This week we will begin studying a 2019 special issue of the Blue Mountain Journal celebrating the 150th anniversary of Gandhi’s birthday. The editors introduce the issue by highlighting Easwaran’s unique message on the significance of Gandhi’s example: “that anger can be transformed into irresistible compassion, and that even ordinary people like us, through the practice of meditation, can make ourselves instruments of peace whose influence can spread to everyone around us.”
Here is the journal, Gandhi & Nonviolence: Love in Action, Transforming Anger. Let’s focus on the first half of Easwaran’s article, “Gandhi's Message,” on pages 5–7.
What is Easwaran telling you about the workings of your own mind? This week, use this new understanding to get some cooperation from your mind when it is being uncooperative. Tell us how it goes!
We have been reflecting together on Spiritual Reading the past few months, which has been very fruitful. Now let’s look for ways to extend our practice of Spiritual Reading as part of our evening routine.
In his book Passage Meditation, Easwaran writes, “I have found spiritual reading especially beneficial after evening meditation. When I have finished, I go to bed and repeat the mantram until I have fallen asleep in it. The reason for this sequence is simple: what we put into consciousness in the evening goes with us into sleep.”
This week, try imitating Easwaran’s evening routine by turning off other media, reading one of his books for a few minutes, and then going to bed repeating the mantram.
On the days you are able to follow this routine, what benefits do you find?
For an additional spiritual treat, we hope you enjoy this recording of Easwaran reading the passage “The Path” from Mahatma Gandhi.