Making Your Life Count

Posted on October 29, 2010 by  | Add Comment

This excerpt is from an arti­cle by Eknath Easwaran that appeared in the Sum­mer 2007 issue of the Blue Moun­tain journal.

“If we grasp this great truth – that the Lord lives in each and every one of us, regard­less of who we are – we will never be dis­cour­te­ous to oth­ers, we will never be unkind, we will never try to avoid peo­ple, we will always be glad to work in har­mony with those around us. Then it becomes impos­si­ble to quar­rel, to be angry, to hurt oth­ers, to move away.

“This doesn’t mean weak­en­ing your con­vic­tions or dilut­ing your prin­ci­ples. Dis­agree­ing with­out being dis­agree­able is one of the arts of civ­i­lized liv­ing. This is what Gandhi means by non­vi­o­lence, and he calls it the most active force in the world. You don’t retal­i­ate, you don’t retire; you just stand where you are, firmly rooted – rooted in wis­dom, rooted in love, unshak­ably kind in the face of crit­i­cism, oppo­si­tion, calumny, or slander.

“If life offers so many oppor­tu­ni­ties to prac­tice this today, it is because all of us have been so con­di­tioned to focus on our­selves. Because of this, we have become so impa­tient that we burst out at the slight­est provo­ca­tion – not only men­tally, not only ver­bally, but with our heart, our lungs, our whole ner­vous sys­tem. Not to be pro­voked, not to be fright­ened, not to retal­i­ate requires a lot of sta­bil­ity inside so that these pass­ing storms do not upset us.”

Read the entire arti­cle here

Passage for Meditation: The Whole World Is Your Own

Posted on October 28, 2010 by  | Add Comment

These words are revered as the last mes­sage of Sri Sarada Devi (1853 – 1920), “Holy Mother,” wife of Sri Ramakr­ishna and help­mate in his work:

I tell you one thing –
If you want peace of mind,
do not find fault with others.

Rather learn to see your own faults.
Learn to make the whole world your own.

No one is a stranger, my child;
this whole world is your own.

Click here to lis­ten to Easwaran read­ing this passage.

This pas­sage can be found in Time­less Wis­dom: Pas­sages for Med­i­ta­tion from the World’s Saints & Sages.

One-Day Meditation Retreat in UK: November 27th

Posted on October 27, 2010 by  | Add Comment

The next regional retreat in the UK will be a one-day retreat in Lewes (East Sus­sex) on Novem­ber 27th.

In 2009 retreatants came from across the UK — from Bath, Brighton, Clacton-on-Sea, Lon­don, and Mil­ton Keynes — and we expect the same for 2010. We already have 4 new­com­ers and 10 return­ers signed up, so please come if you can.

The retreat cen­tre is a few min­utes walk from Lewes train sta­tion, which is 30 min­utes from Lon­don Gatwick air­port and just over 1 hour from Lon­don Vic­to­ria sta­tion. There is easy park­ing nearby, and Lewes has a lot of nice B&Bs if you are com­ing from afar.

For more infor­ma­tion see www.easwaran.org/retreats or call 01953 – 601456.

Pass It On

Posted on October 20, 2010 by  | Add Comment

Easwaran’s books are the intro­duc­tion for many of us to the teach­ings and wis­dom of Eknath Easwaran. Here’s a great tes­ti­mo­nial of what we are talk­ing about:

“I just placed my first order directly from you. A few months ago, I came across Pas­sage Med­i­ta­tion in a lit­tle book­shop. I can­not tell you how pro­foundly and directly that book spoke to me. Then came the book Patience, with the same effect. I car­ried Patience with me in my purse and read parts of it everyday.

“I just gave it to a friend yes­ter­day who seemed in need of it. I do that...give away a book that is pro­found to me. Noth­ing sad­der than a book sit­ting on a book­shelf not being read, espe­cially if it can touch some­one as deeply as those first two books touched me. Bless­ings to you.”

Thanks for pass­ing Easwaran’s mes­sage of hope and inspi­ra­tion along!

Easwaran on The Imitation of Christ: Talk 9

Posted on October 18, 2010 by  | Add Comment

This is the ninth 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 1, Chap­ter 20, “Of the Love of Soli­tude & Silence.”

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

Renewal: Spoken Book

Posted on October 15, 2010 by  | Add Comment

Lis­ten to Paul Bazely read­ing from the spo­ken book Renewal, by Eknath Easwaran.

“Heal­ing the envi­ron­ment begins with chang­ing our own lives. Such lit­tle changes can seem painfully small when com­pared to the kinds of crises we read about in the head­lines, but through my per­sonal expe­ri­ence I have become con­vinced that there is no instru­ment of change more pow­er­ful that the well-lived life.”

The com­plete spo­ken book is avail­able here.

