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

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“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

Nine Ways to Work in Unity

The law of unity sounds like an abstract spiritual concept, but throughout the Spring 2021 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal, Easwaran guides us through its practical applications for healing our relationships and our world. In this week’s reading on pages 48–53, the application is selfless service, as he enumerates “Nine Ways to Work in Unity.” We are eager to hear about your experiments applying these in your own live. Here is one excerpt that inspired us: “How we work is as important as what we do. Spiritual values are not so much taught as caught, from the lives of those who embody them. Your job may be nothing more glamorous than janitor in a hospital, but if you are practicing sadhana sincerely, you will be contributing to other people’s lives, even though you may not see it happening. These are spiritual laws.”

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

• Is there someone who you see often, who you feel critical towards? If so, smother the criticism with cheerful mantrams; pre-empt the criticism with the mantram as a reminder that the Lord is in this person. This is a version of “mantram forgiveness.”

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “When I Lose Myself in Thee” from Tukaram.

Passage Audio

At Home with Friends and Enemies

Let’s continue our study of the Spring 2021 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal, A World in Crisis Part 3: Living in Unity. This week we will read Easwaran’s article “At Home with Friends and Enemies,” on pages 27–39. Continuing the issue’s exploration of the law of unity, here Easwaran explains its expression in kind conduct towards those who disagree with us. He writes, “…if we grasp this great truth – that the Lord lives in each and every one of us, regardless of who we are – we will never be discourteous to others, we will never be unkind, we will never try to avoid people, we will always be glad to work in harmony with those around us. Then it becomes impossible to quarrel, to be angry, to hurt others, to move away.”

• 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.

• Have the goal to use the mantram when surprised. Devise a strategy to say the mantram instead of any other sound or phrase when surprised. For instance, we usually say “Oops” (or perhaps worse) when we spill something, slip while walking, or when a car swerves in front of our car unexpectedly. Devise a strategy for inserting the mantram in the place of the usual verbal reaction. Try it out – and if you don’t manage to get the mantram in at the first surprise, start it up as soon as you remember. Before long, you will discover that the mantram has a sense of humor of its own – and it will start slipping itself in BEFORE you can say “oops.”

For a spiritual treat this week, here is a brief video in which Easwaran describes his own efforts with the mantram and some of the benefits that taking the mantrams deeper can bring for us.

Video

The Tree of Life

After a deeply inspiring month celebrating Easwaran’s life and teachings and rededicating ourselves to our practice, we now turn again to Easwaran for guidance on how to be of service amidst a world in crisis.

Let’s turn to the Spring 2021 issue of the Blue Mountain Journal, A World in Crisis Part 3: Living in Unity, and this week we’ll begin by reading the brief statement from Easwaran on page 3, along with his article “The Tree of Life: A Symbol of Unity” on pages 5–18. Exploring the Bhagavad Gita’s magnificent simile of the Tree of Life, Easwaran guides us through the vast practical consequences and opportunities it implies, including enriched relationships, security, and love that grows without bounds. He writes, “There is no limit to how wide our concern can extend, because in meditation our consciousness expands little by little, until ultimately we discover we are the very root of the Tree of Life.”

• 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?

• Let’s keep our mantram practice growing! Say your mantram before starting tasks. See how often you can do this. Can you make it a habit?

  • When sending email or text messages, say your mantram a few times before hitting “send.”

  • When you walk from one place to another, say the mantram to help you transition.

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “The Miracle of Illumination” from Shantideva.

Passage Audio

Going Home

We have arrived at the week of our Celebration of Easwaran’s Life and Teachings! You can read details of how to participate this Sunday, October 27 at www.bmcm.org/celebration.

Here in the eSatsang, for the final week of our study of the 2018 Blue Mountain Journal Do You Know Who You Really Are?, let’s read Easwaran’s article “The Goal of Evolution” on pages 52–59, along with his closing statement titled “Going Home” on page 61. There in simple language Easwaran sums up the journal’s theme: “That is exactly what meditation means: going home to the realm of infinite joy, infinite love, and infinite peace that we call God.”

• 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?

• A letter of rededication: as we noted at the start of this journal study, each year many of us at BMCM go through a process of reflection for Easwaran’s Life Celebration. We culminate that process with a letter of rededication to Easwaran, and you may want to join in that. Review your notes or thoughts from the questions over the past month, optionally using this reflection worksheet. Then use those ideas to write a letter in which you express your gratitude to Easwaran as your teacher and also a specific small way in which you are rededicating yourself to him in the upcoming year. Put this letter in an envelope and keep it carefully to be reviewed next year at the time of Easwaran’s Life Celebration.

