Welcome to our newsletter, dear reader,

• We begin our monthly selection with an article on the Josmani Yoga traditions of northeastern Nepal and Assam, introducing the specific features of their spiritual/initiatic lineages, and the prominent role of nada-yoga (yoga of sound) in their way.

With the utterance of specific words—such as aha and so’ham—meshed with melodic ragas accompanied by the sound of the ektar, the practitioner turns his attention inwards to specific sounds arising and reverberating within the body. The practice is at once varied and far-reaching, with inner and external practices, instrumental and vocal manifestation, vocalizing specific words, or singing songs.

• Next, in the latest addition to our Sacred Audio Collection, we have two recordings of the Samaveda, the one of the four Vedas which is primarily associated with song and recitation.

• And we complete our selection with the Epilogue from Trappist friar Thomas Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain. In this brief “Meditatio pauperis in solitudine”, “The meditation of a pauper in solitude,” we have a taste of the full range of Merton as a contemplative of the highest caliber, his inner struggle, the moving genuineness of his intimate quest.

Garden entrance (Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky)

In one sense we are always travelling, and travelling as if we did not know where we were going.
In another sense we have already arrived.
We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are travelling and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace, and therefore in that sense we have arrived and are dwelling in the light.
But oh’ How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived!