ANNOUNCEMENT
A DAY OF MANTRAMS FOR PEACE AND HEALING: TUESDAY, JUNE 29
Our 100th Birthday Gift for Christine Easwaran
We invite you to join us in a day dedicated to peace and healing in the world by keeping our mantram going as much of the day as possible and, if you care to do so, even as you fall asleep. This will be our best possible gift to Christine for her 100th birthday.
On June 29, let’s all participate together in the BMCM Satsang Live. We will start writing the mantram at 3:40 p.m. PT before the program begins at 4 p.m. You can find your time zone here. We will make BMCM Satsang Live the centerpiece of our mantram day, and we invite you to join us.
Feel free to write in here on the eSatsang if you would like to share reflections about your mantram day. We’ll share your impressions with Christine!
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.