A Practice for Today: Choosing and Using a Mantram

Posted on February 22, 2012  | Add Comment

“Repeat your mantram silently when­ever you get the chance: while walk­ing, while wait­ing, while doing mechan­i­cal chores like wash­ing dishes, and espe­cially when you are falling asleep. You will find that this is not mind­less rep­e­ti­tion; the mantram will help to keep you relaxed and alert.”

- Eknath Easwaran

Rep­e­ti­tion of a mantram is the silent rep­e­ti­tion in the mind of a hal­lowed name or phrase from one of the world’s great reli­gions. It can be prac­ticed when­ever pos­si­ble through­out the day or night. Click here for instruc­tions on repeat­ing the mantram.

Click here for a list of mantrams rec­om­mended by Easwaran.

Easwaran on Thomas a Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ: Talk 44

Posted on February 20, 2012  | Add Comment

This is the 44th in a long series of talks Eknath Easwaran gave on The Imi­ta­tion of Christ by Thomas a Kem­pis. In this talk Easwaran reads and dis­cusses book 3, chap­ter 12, “Of the growth of patience in the soul, and of striv­ing against concupiscence.”

The fol­low­ing excerpt is from the begin­ning of this talk.

“One of the home­li­est qual­i­ties on the face of the earth, which is sel­dom appre­ci­ated, is patience. It’s good to long for purity and per­fec­tion, but it’s even bet­ter to be patient, because with­out patience it is not pos­si­ble to dis­cover the purity and per­fec­tion that is in us all the time.

“If we look at many of our prob­lems in daily liv­ing, they can be ame­lio­rated to a great extent by increas­ing patience. Unfor­tu­nately patience can­not be learned in the grad­u­ate school or even by writ­ing a the­sis on it. Patience can be learned only by one unique way, try­ing to be patient.

“The Com­pas­sion­ate Bud­dha will sim­plify some of the most com­pli­cated prob­lems of life by say­ing to his dis­ci­ples when they would ask, ‘Blessed One, how do we become patient, like you?’ He will say, ‘By try­ing to be patient.’”

For pre­vi­ous talks, see Easwaran on Thomas a Kem­pis, under Categories.

Note that all of the talks in this series are avail­able for down­load from our store. The series is described on this page.

Pod­cast: Play in new win­dow

Meditation for Busy Parents: “The hugest help in maintaining peace of mind.”

Posted on February 17, 2012  | Read Comment | Add Comment

Is it right for busy par­ents to take time out to med­i­tate? And how can med­i­ta­tion help you become a bet­ter par­ent? These ques­tions prompted the fol­low­ing lively answer in one of our online discussions:

“I started med­i­tat­ing when my chil­dren were 12, 9 and 6. Now they are 28, 25 and 22. It was hard and I was majorly sleep deprived, but it was and is the hugest help in main­tain­ing my peace of mind and bal­ance in rais­ing my chil­dren. Don’t be hard on your­self. Don’t expect your prac­tice to be ‘per­fect’ when you have chil­dren around. Your inter­ac­tions with them are your area for growth, to sup­port and chal­lenge them to be bless­ings to the world. They are going to push your but­tons and chal­lenge your self will.

“What a gift you are giv­ing by being a med­i­tat­ing par­ent. The 8 points will give you the dis­crim­i­na­tion needed when rais­ing chil­dren. It is pure grace that you are on the path. Even if they’re only 5 months now, by the time they’re 6 they’re out the door a lot! Easwaran says to say the mantram while you’re preg­nant. I think a 5 month old would love hear­ing the mantram sung to him! When he’s older teach him to say a mantram when he’s scared. Say the mantram with him before meals. Read spir­i­tual children’s books to your child. You are going to have a blast!”

See our free online course if you’d like to try Easwaran’s method of pas­sage med­i­ta­ton, or if you want to make your med­i­ta­tion prac­tice more regular.

Interested in Trying Passage Meditation? Free Introductory Seminar, San Francisco, February 25

Posted on February 17, 2012  | Read 2 Comments | Add Comment

No need to reg­is­ter – you can just show up on the day at 10:30 a.m. for this free pre­sen­ta­tion, led by expe­ri­enced med­i­ta­tors. Everyone’s welcome!

Date: Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 25, 2012
Time: 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Loca­tion: AgeSong Laguna Grove, Rooftop Sun­room,
624 Laguna Street, San Fran­cisco, CA 94102

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, see our web­site, email us at BMCM.Retreats@easwaran.org, or call us at 800.475.2369.

A Practice for Today: Learning to Meditate

Posted on February 15, 2012  | Add Comment

“Sit in a straight-backed chair or on the floor with your head, neck, and spinal col­umn erect. Then close your eyes and begin to go slowly, in your mind, through the words of one of the pas­sages I rec­om­mend you mem­o­rize for use in med­i­ta­tion. I sug­gest learn­ing first the Prayer of St. Fran­cis of Assisi.”

- Eknath Easwaran

Pas­sage med­i­ta­tion is the silent rep­e­ti­tion in the mind of mem­o­rized inspi­ra­tional pas­sages from the world’s great reli­gions. Click here for instruc­tions on pas­sage meditation.

Prayer of St. Fran­cis of Assisi and other pas­sages for meditation

Download Easwaran’s Learning to Love: Free just for today and tomorrow!

Posted on February 13, 2012  | Read 4 Comments | Add Comment

How do we build last­ing rela­tion­ships? Not through can­dle­light and roses, but through patience, kind­ness, and for­give­ness. A gen­tle sense of humor also helps, as Easwaran demon­strates in this new short e-book – avail­able free for only two more days.

