Upcoming Satsang Event
Please join us for our upcoming online workshop on Saturday June 24. This is a 75-minute workshop on the theme of One-Pointed Attention. Many members of the eSatsang will be taking part, so it’s a chance for some real-time satsang.
This week, we’re continuing our group exploration of how we can practice the eight-point program on its grandest – and most demanding – scale: by being extra kind when others are unkind to us, and being exceptionally polite when others are impolite to us.
As Easwaran says, it’s a challenging career that lasts a lifetime, and there are opportunities every day. How do you keep up your enthusiasm for this challenge, and keep your goal in mind always?
Do you have a success story about using the mantram as a “first-aid measure”?
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The excerpt below is continued from the Spring/Summer 2017 Blue Mountain Journal, by Eknath Easwaran.
Use kind words
If life offers so many opportunities to practice this today, it is because all of us have been so conditioned to focus on ourselves. Because of this, we have become so impatient that we burst out at the slightest provocation – not only mentally, not only verbally, but with our heart, our lungs, our whole nervous system. Not to be provoked, not to be frightened, not to retaliate requires a lot of stability inside so that these passing storms do not upset us.
Most of us refrain from lashing out physically when we are provoked, but I think our whole society would benefit immensely if we could all learn to use kind words. During my stay in this country, extending almost half a century, I have seen a sad deterioration in the way people express their opinions and frustrations. Millions of people today believe that unkind, hurtful language is a necessary part of communication.
I feel very deeply, but I never use an unkind word. I have very strong convictions, but I never express them in language that would be harmful. I think it is Gandhi who pointed out that those who get angry when opposed or contradicted have no faith in themselves. When you have faith in your convictions, you won’t get angry. I can listen to opposition with sympathy, and yet I will stand by my own convictions whatever the opposition is.
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. It’s a challenging career that lasts a lifetime, and there are opportunities every day. When people are impolite to you, that’s the time to be exceptionally polite. When people are discourteous to you, that’s the time to be more courteous.
A first aid measure
In situations like these, one first aid measure is to leave the scene and take a mantram walk. The force of your anger will drive the mantram deeper, bringing you closer to the day when you can rise above those fierce negative forces.
Each repetition of the mantram, especially in trying moments, is like money put into a trust account in the Bank of Saint Francis. One day that account will mature, and you will become an instrument of peace. You may have no idea of what capacity you will serve in: after all, Francis himself hadn’t a clue to the direction his life would take when he began placing stone upon stone to restore the chapel at San Damiano. But you can be sure that the banker within will provide you with enough compassion, security, and wisdom to make a creative contribution to solving the problems of our times.