Pod­cast: Play in new win­dow

Easwaran’s books are “Inorbit”

Posted on October 12, 2010 by  | Add Comment

A good friend of the BMCM is cur­rently doing an intern­ship in India. While in Mum­bai, he found some books by Eknath Easwaran on dis­play in a book­store inside the Inor­bit Mall. They look good, don’t they?

Easwaran's Books in Mumbai

Easwaran’s books in a Mum­bai bookstore

Easwaran on the Gita: Every Effort Counts

Posted on October 11, 2010 by  | Add Comment

In the fol­low­ing excerpt, Eknath Easwaran com­ments on chap­ter 2, verse 40 of the Bha­gavad Gita from the book The End of Sor­row:

Verse 40: On this path effort never goes to waste, and there is no fail­ure. Even a lit­tle effort toward spir­i­tual aware­ness will yield pro­tec­tion from the great­est fear.

“For me this is one of the most mem­o­rable verses in the Gita, and it will take a life­time on the spir­i­tual path to appre­ci­ate its applic­a­bil­ity to every aspect of human life. When we med­i­tate on the Lord within for even a short time every day, this effort is not wasted.

“Even if we med­i­tate only thirty min­utes every morn­ing, and try to prac­tice the allied spir­i­tual dis­ci­plines to a small extent dur­ing the day, this can go a long way in guard­ing us against many fears, known and unknown, which lurk in our con­scious­ness. Most of us have fears of los­ing what we believe gives us security.

“Those who go after money are doing so under the impres­sion that this is the way to become secure. There are oth­ers who are afraid of los­ing their youth. Beauty has noth­ing to do with age. We can be beau­ti­ful in child­hood, in youth, and in old age to the extent we are unselfish.

“To be secure, we must find the source of secu­rity within our­selves. The advice given by Sri Krishna in the Gita is sim­ple and pro­found: if times are bad today, try to con­tribute the best you can to the wel­fare of those around you. If times are good today, also try to con­tribute the best you can to the wel­fare of those around you.

“You can serve oth­ers no mat­ter if times are good or bad. This is the choice we make in order to find secu­rity within ourselves.”

Read more from chap­ter 2 of The End of Sor­row: The Bha­gavad Gita for Daily Liv­ing, Vol­ume 1: The Illu­mined Man.

Close to Our Hearts

Posted on October 8, 2010 by  | Add Comment

We recently received a won­der­ful response from a friend who viewed our June-released DVD on the 40th anniver­sary of the found­ing of Ram­a­giri Ashram (Qui­etly Chang­ing the World — Part Three). The DVD is the third in a six part series com­mem­o­rat­ing the work of Eknath Easwaran and the Blue Moun­tain Cen­ter of Meditation.

“Thank you for sug­gest­ing we view Qui­etly Chang­ing the World — Part Three. It always is a treat to hear Sri Easwaran’s voice and mes­sage. It is equally spe­cial to hear the per­sonal reflec­tions of ashram mem­bers Tim, Gale, Lau­rel, Brian, Michael, and Chris­tine. For a cou­ple of old med­i­ta­tors like us from the early 70’s, a place like the BMCM and the peo­ple who sus­tain it are close to our hearts. We look for­ward to your next installment.”

We look for­ward to it also. Qui­etly Chang­ing the World — Part Four, which focuses on Easwaran’s books and the pub­li­ca­tions work of Nil­giri Press, will be posted on www.easwaran.org Octo­ber 22, 2010.

View Qui­etly Chang­ing the World — Part Three online.

Deepening Determination

Posted on October 6, 2010 by  | Add Comment

This excerpt is from an arti­cle by Eknath Easwaran in the Sum­mer 2010 edi­tion of the Blue Moun­tain journal:

Teresa de Cepeda y Ahu­mada, later to become loved around the world as Saint Teresa of Jesus, grew up as a beau­ti­ful, high-spirited girl from one of the most dis­tin­guished fam­i­lies in the sixteenth-century Span­ish town of Avila. With charm, intel­li­gence, keen artis­tic sen­si­bil­i­ties, and a sav­ing dose of com­mon sense, she seemed to have the world at her feet. Yet while still in her teens, this pas­sion­ate young woman had already begun to find the attrac­tions of worldly life too small to sat­isfy her. She felt their pull – would be torn in two by it, in fact, for more than twenty years. But noth­ing could silence a much deeper appeal, a call to a far higher destiny.

Some dim aware­ness of an infi­nite promise deep within her must have prompted her to turn inward. In her writ­ings, Teresa describes can­didly what was tak­ing place inside. “All the things of God gave me great plea­sure,” she recalls, “but I was held cap­tive by the things of this world.” Yet the inward pull would not let her go:

“Rea­son tells the soul how mis­taken it is in think­ing that all these earthly things are of the slight­est value by com­par­i­son with what it is seek­ing. A lit­tle rec­ol­lec­tion reminds it that all these things come to an end. And faith instructs it in what the soul must do to find satisfaction. . . .”

Read all of this article . . .


  • 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.

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