The stone memorial dedicated to Sri Easwaran at Ramagiri Ashram. A nearby plaque reads" "Be Aware of me always, adore me, make every act offering an offering to me, and you shall come to me, this I promise, for your are dear to me." The Bhagavad Gita 18:45
After our rich, lively experience of “bringing a retreat home” over the past two months, we’re now inviting you to explore the concept of transformation throughout the month of September. When Easwaran writes about transformation, he emphasizes the power of the inspirational passage:
“The secret of this transformation is breathtakingly simple: we become what we meditate on. There is a story in ancient India about a sculptor who was so gifted that his statues almost seemed to come to life out of the stone. Once, lost in admiration over his stone elephants, one of his students asked, “How do you do this? These elephants are more real than real elephants are; you can almost hear them trumpeting.” And the sculptor replied, “There’s no secret to it. I just go and get a big block of stone, set it up in my studio, and study it very carefully. Then I take my hammers and chisels and slowly, over a number of years, I chip away everything that is not elephant."
When I see a person sitting quietly with eyes closed, giving all his attention to the Prayer of St. Francis, I like to think of this great sculptor, studying his big block of stone with such intense concentration that he really can see the elephant coming to life within: the trunk, and the big ears, and those keen, absurdly small eyes. We see only a block of stone, but for the sculptor, the elephant is already right there inside, struggling to be released. This is very much what we do in meditation, only instead of an elephant, it is the Atman who is imprisoned within us is in a life sculpture class in which we are both the sculptor and the rock. Almost four billion big, shapeless rocks – no wonder we are sometimes uncomfortable with ourselves or think the world is ugly. But a mystic like St. Francis might say, “Of course, the rock is shapeless; no one would deny that. But look within, with intense concentration, and you can see the halo and the harp.”
In meditation we give the mind a shining model and study it very carefully every morning and every evening until it is printed on our hearts. Then, throughout the rest of the day, we go along chipping away at everything that is not Self. It takes many years, but in the end, the great mystics of all religions tell us, every bit of anger, fear, and greed can be removed from our consciousness, so that our whole life becomes a flawless work of art. This is the third stage of meditation, called samadhi. Samadhi really is not a stage at all, but a stupendous realization in which all the barriers of separateness fall. Then there are no walls between the conscious and unconscious, no walls between you and others; your consciousness is completely integrated, from the attic to the cellar. When this happens, Patanjali says in one of the grandest understatements in mystical literature, you see yourself as you really are: the Atman, the Self, who dwells in the hearts of us all."
The big and small changes we experience in life provide us with opportunities for going deeper in our meditation and experiencing our own spiritual transformation. Over the next month, through a series of reading and video studies, we’ll strive to absorb Easwaran’s teachings on the overriding goal of spiritual transformation, and find ways we can take our own small steps each day using the eight points.
We’ll look at spiritual transformation through the lens of the mantram, through juggling likes and dislikes, and through absorbing Easwaran’s writings on seeing ourselves as we really are: “the Atman, the Self, who dwells in the hearts of us all."
What are some ways you’ve used the eight-point program to help you during times of change, big or small? Do you have particular go-to passages that you use when you’re facing a difficult internal or external change? We’d love to hear from you! Please share in the comments below.
In the following 3-minute video, Easwaran reminds us of the true goal of our striving for transformation: “You have a loving relationship with everybody, and you express it every day in your life.”
