Slow Down Your Mind

This week let’s finish chapter 2 of Take Your Time, reading pages 48–54. Having offered a number of skills and strategies for prioritizing our time and relieving pressures, Easwaran now reaches what he describes as “the real crux of slowing down: developing an unhurried mind.” And he makes clear that the implications are profound:

“The Buddha called this ‘living intentionally.’ It is a way of life. Slowing down is not the goal; it is the means to an end. The goal is living in freedom – freedom from the pressures of hurry, from the distractions that fragment our time and creativity and love. Ultimately, it means living at the deepest level of our awareness.”

• Is there a relationship in your life that you wish you could improve? Read this article for tips from Easwaran. Try applying those tips, even if you can’t apply them directly to this particular relationship.

• We’ve been extending our practice of slowing down by working through the ideas and suggestions on pages 55–56. Read through that list and choose an experiment that fits best for you this week.

For our spiritual treat, we are pleased to share the next excerpt from the Easwaran video “The Other Shore.” Note that the full video is 26 minutes, but the excerpt goes from 12:26 – 19:05 and the player should start and stop automatically at those times. We’ll share the final segment of this video next week. Of course, you are welcome to watch more now as well.

Video

Ask What’s Important

In chapter 2 of Take Your Time, Easwaran has been giving us a list of ways to get started with our practice of slowing down, with each being a skill he says will grow through practice. This week let’s read pages 42–48, which includes Easwaran’s “red pencil” exercise:

“Long ago, when I began to see the benefits of meditation, I wanted to be sure I made time for it every day. But I couldn’t see how I could fit it in. I had an extremely busy schedule, with responsibilities from early morning until late at night.

“I valued all this, but I was determined to make meditation a top priority. So I sat down and made a list of all the things I felt bound to do.

“Then I took my red pencil and crossed out everything that was not actually necessary or beneficial. Some of the results surprised me. I found I had been involved in activities that I couldn’t honestly say benefited anyone, including myself. I had simply become used to doing them. When I surveyed what remained, I found I had freed a number of hours every week.”

• Read this article as if you and Easwaran are having a conversation. What advice does he give you, and how can you apply it this week?

• We are working on slowing down, using the ideas and suggestions from Take Your Time. This week try the “red pencil” exercise, described on pages 44–45 and in the excerpt above.

For our spiritual treat, we are pleased to share the next excerpt from the Easwaran video “The Other Shore.” Note that the full video is 26 minutes, but the excerpt goes from 5:09 – 12:25 and the player should start and stop automatically at those times. We’ll share the next segment of this video next week. Of course, you are welcome to watch more now as well.

Video

Slowing Down

In this week’s reading, page 34 to the top of 42 in Take Your Time, Easwaran recounts:

“…gradually I understood that living completely in the present is the secret of an unhurried mind. When the mind is not rushing about in a hurry, it is calm, alert, and ready for anything. And a calm mind sees deeply, which opens the door to tremendous discoveries: rich relationships, excellence in work, a quiet sense of joy. It was a revelation. There was a door to the discovery of peace and meaning in every moment! All I needed to open it was a quiet mind.”

Then he starts right in with eight ways for us to share in that revelation by making the best of the time we have every day.

• Is there a particular situation that causes you to get speeded up or agitated? What tips does Easwaran offer in this reading that you could try out in this situation? Even if the tips don’t seem to directly apply, try them anyhow and tell us what you find.

• We are working on slowing down, using the ideas and suggestions on pages 55–56. This week let’s try:

  • Experiment with getting up a little earlier each day. Use the time you gain for getting a more relaxed start on the day: more time for breakfast, a few minutes’ walk, or reading something inspirational. Avoid the temptation to check e-mail, catch up on the news, or anything else that you know just adds to the pressure or speeds you up.

For our spiritual treat, we are pleased to share the Easwaran video “The Other Shore.” Easwaran begins with a precise examination of the way we usually see the world – divided into the things and people we like and the things and people we don’t like. This duality (often unconscious) determines not only how we act, but how we see life. It is possible, he suggests, to jump beyond those opposites – and he tells us how.

Note that the full video is 26 minutes, but the excerpt ends at 5:09 and the player should stop automatically at that time. We’ll share the next segment of this video next week. Of course, you are welcome to watch more now as well.

Video

Facing Pressure Without Losing Peace of Mind

This week in our new Take Your Time book study, Easwaran presents two of his favorite lofty examples of inner strength and mastery: his grandmother and Gandhi. And for each, he highlights their complete command of time, pressures, and priorities. Of Granny, Easwaran write, “She arose daily with the morning star and worked till evening – sometimes, when necessary, well into the night, long after others had gone to bed. She did everything carefully, giving each task her full attention without pressure or hurry, enjoying her work without ever being driven by it.”

