We are making steady progress in our book study of Easwaran’s Mantram Handbook. This week let’s read from page 49 to the middle of 54.* Here Easwaran helps us approach an understanding of the impersonal ultimate reality, and the syllable Om, “The perfect symbol of the impersonal aspect of the Godhead.”
Yet he emphasizes, “What most of us need and want is a personal incarnation: a figure whom we can visualize, whom we can hear stories about, whom we can love and try to model ourselves after…. Such mantrams help us to cultivate an ever-deepening devotion, and can assist us in becoming united with the divine presence in the depths of our consciousness.”
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?
Let’s play with the concept of “recovery time” for this week’s mantram exercise:
It takes time to revise many instances of automatic behavior. For instance, we want to say the mantram instead of other sorts of thoughts on waking up, and we want to say the mantram instead of eating the third cookie. At first, it’s likely we will forget. But whenever you do remember, even if it is hours later, say the mantram at that time! With intention and effort and using strategies that appeal to you, the length of time gradually lessens between stimulus and mantram. Even if we are not perfect, we are getting better with less recovery time.
Devise a way to work on “recovery time.”
* For those using electronic versions of The Mantram Handbook with different page numbering: this week’s reading begins with the subheading “The Impersonal” in Chapter 3 and ends before the subheading “While Walking” in Chapter 4.
For our spiritual bonus this week, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “Even with Your Last Breath” from Meera.