Friends on a mantram walk at Dillon Beach. Easwaran walked this beach for many years, and said his mantram here millions of times.
This week, as we continue our theme of “bringing a BMCM retreat home” we’ll discuss deepening our meditation through the lens of the mantram.
You might carve out some dedicated mantram time this week in a way that works for you. Is there an activity you can do to focus on the mantram? During retreats there are many opportunities for repeating the mantram, such as just before eating a meal, or while taking a walk, lying down for a nap, writing mantrams at the beginning of a workshop, or creating mantram art for someone… you choose!
In the spirit of bringing the retreat experience home, you could consider sitting down to write the mantram for a period of time, dedicating your mantrams to someone who needs them. You could do this in unison with Christine Easwaran and friends at Ramagiri Ashram on Sunday from 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
Whatever you decide, we’d love to hear about it. We look forward to hearing your reflections.
This week, our reading from Easwaran emphasizes using the mantram to build the will so we can be kind in challenging situations. Please feel free to share particular lines or sections from the reading that stand out to you, and tell us how they might apply to your own life. Have you encountered a challenging situation during which the mantram helped, or could help in the future?
The following is an excerpt from Seeing With the Eyes of Love by Easwaran, pages 86 –87. (The book we are using is the latest edition with the blue cover.)
. . . and makes every thing that is bitter sweet and tasteful.
Saint Bernard declared that “Jesus is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, a shout of gladness in the heart.” Saint Bernard very probably repeated the name of Jesus to himself just as good Hindus do the name of Rama or Krishna. Saint Catherine of Genoa may have engaged in the same practice, for at the time of her conversion she is said to have received certain instructions directly from the Lord within. “From the Hail Mary,” she was told, “take the word Jesus, and may it be implanted in your heart, and it will be a sweet guide and shield to you in all the necessities of life.” When she was comforting the patients in the hospital she administered in Genoa, she would always urge them to “call Jesus.” Biographers of Saint Francis of Assisi describe him as praying all night on occasion, repeating the same words over and over: “My God and my all, my God and my all.” And in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the practice called hesychasm consists in the repetition of the short prayer “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me.”
Repetition of the Holy Name is not a substitute for meditation. When you meditate, you need to sit down in a quiet place with your eyes closed and bring your attention to rest on the words of a memorized passage. The Holy Name, I want to emphasize, can be used under any circumstances. You can use it throughout the day to tap into the peace and security of your morning’s meditation. It can be your lifeline. The more assiduously you repeat it, the stronger the rope will be, and the closer at hand in times of danger.
The most precious period of the day for repeating your mantram is at night, just as you are falling asleep. Between the last waking moment and the first sleeping moment, there is an infinitesimally narrow tunnel into the unconscious. If you can learn to fall asleep in the Holy Name, you can send it in deep where it will heal the wounds the day has inflicted; it will soothe the raw edges of daily experience. The proof that the Holy Name is doing its work is that sometimes you may hear it reverberating in your sleep.
This is the miracle Saint Paul refers to when he enjoins us to “pray without ceasing.” It goes on wherever you are, whatever you are doing, protecting your mind against any negative emotion. In fact, I like to compare the Holy Name to a highway patrolman riding about on a Harley-Davidson, round and round the alleys of the mind – most of them blind. He keeps an eye on the thoughts traveling there and gives out tickets for excessive speed, for drifting back and forth across lanes, for driving too close to the car ahead. Day and night, your mantram is always on duty.