• Let’s read this section, pages 27–33, and continue working together on slowing down.

• Which lines particularly strike you, and how can you apply them to your life this week?

• Let’s continue extending our practice of slowing down using the ideas on pages 55–56. Here’s a suggestion for this week:

  • Meals are a great time for giving relationships a more important place in your day. If you often eat alone, find a friend to share lunch with. Give yourselves enough time not to hurry – and avoid talking business!

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “In the Midst of Darkness” from Mahatma Gandhi.

Passage Audio

Take Your Time

In this second week of our Take Your Time book study we’ll begin chapter 1, covering pages 19–27. We hope you find this opening as compelling as we do. As usual Easwaran makes clear that the implications are practical and profound:

“It may sound paradoxical, but however tight our schedule, however many things clamor to be done, we don’t need to hurry. If we can keep our mind calm and go about our business with undivided attention, we will not only accomplish more but we’ll do a better job – and find ourselves more patient, more at peace.”

• What is one statement that speaks to your heart in this reading? How will you put it into action this week?

• As a challenge this week, try this experiment from the “Ideas and Suggestions” on pages 55–56:

  • Set aside a regular time for reflection. A weekend morning, before the day gets started, is a good way to begin. You might use the time for thinking about what’s really important to you in the long run – a “Lifetime To Do” list, or even a “To Be” list.

• If you don’t yet have the book Take Your Time available, make sure you get it so you can join for the rest of the book study. We offer a 20% discount on books sold through our distribution partner indiepubs.com. The discount is applied automatically when you add to cart. Here is a link to Take Your Time on that site.

The Gift of Time

We are pleased to embark together on a book study; we’ll systematically read a whole volume from Easwaran – which is a great habit to practice together. So let’s start right in with Take Your Time, beginning with the foreword from Christine Easwaran on pages 9–18. Christine writes:

“In this book, Easwaran offers ways to develop the skill of living in the present so that we can open up the promise held within each moment of our lives. The more we practice, the more we discover in the time we have – and so the nearer we move to having all the time in the world. That, Easwaran says, is our birthright as human beings. It has already been granted to us; we simply have to learn how to claim it.”

Let’s take this opportunity to support each other in staking this precious claim!

• Is there a particular situation that causes you to get speeded up or agitated? Look into this reading for tips and try them out this week.

• The current edition (2006) of Take Your Time has suggestions for practice, set apart on blue pages, to encourage experimentation. Let’s use those suggestions to extend our practice of slowing down. We’ll start with this experiment from the list on pages 55–56:

  • See if you can find a situation where you’re regularly pressured to speed up. Can you think of a way to forestall it, perhaps by starting earlier or rearranging your time? If you can break the pattern, you’ve made a major gain in what the Buddha calls “intentional living.”

• If you don’t yet have the book Take Your Time available, make sure you get it so you can join for the rest of the book study. We offer a 20% discount on books sold through our distribution partner indiepubs.com. The discount is applied automatically when you add to cart. Here is a link to Take Your Time on that site.

The Power and Peace of Meditation

Easwaran begins this week’s reading with a stirring quote from the Gita (6:26):

Wherever the mind wanders, restless and diffuse in its search for satisfaction without, lead it within; train it to rest in the Self. Abiding joy comes to those who still the mind.

Let’s read the article, “The Power and Peace of Meditation,” on pages 23–27 of the Summer 2014 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal along with the journal’s final article from Easwaran on page 29. And may we each be inspired to deepen our concentration in meditation!

• Let’s continue extending our practice of one-pointed attention. Is there a tip in this reading that is particularly challenging for you? How will you wrestle with it this week?

• In this issue of the journal, Easwaran repeatedly describes how one-pointed attention is especially rewarding in personal relationships. Let's try it out this week: plan a time of day when you will give extra effort to one-pointed attention to those around you. For example you might choose a meal time when you will be eating with others.

• In one week, on February 28th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s Take Your Time. To prepare, make sure you have the book available.

  • We offer a 20% discount on books sold through our distribution partner indiepubs.com. The discount is applied automatically when you add to cart. Here is a link to Take Your Time on that site.

For our spiritual treat, we are pleased to share the final excerpt from the Easwaran video “Love Alters Not.” Note that the full video is 34 minutes, but the excerpt begins at 26:45 and the player should start automatically at that time.

