Jai Shri Mataji!
Dear Vishwa Nirmala Dharma Sangha,
All materials from the Journey of Self-discovery course (originating in Amsterdam) are available to the global sangha to help give Sahaja Yoga meditation courses.
How it all started
In 2017, a small team dedicated to sharing Shri Mataji’s message in a fresh and structured way got together in Amsterdam. We started to develop a 12-week course, where the seekers follow a journey and step by step and get to know themselves from within. Our team comprises Sahaja Yoga practitioners of all ages, including former course participants. All of us have a different way of explaining Shri Mataji’s teachings. Together we hope we have created a beautiful, diverse, and balanced way of presenting plenty of information to satisfy the enquiring mind and at the same time open the heart in every session.
Successful Facebook promotion
After giving the beginners course for over a year, we felt that the programme was ready for the next step. We set up our first Facebook campaign to promote the course. The Facebook event exploded! All of a sudden we had reached 58,000 people, had 3,200 views with 1,300 interested in following the course! From then on we had to host the first night of our new courses starting in September and January in a large conference room as we can no longer fit in our centre (when we could meet in person of course)! The halls were always full – over the last 8 years the first evening has been attended by around 120-160 seekers. When we could still meet live, we had to split the beginners course into two groups and host the meditation evenings two nights a week, each session starting out with around 60 participants.
Four years on, our collective is growing
Now we have been lucky enough to give over 9 years of beginners, intermediate and advanced courses. And our collective is growing. Several meditators from the courses have now joined us or other collectives. They are regularly and enthusiastically attending, participating and contributing to Sahaj events, meditations and more.
And now for the courses!
The course structure is as follows:
I. Beginners Course (12 weeks)
II. Intermediate Course (12 weeks + 1-day seminar)
III. Advanced Course (12 weeks + 2 day weekend seminar)
For every session/topic we have created a page on this website which includes a basic outline of the session as well as all relevant material. The pages are structured in a Prepare – Present – Follow-up format. Prepare describes what is suggested to prepare prior to the session. Present gives an outline of the structure of the session and links all relevant material. Follow-up lists items to send to the seekers after the session.
More specifically, every page contains:
- a few sentences to clarify the content of the session
- ‘How to prepare an evening’ pdf with tips on how to prepare a session and how to use Zoom (technical tips and roles)
- PowerPoint presentation (ppt)
- Background information used for the presentation
- links to excerpts and full talks of Shri Mataji
- pdf version of the PowerPoint presentation to send to the seekers after each session
- pre-recorded video of presentation
- recording of additional footsoak and meditation interweaving the week’s topic
Videos: pre-recorded videos of presentations
We realised that all this material, particularly the PowerPoints (which are basically just bullet points to develop on), could be a bit overwhelming. So we made video recordings of all the presentations. The videos are intended for reference to help you prepare your own presentation. They could be helpful to see how we develop the ppt presentations and the relationship with the background information. If you like, you can share the links to the videos with your course participants via email after you have given your own presentation. Smaller collectives with fewer resources can of course play these pre-recorded videos to seekers if they like. Please do not post or share the videos publicly on Facebook, YouTube, or elsewhere online. An ongoing process, feedback welcome!
This Sahaja Yoga course is something that we have been creating, adjusting, fine-tuning for 9 years now. It will continue to be an ongoing process. We in no way claim that this is the only effective way to pass on Shri Mataji’s teachings and the knowledge and experience of Sahaja Yoga. We are merely sharing our time and effort with you to offer support in any way we can. We encourage you to take whatever works for you and use the material as you see fit. Don’t be shy to let us know if anything is unclear and if you have any feedback for us. We are all here to learn from each other. We wish you the best of vibrations and success attracting seekers using the material in your country!
All our love,
The Journey of Self-Discovery (Amsterdam course team)