Hanging out with Sister Jean

Originally from Guyana, Sister Jean, an educator by profession, resigned from teaching in 1990 to serve as Guyana’s Brahma Kumaris National Coordinator from 1990 to 2004, when she migrated to the United States. There she coordinates the activities of The Meditation Centre and Gallery in Manhattan; participates in outreach activities in the tri borough states of New York; serves as a member on the design team which creates and conducts retreats at the Brahma Kumaris Peace Village Learning and Retreat Center in New York. She has acquired the experience of presenting the knowledge of Raja Yoga to groups of people from varying cultures and professions.

Sister Jean, trained in London to facilitate courses in positive thinking, stresses free living, secrets of self-esteem, and living values — an educational initiative, hoping that at the end of her presentation the audience would go away with some kind of renewed vision in terms of how they view problems, situations, challenges and hopefully some coping skills and feeling of empowerment. Most of the audience had already done the Raja Yoga’s course of study, and meditation programmes.

How had they found the Raja Yoga? One participant had gotten involved after talking to Sister Indira on the telephone, “Her calmness got me calm on the other end of the phone and I decided to go and see what this is all about.” How will the work of the Raja Yoga be spread? she asked. Sister Jean said, “By the oral tradition of us who come here going outside in our businesses, communities, and just telling people about the ideals of the organisation, should increase membership. It is about changing people’s attitudes that we try to bring people who may have doubts, here.” There were testimonies that participation in the Centre’s teachings had brought a great degree of peace. Raja Yoga is not a religion but there is a deep belief in God, and promotes a spirituality designed in a way that is universal and that can apply to all human beings regardless of whatever religion they embrace. “We do not follow rituals, dogmas or read from a scripture. There is no religious leader but in terms of spirituality it means understanding your own self from a spiritual point of view. Calling on a spiritual being, you experience life in a more deep and fulfilling way,” explained the visitor.

What was different about her advice on an already well-discussed subject? According to Sister Jean the Kumaris way was to help them to focus on their internal process of thinking and responding to challenges and difficulties, since living in the present moment was filled with fear, doubt and worry Sister Jean was about to present a very spiritual kind of understanding of ones self in terms of what change was needed to things that cause them stress.”

The Raja Yoga Centre in Trinidad is one of more than 70,000 in 90 countries accommodating over 800,000 full-time students. Their teaching provides the tools to generate a positive outlook generally, of which meditation is extremely important. “Meditation,” she explained “does not mean silence but brings a clarity about what should be done in various situations. Meditative exercises bring you to that point so you can respond from a state of strength.” The Kumaris are also engaged in a number of global initiatives, such as, health, teaching educators, leadership and dealing with the media.

Sister Jean explained the structure of the Brahama Kumaris - the many courses carried out at the Centres, through seminars, discussions and workshops so people become exposed to these things and by applying some of these concepts to practical situations they may have peace in their lives. Stressing the importance of building self-esteem.

“I must turn my life away and discover what is my worth, what is my value, how do I bring myself to that point of value. We need to value ourselves independently of what we have, what we do not have, and what we have acquired from the outside. With a renewed vision of looking at ourselves we can go to that point. Do not look outside to be encouraged or enhanced by my own recognition of who I am,” Sister Jean.

On the first Monday of each month, the Raja Yoga presents a Women of Value series from 12 noon to 1.15. Tomorrow, Monday August 7, the feature speaker Angela Lee Loy will discuss “The Importance of Time.” This may be a good time to learn about the activities at 26 Sackville Street. Refreshments are provided.