River Ganga Foundation

Letters of Confirmation

We receive letters from people all over the world, telling us about their experience with the vichara. We are always moved and encouraged to see the actual results of this simple method and the way in which people really benefit from this practice.

Here a few of these letters that speak directly to the effect of the practice on people's lives. 

 

2009

The moments with vichara

It's all coming to be — as promised.

On CD#2 of the March 22 Ojai workshop...

I wanted to report to you...

I called in to you on the show yesterday.

Recently I listened...

When I was in my teens I resolved...

I saw your name mentioned...

Thank you for dedicating your lives...

I have had some ongoing illness...

Something you said

I find myself "looking" intermittently...

I reckon I'm borrowing my body and this life.

I was really bamboozled by your latest podcast...

 

 

2008

 

I want to thank you for the online intensive last week.

I met you last year at Carefree...

I am practicing the vichara...

I find it hard to express how much the enquiry has changed my life.

As always, many thanks for the on-line-Satsang...

I had to laugh...

I am a bit overwhelmed ...

In an interview you said...

I am listening to a podcast of yours...

Thank you so much for your lectures...

Something has happened I'm compelled to share.

I'm writing this after the world wide meeting...

Seeing through the trick

It is with a recognition of peace in me...

It has been so wonderful...

I just wanted to share with you...

I just read only one article of yours...

Thank you so much for your effort

 

2007

 

I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed ...

Thank you for your satsang.

I have to tell you how wonderful ...

I had to take antibiotics...

Your sharing the experience of being John Sherman...

First of all I must say...

Long time listener, first time writer.

I cannot thank you very much...

Six months ago, like so many others worldwide...

Oh John, great and growing gratitude here

I just wanted to express my gratitude for your teaching.

Thank you so much for speaking it like it is without the spiritual overtones.

I know you are busy these days...

I'm so grateful to have come across you...

I really appreciate the clarity and simplicity with which you communicate.

I have been on the spiritual path for about two and a half years now.

Found your podcasts and just wanted to let you know I'm listening.

I just wanted to let you know how very grateful I am...

For several years now, I have been busy with Advaita...

I just wanted to thank you both...

Just to say that it was lovely to speak to you...

Just a report...

I would like to thank you for making these recordings available...

I hope you will receive this mail...

I want to thank you for making it all so clear to me...

I am forever grateful to you...

I want to express my heartfelt thanks...

I just want to say thank you.

Hello.

Thanks again.

Your words have given me absolutely nothing...

Your podcasts have been tremendously helpful to me...

Bypassing the apparatus.

I had the pleasure of meeting you at the Gangaji Tahoe 2001 retreat...

I was at the online satsang today...

I'd like to THANK YOU so much, John.

I am very excited about the online satsangs!

I write these lines to you who are my true self...

I really want to thank you for last Sunday (Feb. 11) online satsang.

My dear brother John...

Today I realized what you have been trying to convey.

2006

 

I have been blessed with a life...

Just stumbled upon a picture of you on the internet...

Thank you so very, very much for "The Story of How I Met Gangaji, Became Spiritual and So Forth".

This magnificent retreat has come to an end...

I just feel like writing you an email...

Thanks for making your satsang available on podcast...

"I'd like to espress my gratitude" sounds a bit formal...

I am sitting here at my glass desk in my apartment in Helsinki, Finland...

On the internet I found your podcast feed ...

I obtained a copy of the book Conversations with Ramana Maharshi...

How can I ever, ever thank you...

I have often started writing to you...

I just spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Satsang with you.

I just listened to your most recent podcast...

You're really paring down your instruction!

Yesterday's phone conversation was something I needed...

I don't have the words...

Simple, ordinary happiness for no reason...

2005

 

There is nothing like the experience of extreme pain...

It is so interesting to notice...

Wow, John. Huge gratitude...

This last week I have been extremely busy...

2003

 

A thousand thank you's for this wonderful retreat!

I want to express my thanks...

 

Funds ProgressWe need to raise $40,000 in donations and new monthly pledges to fund our work for the rest of the year.  Please help if you can.  All donations are tax deductible.

How to donate.

Read the letter from John and Carla.

Read the Update from John and Carla

2009 Fundraising Progress
Thank You!

Date Donors Received Still Needed
July 3 119 $20,087 $19,913
$
Read a brief report on
what was accomplished in 2008.

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next event
Ojai Saturdays with John Sherman

Saturday, July 11 at 2:30 pm.

Sacred Space Studio
410-A Bryant Circle
Ojai, CA 93023

Download our complete
2009 Schedule of Events

All our events are always free of charge.
All are welcome, with no regard for religious and spiritual beliefs and practices.

Spontaneous donations for the support of our work are always welcome and gratefully accepted.

 

Featured Letter of the Month
We receive many, many beautiful and useful letters.  Every month we try to feature one here that seems especially valuable and instructive for one reason or another.
Podcast

A Worldwide Meeting - June 20, 2009

For 5,000 years and more, we have focused all our efforts on trying to solve the underlying problem of human existence by looking outward, trying to fix our mind, our life, our behavior, etc. Pretty much all of our practices have been focused on creating the states and relationships that we have come to believe characterize the peace and freedom we so desire. In the desire for freedom, all of this is a waste of time. There is nothing that can be done effectively to shape your personality, your persona, your life that will fix them in such a way that they become what you want them, and you, to be.

2007 Retreat Videos

Meeting # 1 - November 2, 2007

Beginning on July 1st, and every Wednesday for eight weeks, a complete video of one of the meetings in this retreat will be posted. The meetings will be posted in order, and after 8 weeks, the videos of the entire 2007 Retreat will be streaming on our website. You will be able to download the videos in different file formats and each video will be accompanied by the complete transcription of the meeting.

Video Blog

Our Work

First, last, and always, my advice is only to look at the feeling of being you, without the mediation of understanding, the need to resolve paradox, or the requirement that this looking lead to any conclusion. Simply make every effort just to look, and persist in that effort as often as you can. In this effort, understanding is irrelevant, belief is irrelevant, even duration is irrelevant -- the briefest look, repeated over time, does all the work.

A Message from John Sherman, videotaped in Ojai, California on May 15, 2009. Length: 8 minutes

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Our work is to bring the vichara to all who are interested.

The only problem anywhere to be found is the false belief that you are at the mercy of your life, and the only solution is the truth, which is everywhere and always present and self-evident. Ridding oneself of the false is as easy as repeatedly tasting the truth of being here, unmovingly, unchangingly here. This repeated looking directly at oneself is the infallible method of the vichara.

Although our meetings are free of charge, they are certainly not free of cost. The money needed for this work must come entirely from the generosity and compassion of those who, like us, have seen for themselves the immense worth of spreading this good news to all humanity.

Please help provide financial support for the work of making this method more widely available in the world by making a donation or a monthly pledge in any amount now.

All donations to the RiverGanga Foundation are fully tax-deductible.
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RiverGanga Foundation
PO Box 1566
Ojai, California 93024-1566
Phone: (805) 649-1600
Email: info@riverganga.org

RiverGanga Foundation (FEIN 77-0561647) is a public not-for-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code. All donations are tax-deductible according to IRS regulations.