Video

Six Ways to Tame an Unruly Mind

“The essential problem in doing one thing at a time is that we don't really want to—or, more accurately, the mind doesn't want to,” Easwaran diagnoses in this week’s reading from The Power and Peace of a One-Pointed Mind. What a familiar predicament! And yet, he assures us, “The ability to work on a job with total concentration, and then put it out of your mind when necessary, is a skill which can be cultivated.” This week’s article, “Six Ways to Tame an Unruly Mind” on pages 11–22, is full of practical tips for building one-pointed attention skill. We are eager to hear how you put them into action.

• Is there some tip from Easwaran in this reading that you tend to skim over because you have already heard it many times before? Try focusing on it this week to extend your practice of one-pointed attention.

• In this week’s reading, Easwaran writes, “…what I recommend is simple but intriguingly difficult: do only one thing at a time and give it your full attention. This is the key to doing a good job of any kind.”

  • This week, try to notice a time when you feel inclined to do more than one thing at a time, and experiment with choosing to be one pointed instead. Let us know how it goes!

• In two weeks, on February 28th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s Take Your Time. To prepare, make sure you have the book available.

  • We offer a 20% discount on books sold through our distribution partner indiepubs.com. The discount is applied automatically when you add to cart. Here is a link to Take Your Time on that site.

• Thank you to everyone who has participated in our month of mantrams for peace and healing in the world.

  • Here at the BMCM, we are honored to be receiving your books and pages full of mantrams. We have gathered them all together before Easwaran's picture, to be offered today, February 14 - Ramagiri Aspirations Day - when the Ramagiri residents re-dedicate themselves to Easwaran's legacy and way of life. Your efforts this month are joined with the Ramagiri residents’. This is our collective prayer for Divine help for our suffering world.

  • Let's keep those mantrams going, Easwaran reminds us we have no idea of the power of the mantram, so can imagine every repetition may be helping someone in need in these difficult times.

For our spiritual treat, we are pleased to share the next excerpt from the Easwaran video “Love Alters Not.” Note that the full video is 34 minutes, but the excerpt goes from 9:35 – 26:45 and the player should start and stop automatically at those times. We’ll share the final segment of this video next week. Of course, you are welcome to watch more now as well.

Video

The Power and Peace of a One-Pointed Mind

After a fascinating month spent on the challenge of turning spiritual ideals into action, we’ll now drop that topic and turn to The Power and Peace of a One-Pointed Mind, the Summer 2014 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal. Let’s use this journal study to work together at deepening our practice of one-pointed attention!

We’ll start by reading the brief pieces on pages 2 and 3, and then continue with the title article from Easwaran on pages 5–10. One powerful theme Easwaran draws out here is the connection between complete attention and detachment: “Through many, many years of unremitting effort based on the practice of meditation, we can train the mind to be detached from every attempt to cling for security to anything outside. That's what detachment means: you need nothing from anything or anyone outside you; you are complete.”

• What is the most important thing that Easwaran said to you in this reading? How can you apply it in your life?

• In this week's reading, Easwaran writes, "Doing a routine job well, with concentration, is the greatest challenge I can imagine. You're not just doing a job but learning a skill: the skill of improving concentration, which pays rich dividends in every aspect of life." Can you make a plan to practice that skill during a routine job this week?

• In three weeks, on February 28th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s Take Your Time. To prepare, make sure you have the book available.

  • We offer a 20% discount on books sold through our distribution partner indiepubs.com. The discount is applied automatically when you add to cart. Here is a link to Take Your Time on that site.

• If you’ve been filling a little mantram book for peace and healing in the world, it is time to send it in! We hope to gather all the books by February 14, a day especially inaugurated by Christine as “Ramagiri Aspirations Day.” On Aspirations Day, the Ramagiri residents gather to rededicate themselves to Easwaran’s legacy. We hope to place all those books full of mantrams before Easwaran’s altar at Ramagiri. That will be a fitting offering for peace and healing in the world.

  • Let’s all send our mantram books to:

    BMCM
    PO Box 256
    Tomales, CA 94971

For our spiritual treat, we are pleased to share the Easwaran video “Love Alters Not.” Easwaran recites from Shakespeare throughout the talk, commenting on the accordance with the Bhagavad Gita and the Dhammapada, and on how each of us can learn the skill of unchanging love.

Note that the full video is 34 minutes, but the excerpt ends at 9:35 and the player should stop automatically at that time. We’ll share the next segment of this video next week. Of course, you are welcome to watch more now as well.

Video

Ideals Are Living Forces

Turning Ideals Into Action: The Spiritual Challenge, the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal, has been our focus the past several weeks. Now let’s conclude that study with the issue’s powerful final article from Easwaran on page 59, along with reading the passages on pages 13, 17, 20, 27, 31, and 35, and these final words from Easwaran on page 64:

“Ideals in action in daily living are the very foundation for peace, the very basis for love, the very fulcrum for selfless service and a better world.”