• See you on Sunday in BMCM Satsang Live, as the centerpiece of our day of mantrams for peace and healing in the world. Your presence is important!

And here is one more excerpt from Quietly Changing the World for this week’s spiritual treat. (If you’d like more, you can access these videos here on our website).

Video

A Higher Image through the Eight-Point Program

We are now one week away from our worldwide celebration of Easwaran’s life on Sunday, October 27 – we hope you will join us! You can read details of how to participate at www.bmcm.org/celebration.

Here in the eSatsang we have been preparing by studying the 2018 Blue Mountain Journal Do You Know Who You Really Are? This week we will read Easwaran’s article “A Higher Image through the Eight-Point Program” on pages 46–49. Here’s how Easwaran introduces it: “Spiritual growth is a lifelong dialogue between our everyday personality and our innermost Self, between the daily and the divine in the depths of the heart, when the superficial self we are aware of speaks to the deeper wisdom in us all.”

You may also enjoy returning to the meditation passages presented earlier in the journal, on pages 25 and 44.

• 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?

• Continuing our reflection for Easwaran’s Life Celebration, we have two prompts for you this week. If you’d like, you can use this reflection worksheet to keep your notes.

  • Think about your daily or weekly schedule. Think of one small way you could tweak that schedule to put meditation first in the upcoming year. Write it down in specific terms.

  • Choose a passage from God Makes the Rivers to Flow that speaks to you about the relationship you want to cultivate with Easwaran. Copy that passage.

• When we all join together in BMCM Satsang Live to absorb Easwaran’s presence, followed by meditation, that is a powerful healing force that the world needs. Can you meet us there?

We hope you’ve been enjoying the excerpts from Quietly Changing the World. Here is the next excerpt for this week’s spiritual treat.

Video

The Three Stages of Meditation

With our worldwide celebration of Easwaran’s life coming Sunday, October 27, we continue to enjoy the 2018 Blue Mountain Journal Do You Know Who You Really Are? You can read details of how to participate in the Life Celebration at www.bmcm.org/celebration.

This week in the eSatsang, we’ll read Easwaran’s article “The Three Stages of Meditation” on pages 31–44. In the initial two stages, Easwaran writes, we discover first that we are not our body and then that we are not our mind either. With these discoveries, he explains, a great deal of power comes into our hands: “You can tune the engine of your mind very much the way you choose—in fact, you can come to have such mastery that even in your sleep, negative thoughts like resentment, hostility, and greed will not arise. You take full responsibility for your mental states as well as for your behavior.”

Then in an astounding section, Easwaran describes what happens in the climax of meditation, when we travel deep into our real nature: “In this profound state all petty personal longings, all hungering and thirsting, all sense of incompleteness vanish. We discover, almost in every cell of our being, that deep within us we lack nothing. Our inner reserves of love and wisdom are infinite; we can draw on them endlessly and never diminish them.”

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

• Continuing our reflection for Easwaran’s Life Celebration, survey your life as it stands right now – your relationships in the family, at work or school, and in your community. Think of one small way you could decrease a sense of separateness and increase harmony in the upcoming year. Write down a specific step you could take. If you’d like, you can use this reflection worksheet to keep your notes.

• We look forward to spending time with Easwaran – and with you – in BMCM Satsang Live this week.

And here is another “spiritual bonus” from Quietly Changing the World!

Video

Beyond the Physical

We are continuing our preparation for Easwaran’s life celebration on Sunday, October 27. You can read details of how to participate in the Life Celebration at www.bmcm.org/celebration. In the meantime, there isn’t time to waste. Every day, we each need to infuse the spiritual renaissance with a little more life, a little more love. Let’s all focus on what we are certain of, what we can do from day to day, and how we can join together to strengthen our unity. This five-week program is a time we can all join hands and build intimacy with our teacher to respond to these compelling times. In all the ways you participate, you are strengthening your own practice as well as supporting our beloved community. Your daily meditation and your mantram are healing forces in the world.

This week in the eSatsang, let’s finish Easwaran’s article “Our Real Identity,” reading pages 14–23 of the 2018 Blue Mountain Journal Do You Know Who You Really Are? Easwaran explains, “The inner beauty which shows itself in the capacity to give and to cherish grows with the passage of time. It transcends the senses, transcends even mind and intellect. We can grow in beauty until the last day of our life, and the desire to look on everyone as kith and kin will draw people to us for the beauty of our lives.” May we each be inspired to realize this truth in our lives!

