Are you putting your wisdom into practice?

**We're in Meeting Room 4 this week, right next to the regular meeting room**

> "For the majority of spiritual aspirants, the process of attaining self-knowledge, like the process of learning any other art or science, is said to be a threefold process of repeated sravana, manana and nididhyasana, or learning, assimilation and practice. The Sanskrit word sravana literally means ‘hearing’, but in this context it means learning the truth by hearing, reading or studying. The word manana means thinking, pondering, musing, reflection or meditation, that is, dwelling frequently upon the truth that we have learnt through sravana in order to imbibe it and understand it more and more clearly, and to impress it upon our mind more and more firmly. And the word nididhyasana means keen observation, scrutiny, attentiveness or profound contemplation, that is, in our context, putting what we have learnt and understood by sravana and manana into practice by keenly scrutinising, attending to or contemplating upon our essential self-conscious being, ‘I am’.

> "...Sankara declared ... that the benefit of manana is a hundred times greater than that of sravana, and the benefit of nididhyasana is a hundred thousand times greater than that of banana."

~ Happiness and The Art of Being: A layman’s introduction to the philosophy and practice of the spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, by Michael James

Are you putting your wisdom into practice?

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"What will make me happy in life?" ... "Am I my thoughts?" ... "What is Enlightenment?" ... We meet every week to ask questions like these in the pursuit of Self-Knowledge and Truth.

We are interested in topics like: Zen, stoicism, spirituality, psychology, mindfulness, Nisargadatta, non-violent communication, Socrates, existential philosophy, Alan Watts, taoism, Eckhart Tolle, meditation, Ramana Maharshi, etc. But we are not affiliated with any dogma, philosophy, or religion.

Our goal each meeting is to serve as mirrors for one another using question-based inquiry in a safe environment. In a session, every participant takes turns discussing the week's question or topic, and the group asks reflective questions without any agenda besides trying to understand the person's beliefs.

A few other guiding principles of our group:

• No one is obligated to share
• Be honest with yourself and others
• Do not try to convince others to believe or think as you do
• Keep the focus on the person being questioned

We meet at the Bethesda Library every Monday. The library is a 5 minute walk from the Bethesda Metro on the Red Line, approx 25 minute Metro ride from Metro Center and Gallery Place stations. The library has a a parking lot with metered parking for $1/hour.

*** WE WILL BE IN MEETING ROOM 3 UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED ----- THE MEETING ROOM IS IN THE BACK OF THE LIBRARY ***

Please contact us with any questions!