• Is there a particular situation that causes you to get speeded up or agitated? What tips do Easwaran or these passages offer that you could try out in this situation? Even if the tips don’t seem to directly apply, try them anyhow and tell us what you find.

• As a putting others first challenge this week, what is one small thing you can do to turn this enticing observation from Easwaran into reality in your life?

  • “…As meditation deepens, you find there is a fierce satisfaction in letting go of your own way so that things can go someone else’s way instead. Gradually you develop a habit of goodness, a hang-up for kindness, a positive passion for the welfare of others.”

• In four weeks, on February 28th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s Take Your Time. To prepare, make sure you have the book available.

  • We offer a 20% discount on books sold through our distribution partner indiepubs.com. The discount is applied automatically when you add to cart. Here is a link to Take Your Time on that site.

• Mantrams for Peace and Healing

  • If you’ve been filling a little mantram book for peace and healing in the world, it is time to send it in! We hope to gather all the books by February 14, a day especially inaugurated by Christine as “Ramagiri Aspirations Day.” On Aspirations Day, the Ramagiri residents gather to rededicate themselves to Easwaran’s legacy. We hope to place all those books full of mantrams before Easwaran’s altar at Ramagiri. That will be a fitting offering for peace and healing in the world.

    • Let’s all send our mantram books to:

      BMCM
      PO Box 256
      Tomales, CA 94971

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “Radiant Is the World Soul” from Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.

Passage Audio

How to Make Wise Choices

In this week’s article, “How to Make Wise Choices,” Easwaran responds to the frequent question, “How can we know what the perspective of the Self is? Let alone identify with it? We don’t even know where to look.” His answer is a stirring guide for prioritizing activity throughout our lives. Here is one memorable piece of his strong advice: “…remember Sri Krishna’s injunction from the Bhagavad Gita: ‘Make Me your only goal.’ Everything can be referred to that. Will this deepen my meditation, improve my concentration, make my mind more even, make me less self-centered? If it will, I will do it; if it won’t, I will not.”

Let’s read that full article on pages 53–57, along with Easwaran’s brief article “Putting Anger to Work: The Bear” on pages 36–38 of the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal.

• Read this article as if you and Easwaran are having a conversation. What advice does he give you, and how can you apply it this week?

• Here’s this week’s putting others first challenge, direct from Easwaran. He writes:

  • “I am all ears when somebody says, ‘I don’t know how to be kind. I don’t know how to release deeper resources to make my life count.’ I say, ‘I can teach you!’ That is what meditation is for. Memorize a passage on kindness, memorize a passage on goodness, and then drive it inwards. You will become kind; you will become good.”

  • Try his advice this week and tell us how it goes!

• Mantrams for Peace and Healing

  • If you’ve been filling a little mantram book for peace and healing in the world, keep those mantrams coming! We hope to gather all the books by February 14, a day especially inaugurated by Christine as “Ramagiri Aspirations Day.” On Aspirations Day, the Ramagiri residents gather to rededicate themselves to Easwaran’s legacy. We hope to place all those books full of mantrams before Easwaran’s altar at Ramagiri. That will be a fitting offering for peace and healing in the world.

    • Let’s all send our mantram books to:

      BMCM
      PO Box 256
      Tomales, CA 94971

And for our spiritual bonus, here is Easwaran reading “The Way of Love” from the Bhagavad Gita.

Passage Audio

All of Us Are One

We’ve been doing the hard work of Turning Ideals Into Action, the topic of the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal. In this week’s article “All of Us Are One,” Easwaran inspires us toward this challenge, writing, “The same spark of divinity – this same Self – is enshrined in every creature. My real Self is not different from yours nor anyone else’s. The mystics are telling us that if we want to live in the joy that increases with time, if we want to live in true freedom independent of circumstances, then we must strive to realize that even if there are four people in our family or forty at our place of work, there is only one Self.” And later he explains, “When the sages talk about ‘realization,’ what they mean is making this Self a reality in our daily living. We have to practice it in our behavior.” Let’s read that full article on pages 41–46, along with the extended passage Easwaran’s article refers to, on pages 48–51.

• Which lines particularly strike you, and how can you apply them to your life this week?

• In this issue Easwaran writes, “…whenever I see somebody changing herself to be kinder or more selfless, my heart leaps in delight.” Can you take the opportunity to make Easwaran’s heart leap by changing something small this week? Use the comments below to let us know how so we can leap too!