• 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.

• Let’s continue our personal reflection for Easwaran’s Life Celebration. At the end of the process, we will each write a letter to Easwaran. Many of us keep these letters year after year, and you may want to do the same.

  • If you participated in last year’s Life Celebration Satsang, did you write a letter of rededication to Easwaran? If so, review that letter if you have it, or remember what you wrote. If you didn’t write a letter last year, you can start this meaningful tradition now.

  • Thinking over the last year, reflect on your successes in shaping your life and relationships based on your highest ideals. If you’d like, you can use this reflection worksheet to keep your notes.

• We look forward to taking our theme of “Our Real Identity” even deeper in BMCM Satsang Live.

And for this week’s spiritual treat, here is the next excerpt from Quietly Changing the World.

Video

Our Real Identity

As we do each autumn, we are now entering into our annual Celebration of Easwaran’s Life and Teachings. You can read details of how to participate at www.bmcm.org/celebration.

 Here in the eSatsang, to deepen our connection with Easwaran, we will be studying the Blue Mountain Journal Do You Know Who You Really Are? issued in Fall/Winter 2018. Let’s start the journal by reading pages 5–13. Easwaran draws us into a theme of intimate importance to each of us: our real identity. “Like everybody else,” he writes, “I grew up believing that I was purely physical, a collection of biochemical constituents. What has changed for me since then? Everything. Not two or three things but everything. Through meditation, with the help of the demanding disciplines I followed every day in the midst of a busy life, that belief in myself as a purely physical creature has fallen away completely. Today I do not look upon myself or anyone else as physical. I identify with the Self, pure spirit, the same in all.”

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

• Let’s also start a personal reflection process for Easwaran’s Life Celebration. This is a tradition for many of us at BMCM. We keep our notes from year to year to reread and reflect on, as a record of our own spiritual journey. Each week over the next month we’ll give a prompt to guide you through this process. If you’d like, you can use this reflection worksheet to keep your notes. To begin, think back on the last year, particularly on the benefits you have received from your practice of passage meditation. Write down your observations.

• To complement this study, please join us for BMCM Satsang Live this week.

As special spiritual treats this month, we’ll end each eSatsang post with an excerpt from Quietly Changing the World. These videos include rare archival photos and recordings of Easwaran and his wife Christine, together with interviews with longtime students. (If you’d like more, you can access these videos here on our website).

Video

The World is Full of God

Our study of the Fall 2019 Blue Mountain Journal Seeing the Lord in All has been abundant with balm and inspiration. Let’s finish with the brief final article from Easwaran on pages 58–61 and the beautiful passages included in this issue on pages 25, 30, 31, and 55. Here are the final words from Easwaran on the journal’s back cover: “I don’t have to close my eyes in meditation to see God. I see nothing else. And I see, at the same time, that not only every human being but every living creature, the mountains, the rivers, the seas, the skies, the forests and the earth, are all one indivisible whole.”

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

• Keep expanding your mantram practice. Try writing your mantram in designs, perhaps using colored pens, to create a piece of mantram art. This can be very simple. You don’t need to be an artist, but the activity can engage you and allow you to stick with the mantram for an extended period. This is a wonderful activity to share with your children or grandchildren. On this page of our website, you will find many ways to share the mantram with children (as well as yourself!). Scroll down to find templates for mantram art.

Remove the Veil of Self-will

This week we’ll pick back up with Easwaran’s article “Remove the Veil of Self-will,” reading from the bottom of page 35 to the end on page 44 in the Fall 2019 Blue Mountain Journal. The section is full of practical tips for reducing self-will. And in practical language Easwaran describes the exalted state to which this work leads:

“Through sheer exercise, over a long, long period, we do not just love Jonathan or Josephine; we become love itself. Our love radiates to anyone who comes within our orbit; we simply lose the knack of doing otherwise. It does not matter whether the person seated beside us has been unpleasant to us for years, perhaps has even opposed us; that is immaterial. What matters is that our very nature now is love. At all times, in every situation, we are at our best with everybody. This is the answer to our most profound prayers.”

• 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!

• For our mantram-extension practice, repeat or write the mantram for three minutes before meditation this week.

For a spiritual treat, we hope you enjoy this recording of Christine Easwaran reading the passage “The One Appearing as Many” from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.

