OmChat Book Club



OmChat 2010-2011 Reading Schedule

We meet on the 2nd Sunday of the month unless there's a holiday or other significant reason to move it back a week. All meetings will start at 6:30, with our traditional pot-luck and socializing for the first hour or so. From roughly 7:30 till 8:30 or 9:00pm, we'll discuss our book choice of the month. We will ask for a volunteer each month to host our gathering, moving the meetings around so all have the chance to host. Also, we'll ask one person to take the lead in facilitating the discussion each month - default is the person (or persons) who nominated the reading for that month.

Date Book Author Host Leader
10/10 The Impact of Awakening Adyashanti John Hurley, Takoma Park John Hurley
11/14 Wherever you Go, There you Are Jon Kabat-Zinn Kay Tolle / Wendell Williams, Silver Spring Kay Tolle
12/12 Quest for the True Self Stephen Cope Becky Neal, Bethesda Becky Neal
01/09 Quest for the True Self TBD TBD
02/13 Dance of the Wu-Li Masters Gary Zukov TBD TBD
03/13 A Path with Heart Jack Kornfirld TBD TBD
04/10 *Eastern Body, Western Mind – Part 1 Anodea Judith TBD TBD
05/08 *Eastern Body, Western Mind – Part 2 Anodea Judith TBD TBD
06/12 TBD Carol and Jay ? TBD

About OmChat

The OmChat Book Club, loosely affiliated with Willow Street Yoga Center, meets from September through June, usually the 2nd Sunday of the month. Our first meeting this year is September 13, 2009. We start at 6:30pm with a pot-luck supper. We begin our discussion around 7:30pm and end by 8:30-9:00pm. Finishing the book (or even beginning the reading) is not a requirement to come to OmChat and enjoy the discussion and pot-luck dinner. We rotate our meeting place among the homes of our members. (We are still finalizing our location for September.)

The OmChat Book Club formed in 2001 out of the desire of a handful of Willow Street students to explore some of the books that underlie the yogic teachings they had been introduced to through their practice of yoga. The scope of OmChat has shifted in that time to include many other works broadly defined as spiritual reading.

Among the many books we’ve chosen over the past couple of years are Autobiography of a Yogi, A New Earth (Eckhart Tolle), and Climbing the Blue Mountain: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey (Eknath Easwaran). From time to time, we also have had meetings without a book, including presentations on Ayurveda, the Gayatri Mantra, and Yoga Nidra. We even have movie nights! (Ten Questions for the Dalai Lama). As you can see, we are an eclectic group with wide-ranging spiritual interests.

This year, we will do something different. We will read and discuss a single book over the first 3 months (September/October/November). The book is a fine translation of The Ramayana by William Buck. You are most likely familiar with the main characters - Prince Rama, his wife Sita, his brother Lakshman, and the devoted monkey god, Hanuman. Here's your chance to really dive deep into the story which underlies so much of the yogic tradition. It is a long book, so we will read just Part 1 for September (about 135 pages). The book can be ordered from amazon.com or from anusara.com, or found in some of the area Borders Bookstores (check their website for availability).

If you are interested in joining us, or want more regular information on OmChat, including updates on where we will be meeting each month, please join our OmChat Group list at Yahoo.com. Send an email to . You will receive a response asking you to confirm your request to join and shortly thereafter you will be on our email list.

Hope to see you soon!

Namaste