Happy St. Valentine’s Day!

Down­load the free e-book Learn­ing to Love

The City of Brahman

Posted on February 13, 2012  | Read 2 Comments | Add Comment

This excerpt is from a talk given by Eknath Easwaran where he explores the infi­nite, immor­tal core of human nature, as it is described in the Chan­do­gya Upanishad.

In “The City of Brah­man,” the Upan­ishad por­trays our divine core as a small dwelling in a city which we can enter and dwell in through a long process of spir­i­tual growth.

This talk is extra­or­di­nary for its vivid account of the process of self-discovery. It is also one of Easwaran’s most elo­quent state­ments of a famil­iar theme in his teach­ings: the urgent need to find immor­tal­ity before death claims our body.

At the time he gave this talk, Easwaran was nearly 80 years old, and his con­fi­dent, deeply secure tone bears wit­ness that in the depths of con­scious­ness there is a “lit­tle house” which old age and death can­not enter.

“When I began to under­stand these words,” he says, “my hair used to stand on end. I wanted it with all my heart, with every desire in my heart.” And his goal here is to rouse a sim­i­lar desire in our hearts.

The com­plete talk, DVD 13: Find­ing Immor­tal­ity Within is avail­able here.

Read about other talks here.

Pod­cast: Play in new win­dow

Download free e-book Learning to Love — available four days only!

Posted on February 10, 2012  | Read 2 Comments | Add Comment

St. Valentine’s Day is com­ing up, and the stores are full of pink hearts and choco­lates. We wanted to offer our read­ers some­thing more last­ing – Easwaran’s advice on build­ing lov­ing rela­tion­ships. Learn­ing how to love is a skill that we all need urgently to acquire, both for our own per­sonal hap­pi­ness and for the wel­fare of the world.

Down­load the new, short e-book by Eknath Easwaran titled Learn­ing to Love (PDF).

This e-book is com­piled from excerpts from a num­ber of books by Eknath Easwaran, and it’s avail­able free of charge from now through St. Valentine’s Day.

Please share this e-book with all your friends and loved ones! True romance lies not in roses and can­dle­light, Easwaran writes, but in devel­op­ing the patience, self­less­ness, and strength we need for mak­ing a wiser, more mean­ing­ful con­tri­bu­tion to all of life.

A Practice for Today: Spiritual Fellowship

Posted on February 8, 2012  | Add Comment

“Share your times of enter­tain­ment with oth­ers who are bas­ing their lives on the same spir­i­tual val­ues. Relax­ation is an impor­tant part of the spir­i­tual life.”

- Eknath Easwaran

Spir­i­tual fel­low­ship means spend­ing time reg­u­larly with oth­ers who are prac­tic­ing pas­sage med­i­ta­tion for mutual inspi­ra­tion and sup­port. Click here for basic instruc­tions on this point.

Easwaran on Thomas a Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ: Talk 43

Posted on February 6, 2012  | Add Comment

This is the 43rd in a long series of talks Eknath Easwaran gave on The Imi­ta­tion of Christ by Thomas a Kem­pis. In this talk Easwaran con­tin­ues to reads and dis­cusses book 3, chap­ter 11, “That the long­ings and desires of our hearts are to be exam­ined and moderated.”

Here is an excerpt from the begin­ning of the talk:

“Almost all of us believe that when a desire comes up in our mind, for any­thing, it has to be sat­is­fied, and par­tic­u­larly in the early days of our life, we are not even aware that it is often the desire pick­ing us up, hold­ing us aloft, and throw­ing us away.

“I feel a great sense of affec­tion and sym­pa­thy for the teenager, who is very often in this con­di­tion of being picked up, held aloft, and thrown away, and he is in a sense at the mercy of his glands, and it’s good there­fore, par­tic­u­larly in deal­ing with teenagers, never to ridicule them, look upon them as undesirable.

“If we can remem­ber that it takes a long, long time of stren­u­ous, heroic endeavor to be able to gov­ern our desires to such an extent that now you pick up your desire, hold it aloft, and throw it away if it is unde­sir­able. It can be done by con­stant prac­tice, draw­ing upon the power released in med­i­ta­tion. This very exhil­a­rat­ing achieve­ment can be reached by every one of us, how­ever ordi­nary we may be.

“As we draw upon the power of our med­i­ta­tion and begin slowly to resist small desires, which often come to us as a crav­ing of the palate, or as a desire to acquire some need­less arti­cle, we can slowly start resist­ing these desires in our daily life on a small level.”

For pre­vi­ous talks, see Easwaran on Thomas a Kem­pis, under Categories.

Note that all of the talks in this series are avail­able for down­load from our store. The series is described on this page.

Pod­cast: Play in new win­dow

keep looking »


  • A few times a week we’ll post some­thing here to show­case the time­less wis­dom of Eknath Easwaran.

    We’ll also post items about the Blue Moun­tain Cen­ter of Med­i­ta­tion – new book announce­ments, retreat sched­ules and updates, news from our fel­low­ship groups.

    And we’ll post items from some of Easwaran’s many friends around the world who have brought his prac­ti­cal wis­dom into their lives.

    We hope you’ll join the con­ver­sa­tion as well.

    RSS FeedSub­scribe with RSS

  • Subscribe by email

    Subscribe below to receive a notification via email every Friday with links to our posts of the previous week.

    We will not share your email address with anyone. To change your email address or to unsubscribe, fill in the information for your subscription above and click Unsubscribe

  • Administration

    •