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| It has been a while since I wrote... |
Hi John. It has been a while since I wrote to you. I am in no state to write a report, but the considerable distress I am experiencing, prompted me to ask a question that you may be able to address on today's meeting if it is not too late. Based on my life circumstances the only decision that makes any sense is to ignore everything that is going on in my life completely and use all my life energy, native intelligence, everything that my persona has to do the vichara. Vichara is the only thing that makes any sense in my life. By the way, if I use any of these resources to find a way to live my life, the only conclusion I can come up with is to commit suicide (I cannot and do not want to go against that many people in all areas of my life who normally should not even be aware of me, this I mean literally). I never forget to do it anymore no matter what, may be I have to react in some way to external events but the second I complete the action I think of getting a glimpse. Any time I have fear arising in me or sense of being completely trapped, I use that energy to make an attempt to get a glimpse of myself. I am even glad at times for the almost constant reminder. The problem is that to my horror I find myself unable to move my attention as if I do not have such a thing at all. It feels like a hypnotic trance, I am completely stupefied at these moments. It feels also like there is nothing to move the attention to, except outside happenings, and never was. I wish I could give a better description. So attempts to look at myself put me in a considerable distress. I was in such misery when all of a sudden I received an email from you about last meeting. I don't think I had any glimpses of myself in 3 days before your email in spite of all my effort. After the meeting I did not experience such trances any more. I am listening to the recording every day and it helped me step out of my shell. My question is: why am I loosing the ability to get a glimpse of myself so often recently when attempting to do so? PS. Thank you so much for what you and Carla do. I am not sure at all I can go on without your guidance and help ( as well as from people who come to talk to you). I have to thank all of them too. S. Canada
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Your single donations and monthly pledges make up 91% of all income to the foundation. We need to raise $56,500 to finance and sustain our work over the next twelve months. |
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As of July 21: |
| Worldwide Online Meeting | Saturday, September 11 at 4 pm PDT (UTC/GMT -7) People all over the world gather together with John for a couple of hours. John is available to listen to your questions, and to help you sort out any difficulties you might experience in your own practice of looking at yourself. This is very much like a call-in radio show. If you simply want to listen to the meetings, all you need to do is to install the software and have speakers attached to your computer. If you wish to speak with John, then you will need a headset with microphone. You can also use earbuds and a microphone. |
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All our events are always free of charge. Spontaneous donations for the support of our work are always welcome and gratefully accepted. All are welcome, with no regard for religious and spiritual beliefs and practices.
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| Download our 2010 Schedule of Events: | |
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| Brief report on what was accomplished in 2009. | |
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| Look At Yourself and Meeting Ramana Maharshi by John Sherman are available as free ebook downloads. | |
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| 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 - July 10, 2010 My role in this adventure of trying to bring the simplicity of this work to every human being is not to concoct teachings, ways of looking at things, instructions and practices that are my creation, and then pass them on to you for you to receive gratefully, and try to make sense of. My role here is actually to distill and articulate the product of an ongoing conversation among all of us, over a period of more than ten years now, about the discovery that bringing an end to misery in a human life is actually not only possible but easy and simple, and can be done by anyone. It requires nothing at all to accomplish this except the determination to do one simple, solitary, radical act, and that is to turn the beam of your attention onto the feeling of being you. That's it. In the end, and against all odds and all expectation, this repeated act will bring sanity into your life. It will eliminate the underlying sense that life is treacherous and not to be trusted, and that something desperately needs to be done about it. Complete, live recording of a Worldwide Online Meeting with John Sherman broadcast live from Ojai, California on July 10, 2010. |
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| Podcast | |
| 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. |
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| Rides Needed & Rides Offered Accommodations Needed & Offered |
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| Use our BULLETIN BOARD to request and/or offer rides and accommodations for events with John Sherman. | |
| Bulletin Board | |
Our work is to bring the practice of looking at oneself 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 gifts to the RiverGanga Foundation are fully tax-deductible as charitable donations. |
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| Read a brief report on the work accomplished in 2008. |
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RiverGanga Foundation RiverGanga Foundation is a not-for-profit, 509(a)(2) public charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. Our Internal Revenue Service Employer ID Number is 77-0561647. All donations are tax deductible for US residents as charitable contributions. Click to view our letter of determination from the IRS. IRS Tips for Year-End Donations
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| More about the RiverGanga Foundation. | |
All text, audio and video content offered free of charge on this website, unless otherwise indicated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Updated daily since July 12, 2009 Click here to see the archived map showing where more than 43,000 visitors came from last year. © 2001-2010 RiverGanga Foundation.All rights reserved. |
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