In this week’s reading, pages 113–117 of The Mantram Handbook,* Easwaran describes how the mantram can help with our litany of worries and anxieties, as well as our bigger fears. Here’s an anecdote he shares that inspired us:
“A friend of mine works as a doctor in the intensive care unit of a local hospital, and she had as a patient an elderly woman who was seriously ill, so ill that she wasn’t even able to breathe except with the aid of one of those breathing machines, a respirator. The patient was a Catholic, so my friend suggested that she repeat Hail Mary. She began doing it and her condition improved considerably. In this case, the mantram helped more than anything else that had been tried, because it helped the patient deal with her fear.”
Let’s continue working together to transform these negative emotions and drive the mantram deeper into our consciousness.
Is there a tip in this reading that is particularly challenging for you? How will you wrestle with it this week?
Let’s keep looking for ways to deepen our mantram exercises, for example by practicing more consistently or via a bit of extra effort or preparation.
This week, have the goal to use the mantram when surprised. Devise a strategy to say the mantram instead of any other sound or phrase when surprised. For instance, we usually say “Oops” (or perhaps worse) when we spill something, slip while walking, or when a car swerves in front of our car unexpectedly. Devise a strategy for inserting the mantram in the place of the usual verbal reaction. Try it out – and if you don’t manage to get the mantram in at the first surprise, start it up as soon as you remember. Before long, you will discover that the mantram has a sense of humor of its own – and it will start slipping itself in before you can say “oops.”
Let’s turn again to Easwaran’s Patanjali talks** for our spiritual treat, this time with Talk Seven. The full talk is almost 90 minutes, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with just the first five minutes, in which Easwaran introduces two aphorisms describing the practical steps by which we can discover the Supreme Reality which is embedded in the depths of our consciousness.
* For those using electronic versions of The Mantram Handbook with different page numbering: this week’s reading comes from chapter eight, starting with the subheading “Anxiety” and ending before the subheading “Harnessing Anger’s Power.”
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