Passage Audio

No One but the Lord

Continuing our study of the Fall 2019 Blue Mountain Journal Seeing the Lord in All, this week let’s read the short articles from Easwaran on pages 26–27 and 28–29, and also start his longer article “Remove the Veil of Self-will,” reading from page 33 to the end of the section on page 35. Throughout, Easwaran helps us see past our differences. He writes, “All our greatness comes from this common humanity, and when we constantly keep our eyes fixed on it, we discover the unity of life which is divine.”

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

• Let’s keep our mantram practice growing. This week try an experiment. Sit comfortably in a chair. Resolve to repeat the mantram for three minutes without having any other thought at all. Then try it. After you succeed at doing this a few days in a row, try extending that practice to five minutes.

Seeing God Everywhere

“Only when you have lowered all the barriers between yourself and others will there be no barrier between you and the Lord within,” Easwaran explains in this week’s reading. “Deliberately, then, from the very first, you begin to chip away at those walls in consciousness. You do it in little ways, throughout the day, by trying to see the needs of others as clearly as your own and to act in harmony with them.” Let’s pick back up on page 12 of this article, titled “Seeing God Everywhere” from the Fall 2019 Blue Mountain Journal and read to the end on page 22. As we enter the new year, we are so happy to be studying Easwaran and practicing the eight points with you!

• 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.

• This week have the goal to begin repeating the mantram as soon as you wake up in the morning. Devise a strategy for making this happen, and devise a way to check to see if this is happening.

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “Only God I Saw” from Baba Kuhi of Shiraz.

Passage Audio

The Same Spark as You and I

Our recent theme has been how to be of service amidst a world in crisis. Now let’s turn for inspiration and balm to Easwaran via the Fall 2019 Blue Mountain Journal Seeing the Lord in All. Let’s begin by studying the short articles on pages 2 and 3 and starting the first extended article from Easwaran, reading pages 5–11. Here Easwaran writes:

“In all the world’s great religions, this is the purpose of human life: to realize God in the depths of our consciousness. It means discovering that we are not physical creatures that can be satisfied with physical gratifications, but spiritual beings made in the image of God. This supreme discovery brings a complete transformation of personality that cannot help making profound changes in the world around us.

“That is why I say that as I present it, religion is the solution to all the problems that burden us today. In a truly religious country we would have no wars, no violence, no exploitation, no pollution of air and water — for the simple reason that when you realize God, you see God in everyone.”

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

• We are working together on extending our mantram practice. On your regular mantram walk, try repeating the mantram very softly (in the mind) as if whispering.

Here is a spiritual treat to extend your use of the mantram this week: Easwaran singing his mantram. The recording is an hour long, but of course you can dip into this beautiful audio for as long as suits your schedule.

A Message to Meditators

Easwaran tells us in this week’s reading:

“I hope every one of you will carry home the message that I have been trying, with the help of many dear friends, to spread for more than thirty years in this country.

“The practice of meditation can enable us to move away from the love of power and cultivate the power of love for our family, country, and the whole world.”

Please find that brief statement, titled “A Message to Meditators,” on page 29 of the Spring 2015 Blue Mountain Journal Does Meditation Really Help the World? and let’s read it along with the article “A New Year’s Resolution,” on pages 25–27 and the issue’s final statements from Easwaran on page 32.

• Read these articles 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 together on extending our mantram practice. On your regular mantram walk, try repeating the mantram very loudly (in the mind).

We’ll end with another spiritual treat: In this 22-minute video entitled “Tips for Deepening Meditation” Easwaran reminds us that we have a choice at all times to ask, “Shall I do what is pleasing, appealing only to me, or shall I choose to do what will benefit all?” By choosing the latter, he explains, we are minimizing distractions in meditation. If you want to watch a shorter section of video, consider watching the first six minutes of the talk, during which Easwaran describes the key to minimizing distractions (0:00 to 5:42).

Video

Can Meditation Really Help the World?

This week we’ll continue the title article of the Spring 2015 Blue Mountain Journal Does Meditation Really Help the World?, where Easwaran answers frequently asked questions about this urgent topic. Let’s pick back up on page 7 and read to the end of the article on page 18. As usual, Easwaran’s answers are personal, practical, and uplifting. He writes, “When the battle is waged within, against the forces of anger and selfishness we find in our own hearts, even our smallest triumph benefits the whole world.”

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

• Last week we began working together on extending our mantram practice. On your regular mantram walk, try repeating the mantram very slowly, with for example five steps per syllable instead of one step per syllable. This is an experiment Easwaran did to deepen his mantram.

For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “Prayer for Peace” from Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Passage Audio