourth — not wanting a superior — is the source of the other blocks, the root of all of our envy, and the biggest obstacle to our spiritual advancement.
Which blocks are you consciously struggling with most?
11. Unfettered: Being the Change You Wish to See – Part 1
What qualities of a self-realized soul have you become attracted to since the start of your journey with The Call to Awaken? What will you commit to for pushing beyond where you are currently in cultivating the qualities of the soul?
12. Unfettered: Being the Change You Wish to See – Part 2
Commencement – What are you taking away from all of this?
The Bhagavad-Gita
“I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-Gita. It was the first of books. It was as if an empire spoke to us. Nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence, which in another age and climate, had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.”
— RALPH WALDO EMERSON
The Bhagavad-Gita is the finest introduction to the philosophical and spiritual tradition of India. The Gita is special among Eastern philosophical teachings because it demonstrates how the experience of our own essence can be found in the day-to-day actions of our lives.
The dialogue between Krsna and Arjuna is set on a battlefield just before the onset of a great fratricidal war. The moral dilemma that Arjuna faces of whether a war can in fact be fought for a just cause is apropos for the socio-political climate of our age. The perspective offered through the discourse of the Gita is all at once poetic, nuanced, and applicable, not only to the macro setting of a war, but to the quainter setting of our human affairs.
Inspiring many of the world’s greatest thinkers, including Einstein, Huxley, and Gandhi, among others, the Gita is now being taught at business schools as a “self-mastery” course in leadership.
Fee: $450
(financial assistance is available for those who need)
*The price for those who have previously taken the Call to Awaken Small Groups is $200. Use “REPEAT” at checkout