Stilling the mind, Easwaran explains in this week’s reading, “means bringing every mental process under our complete control – not just on the conscious level, but in the unconscious too.” And we can achieve this formidable feat gradually by taking advantage of all the opportunities for repeating the mantram.
The results are stupendous: “Mahatma Gandhi assures us that we can come to have such effortless mastery over our mind that even in our dreams a selfish thought will not arise. This is what stilling the mind means: laying to rest permanently every negative and selfish force in consciousness.”
This week let’s read from page 72 to the end of page 74 in The Mantram Handbook,* and continue working to still our minds.
What is one statement that speaks to your heart in this reading? How will you put it into action this week?
We have experimented with many different mantram exercises over the past few months. As we continue our study of The Mantram Handbook, let’s repeat those exercises and see if we can each find a way to deepen them, for example by practicing more consistently or via a bit of extra effort or preparation. Here’s our mantram exercise this week:
Dedicate a specific hour per day for mantram focus. It might for example be between 7 and 8 a.m. while doing routine getting-ready-for-the-day activities, or during an afternoon walk and/or exercise time, or while gardening, or some other specific time. See if you can remember to use the mantram as frequently as possible during this whole hour.
* For those using electronic versions of The Mantram Handbook with different page numbering: this week’s reading comes from Chapter 5, starting with the subheading “The Barrier Between the Conscious and the Unconscious” and ending before the subheading “The Elephant and the Bamboo.”