• Mantrams for Peace and Healing

  • Throughout the ages, when times were dark and people were losing hope, the saints and sages gathered with their students to lift up their prayers, asking for the Lord to bring help to the suffering world. It is said that over and over again, we’ve been rescued by Divine forces in this way. So let’s join Easwaran, Christine and Granny in this ancient tradition. We’re calling on all of us to lift up our mantrams for peace and healing in the world throughout the entire month of January. Here is how we will do it:

    • Please find a nice little blank book to fill with mantrams. We’re going to aim to fill up our books with mantrams by the beginning of February, and then, if you will, please send your book of mantrams to us here at the BMCM. We hope to gather all the books by February 14, a day especially inaugurated by Christine as “Ramagiri Aspirations Day.” On Aspirations Day, the Ramagiri residents gather to rededicate themselves to Easwaran’s legacy. We hope to place all those books full of mantrams before Easwaran’s altar at Ramagiri. That will be a fitting offering for peace and healing in the world.

    • We’ll need to get cracking with our mantram writing so we can get those books filled. Please join us, this is a grand offering for a very grand and needed purpose!

    • Let’s all send our mantram books to:
      BMCM
      PO Box 256
      Tomales, CA 94971

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Easwaran reading the passage “That Invisible One” from the Kena Upanishad.

Passage Audio

Make Peace Your State of Mind

What does it mean to make peace your state of mind? “Gradually you develop a habit of goodness, a hang-up for kindness, a positive passion for the welfare of others,” Easwaran explains. “In terms of emotional engineering, you are using the mind’s enormous capacity for passion to develop the power to put other people first: and not just verbally, but in your thoughts and actions as well. Eventually kindness becomes spontaneous, second nature; it no longer requires effort. There is nothing sentimental about this quality, either; kindness can be as tough as nails.” Continuing our study of Turning Ideals Into Action: The Spiritual Challenge from the Blue Mountain Journal, let’s read Easwaran’s article on pages 23–33 and examine more of his presentation on the dynamics of acquiring a peaceful mind.

• What is Easwaran telling you about the workings of your own mind? This week, use this new understanding to get some cooperation from your mind when it is being uncooperative. Tell us how it goes!

• Let’s continue extending our practice of putting others first. In this week's reading Easwaran writes, “Nothing we do could have a more beneficial influence on those around us than remaining calm and considerate in the midst of ups and downs.” For this week’s challenge, reflect on a situation where you’ve been agitated recently and craft a strategy for remaining calm and considerate the next time you face it.

• Mantrams for Peace and Healing

  • Throughout the ages, when times were dark and people were losing hope, the saints and sages gathered with their students to lift up their prayers, asking for the Lord to bring help to the suffering world. It is said that over and over again, we’ve been rescued by Divine forces in this way. So let’s join Easwaran, Christine and Granny in this ancient tradition. We’re calling on all of us to lift up our mantrams for peace and healing in the world throughout the entire month of January. Here is how we will do it:

    • Please find a nice little blank book to fill with mantrams. We’re going to aim to fill up our books with mantrams by the beginning of February, and then, if you will, please send your book of mantrams to us here at the BMCM. We hope to gather all the books by February 14, a day especially inaugurated by Christine as “Ramagiri Aspirations Day.” On Aspirations Day, the Ramagiri residents gather to rededicate themselves to Easwaran’s legacy. We hope to place all those books full of mantrams before Easwaran’s altar at Ramagiri. That will be a fitting offering for peace and healing in the world.

    • We’ll need to get cracking with our mantram writing so we can get those books filled. Please join us, this is a grand offering for a very grand and needed purpose!

    • Let’s all send our mantram books to:
      BMCM
      PO Box 256
      Tomales, CA 94971

For a spiritual treat, here is the second half of the video we started last week. The player should start automatically where we left off at timepoint 8:30, so feel free to restart at the beginning if you missed it last time. In the video, Easwaran reminds us about all the opportunities our desires offer for gaining a firmer, fitter will. He also discusses practical ways we can make great strides towards realizing our true Self within.

Video

Hold On to Your High Ideals

“If you are one of the great majority of human beings who have allowed their ideals to get vague around the edges,” Easwaran consoles us in this week’s reading, “meditation can sharpen and strengthen them. Simply refreshing these ideals in meditation can bring an immediate sense of relief, as if coming home again after a long absence or finding something precious you had lost and forgotten.”

This week we take up Turning Ideals Into Action: The Spiritual Challenge, the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal, starting with the first article by Easwaran on pages 5–14. May we each be inspired by this sweet promise of coming home again to our own ideals!

• Identify something in your life that you find confusing at this time, and where you wish you could ask Easwaran for his tips. See what he has to say in our readings. How can you apply his words to your situation?

