This month, our guest speaker is Doug Gaum, who will lead a Meditation Workshop that will present the wonderful teachings of Sathya Sai Baba about Jyoti Meditation. Doug is the President for Region 2 of the Mid-Atlantic of the Shri Sathya Sai Organization, and has attended the Bethesda Sai Center for about 20 years. “Dhyana (meditation) is the very basis of all Sadhana (spiritual practice). Meditation gives you the first inkling of the Divine Bliss. With this Bliss as the ideal, you must carry on meditation and mental repetition of the Divine Name. … Do not give up this royal road that leads you on to that sacred goal.” Sri Sathya Sai Baba

On the first Saturday of every month, the School of Life hosts a “Peace Meal”, when we invite a speaker to give a presentation related to the practice of Peace, while guests enjoy a hot, home-made vegetarian meal, and afterwards engage in questions and answers. Peace Meals are a project of the Global Coalition for Peace, a 501(c)3 non-profit founded by Ashram director Victor (Vyasa) Landa, in response to the tragedies of 9/11 to encourage a non-violent response to aggression and to resolve its underlying causes. We invite you to join us each month to:

• Spread the concept of non-violence (ahimsa) as an effective and positive means to achieve societal transformation, leading to world peace;

• Explore and practice ways in which violence can be replaced by non-violence in all areas of personal, family, community, national and international life;

• Support actions conducive to the unity of humankind regardless of man-made barriers such as religious, national, ethnic, economic and political differences;

• Promote universal understanding of the relationship of human beings as a planetary family;

• Uphold the notion of the sacredness of human life;

• Explore the magnitude, different forms of, and effective, non-violent means to end economic slavery,

• Promote Satyagraha as defined by M.K. Gandhi as "The Force Borne Out of Truth and Love."