• In this week's reading, Easwaran writes, “Ideals are merely ideas until we translate them into daily life – and that means learning to go against the conditioning that urges us to put ourselves first instead.” What is one small way you can go against your conditioning and put others first this week?

• Mantrams for Peace and Healing

  • Throughout the ages, when times were dark and people were losing hope, the saints and sages gathered with their students to lift up their prayers, asking for the Lord to bring help to the suffering world. It is said that over and over again, we’ve been rescued by Divine forces in this way. So let’s join Easwaran, Christine and Granny in this ancient tradition. We’re calling on all of us to lift up our mantrams for peace and healing in the world throughout the entire month of January. Here is how we will do it:

    • Please find a nice little blank book to fill with mantrams. We’re going to aim to fill up our books with mantrams by the beginning of February, and then, if you will, please send your book of mantrams to us here at the BMCM. We hope to gather all the books by February 14, a day especially inaugurated by Christine as “Ramagiri Aspirations Day.” On Aspirations Day, the Ramagiri residents gather to rededicate themselves to Easwaran’s legacy. We hope to place all those books full of mantrams before Easwaran’s altar at Ramagiri. That will be a fitting offering for peace and healing in the world.

    • We’ll need to get cracking with our mantram writing so we can get those books filled. Please join us, this is a grand offering for a very grand and needed purpose!

    • Let’s all send our mantram books to:
      BMCM
      PO Box 256
      Tomales, CA 94971

For our spiritual bonus this week, let’s enjoy the first half of this video, ending at timepoint 8:30. Of course you are welcome to continue and watch the second half as well, but note that we’ll be using it for our treat next week. In the video, Easwaran reminds us about all the opportunities our desires offer for gaining a firmer, fitter will. He also discusses practical ways we can make great strides towards realizing our true Self within.

Video

Original Goodness

Easwaran presents a lofty vision in this week’s reading: “The seed is there, and the ground is fertile. Nothing is required but diligent gardening to bring into existence the God-tree: a life that proclaims the original goodness in all creation.” Please find that brief article, titled “Original Goodness,” on pages 51–52 of the Winter 2015 Blue Mountain Journal The Challenge of Choosing to Be Kind, and let’s read it along with the “Last Reminders from Easwaran” on pages 48–49 and the passages on pages 9, 13, 22, 26, and 53.

• If you have a particular issue you are struggling with right now, look into this reading for tips, and try them out this week.

• Easwaran says, “Exercising discrimination is part of being kind. We need to combine a soft heart with a hard nose.” This week, watch for examples of people who exercise good discrimination and are able to be warm-hearted yet firm when necessary. Are there situations when you can exercise this skill yourself?

• Mantrams for Peace and Healing

  • This week, on December 29, we will have our annual New Years day of mantrams for peace and healing in the world. This is very important this year. Throughout the ages, when times were dark and people were losing hope, the saints and sages gathered with their students to lift up their prayers, asking for the Lord to bring help to the suffering world. It is said that over and over again, we’ve been rescued by Divine forces in this way. So on December 29, let’s join Easwaran, Christine and Granny in this ancient tradition. We will pour our mantrams out throughout that day and night for peace and healing in the world. The centerpiece of our day will be Satsang Live, and we will join together at 9:40 am PT to start writing mantrams.

  • But it won’t stop this year at the end of that day. We’re calling on all of us to lift up our mantrams for peace and healing in the world throughout the entire month of January. Here is how we will do it:

    • Please find a nice little blank book to fill with mantrams. We’re going to aim to fill up our books with mantrams by the beginning of February, and then, if you will, please send your book of mantrams to us here at the BMCM. We hope to gather all the books by February 14, a day especially inaugurated by Christine as “Ramagiri Aspirations Day.” On Aspirations Day, the Ramagiri residents gather to rededicate themselves to Easwaran’s legacy. We hope to place all those books full of mantrams before Easwaran’s altar at Ramagiri. That will be a fitting offering for peace and healing in the world.

    • We’ll need to get cracking with our mantram writing so we can get those books filled. Please join us, this is a grand offering for a very grand and needed purpose!

    • Let’s all send our mantram books to:
      BMCM
      PO Box 256
      Tomales, CA 94971

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “You Are That” from the Chandogya Upanishad.

Passage Audio

Seeking the Same Self in All

Let’s keep learning how to choose kindness! This week we’ll finish Easwaran’s answers to the frequently asked questions in the Winter 2015 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal, reading pages 30–38. Here he reminds us, “What matters is the friendliness we show, the attention with which we listen – and, more than anything else, the complete absence of any sense of superiority.”

And thanks for all your examples and inspiration throughout this past month! It is very uplifting to be studying Easwaran’s timely message together.

• What is the most important thing that Easwaran said to you in this reading? How can you apply it in your life?

• A challenge: practice listening. Take time to listen to others this week. Particularly if there is disagreement, make it your goal to understand what the other person is expressing. But don’t stop just with disagreements. Simply enjoy listening to other’s verbal and non-verbal connections. Try to listen knowing that the Lord lives in this person.

• Mantrams for Peace and Healing

  • On December 29, we will have our annual New Years day of mantrams for peace and healing in the world. This is very important this year. Throughout the ages, when times were dark and people were losing hope, the saints and sages gathered with their students to lift up their prayers, asking for the Lord to bring help to the suffering world. It is said that over and over again, we’ve been rescued by Divine forces in this way. So on December 29, let’s join Easwaran, Christine and Granny in this ancient tradition. We will pour our mantrams out throughout that day and night for peace and healing in the world. The centerpiece of our day will be Satsang Live, and we will join together at 9:40 am PT to start writing mantrams.

  • But it won’t stop this year at the end of that day. We’re calling on all of us to lift up our mantrams for peace and healing in the world throughout the entire month of January. Here is how we will do it:

    • Please find a nice little blank book to fill with mantrams. We’re going to aim to fill up our books with mantrams by the beginning of February, and then, if you will, please send your book of mantrams to us here at the BMCM. We hope to gather all the books by February 14, a day especially inaugurated by Christine as “Ramagiri Aspirations Day.” On Aspirations Day, the Ramagiri residents gather to rededicate themselves to Easwaran’s legacy. We hope to place all those books full of mantrams before Easwaran’s altar at Ramagiri. That will be a fitting offering for peace and healing in the world.

    • We’ll need to get cracking with our mantram writing so we can get those books filled. Please join us, this is a grand offering for a very grand and needed purpose!

    • Let’s all send our mantram books to:
      BMCM
      PO Box 256
      Tomales, CA 94971

For a spiritual treat this week, here is a brief video in which Easwaran draws inspiration from the great mystic poet Kabir.

Video

The Way to Peace

Mantrams for Peace and Healing

On December 29, we will have our annual New Years day of mantrams for peace and healing in the world. This is very important this year. Throughout the ages, when times were dark and people were losing hope, the saints and sages gathered with their students to lift up their prayers, asking for the Lord to bring help to the suffering world. It is said that over and over again, we’ve been rescued by Divine forces in this way.

So on December 29, let’s join Easwaran, Christine and Granny in this ancient tradition. We will pour our mantrams out throughout that day and night for peace and healing in the world. The centerpiece of our day will be Satsang Live, and we will join together at 9:40 am PT to start writing mantrams.

But it won’t stop this year at the end of that day. We’re calling on all of us to lift up our mantrams for peace and healing in the world throughout the entire month of January. Here is how we will do it:

Please find a nice little blank book to fill with mantrams. We’re going to aim to fill up our books with mantrams by the beginning of February, and then, if you will, please send your book of mantrams to us here at the BMCM. We hope to gather all the books by February 14, a day especially inaugurated by Christine as “Ramagiri Aspirations Day.” On Aspirations Day, the Ramagiri residents gather to rededicate themselves to Easwaran’s legacy. We hope to place all those books full of mantrams before Easwaran’s altar at Ramagiri. That will be a fitting offering for peace and healing in the world.

We’ll need to get cracking with our mantram writing so we can get those books filled. Please join us, this is a grand offering for a very grand and needed purpose!

Now a little logistical detail. Let’s all send our mantram books to:
BMCM
PO Box 256
Tomales, CA 94971

---

“I know when somebody is being rude or unkind, but it does not impair my faith in that person or lower him in my eyes,” Easwaran explains in this week’s reading. “I keep my eyes on the core of goodness I see in him, and act toward him as I would have him act toward me. There is only one way to make others more loving, and that is by loving more ourselves.” We are continuing our study of The Challenge of Choosing to Be Kind, from the Winter 2015 Blue Mountain Journal. Let’s pick back up with the title article, reading pages 21–30. We are eager to hear how you take up this challenge in the comments below!

• What is one statement that speaks to your heart in this reading? How will you put it into action this week?

• A challenge: this week, when you are feeling negative, tired, bored, sad, or anxious, try this easy fix-it. Do something for someone else. For instance, make some soup to share with a neighbor; do an errand for your partner; play a board game with the kids; call a lonely friend. Notice for yourself how quickly your own state of mind changes. Tell us how it goes!

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Easwaran reading the passage “The Whole World Is Your Own” from Sri Sarada Devi.

Passage Audio

The Challenge of Choosing to Be Kind

Last week we took up The Challenge of Choosing to Be Kind, the Winter 2015 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal, including starting the title article where Easwaran answers frequently asked questions about choosing kindness. This week let’s continue that extended article, reading from page 11 to the heading on page 21. The section is full of insights and practical tips, including this striking metaphor about focusing all our attention on what is best in others:

“This is one of the most practical skills I have learned from my spiritual teacher, my grandmother, and it can be tremendously effective in helping those around you. It is something like turning a flashlight on a particular spot. I don’t diffuse my attention to take in both positive and negative behavior; I keep concentrating on what is kind, what is generous, what is selfless, and the amazing response is that this kind of support draws out and strengthens these very qualities. Not only that, as they become more secure, such people begin to spread this consideration to their other relationships too.”

• Is there a relationship in your life that you wish you could improve? Read this article for tips from Easwaran. Try applying those tips, even if you can’t apply them directly to this particular relationship.

• A challenge: is there a situation or person that annoys you or makes you impatient? This week, put special effort into focusing on the positive in that person. Whenever you think a critical thought about the person, correct it by reminding yourself of a positive quality. When interacting, focus on their positive qualities. When you remember the interaction afterward, or when you talk to others about it, purposely focus on the things that you had in common or that went well. You will need your mantram for this exercise! Share your brave experiments.

And for bonus inspiration, here is a six-minute video in which Easwaran describes how by training our mind, “We can become part of the Sea of Love while living on Earth.”

Video

The Same Self Is in All of Us

Here on the eSatsang we’ve spent the past several weeks studying Easwaran’s message on how to live in unity amidst a world in crisis. Now let’s explore living in unity from a different direction, turning to The Challenge of Choosing to Be Kind, the Winter 2015 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal. We’ll start with Christine Easwaran’s introduction to the issue on page 2, along with the opening statement from Easwaran on page 3. We’ll then read pages 5–10, the start of the title article for this issue, composed of frequently asked questions answered by Easwaran. We’re eager to hear what parts inspire you. Here’s an extended quote that stirred us:

“Most of us can treat others with respect under certain circumstances—at the right time, with the right people, in a certain place. When those circumstances are absent, we usually move away. Yet when we respond according to how the other person behaves, changing whenever she changes, and she is behaving in this same way, how can we expect anything but insecurity on both sides? There is nothing solid to build on.

“Instead, we can learn to respond always to the Self within—focusing not on the other person’s ups and downs, likes and dislikes, but always on what is changeless in each of us. Then others grow to trust us. They know they can count on us –and that makes us more secure too.”

• Is there a tip in this reading that is particularly challenging for you? How will you wrestle with it this week?

• As a challenge, try focusing this week on treating others – and speaking about them – with respect. Do this for those you love, those you dislike, and those you tend to ignore. What do you learn by trying this?

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “Give Up Anger” from the Dhammapada.

Passage Audio

The Joy of All

To finish our study of A World in Crisis Part 3: Living in Unity, the Spring 2021 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal, let’s read Easwaran’s brief article “The Joy of All” on page 59 along with the passages on pages 21, 41, and 56. Throughout the issue, Easwaran has reminded us that meditation is essential to unity, so this journal includes his brief instructions for meditation on pages 60–61, providing an opportunity for us each to review with fresh eyes. And here are the final words from Easwaran on the journal’s back cover:

“When we start living for others, we come to life. All our deeper capacities flow into our hands; our security increases and our wisdom grows, as does our creative ability to solve the problems that confront the world. Living and acting selflessly, we will be constantly aware that all life is one, and that throughout creation there is an underlying unity binding us all together.”

• Is there a particular situation that causes you to get speeded up or agitated? What tips do you find in this week’s passages and reading from Easwaran that you could try out in this situation? Even if the tips don’t seem to directly apply, try them anyhow and tell us what you find.

• Try taking a “mantram nap” at a time that is practical for you during your day. Simply lie down for 10 to 20 minutes (set an alarm if needed) and silently repeat the mantram. Try to keep the mantram going. If you drowse off, that’s ok, just start the mantram again when possible.

  • Mantram naps can refresh you so you have more energy for the rest of the day. Many of us find it very helpful to take a short mantram nap before our evening meditation.

For this week’s spiritual treat, in the six-minute video below Easwaran summarizes some insights from the sages of ancient India and discusses how these insights can transform our daily life and our world. He speaks of the great mystics’ journeys to reach the state of stillness of mind, where their vision of the universe became clear and whole.

Video