A Practice for Today: Choosing and Using a Mantram

Posted on February 22, 2012 by  | 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.

A Practice for Today: Learning to Meditate

Posted on February 15, 2012 by  | 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

A Practice for Today: Spiritual Fellowship

Posted on February 8, 2012 by  | 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.

A Practice for Today: Spiritual Reading

Posted on February 1, 2012 by  | Read 4 Comments | Add Comment

“The media drown us in such a low image of the human being that it is essen­tial to remind our­selves con­stantly of some­thing higher.”

“Books cho­sen from the annals of mys­ti­cism should be read slowly and well. We are not after infor­ma­tion, but under­stand­ing and inspi­ra­tion. Take in a lit­tle every day, reflect on it, and then try to prac­tice what you have learned.”

- Eknath Easwaran

Spir­i­tual read­ing means draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from writ­ings by and about the world’s great spir­i­tual fig­ures and from the scrip­tures of all reli­gions. Click here for instruc­tions on spir­i­tual reading.

A Practice for Today: Training the Senses

Posted on January 25, 2012 by  | Add Comment

“In the food we eat, the books and mag­a­zines we read, the movies we see, the tele­vi­sion shows we watch, all of us are sub­ject to the dic­ta­tor­ship of rigid per­sonal likes and dis­likes. To free your­self from this con­di­tion­ing, prac­tice jug­gling with your likes and dis­likes cheer­fully when it is in the inter­ests of those around you — or yourself.”

- Eknath Easwaran

Train­ing the senses means over­com­ing con­di­tioned habits and learn­ing to enjoy what is ben­e­fi­cial. Click here for instruc­tions on this point.

A Practice for Today: Increasing One-Pointed Attention

Posted on January 18, 2012 by  | Read Comment | Add Comment

“When you do more than one thing at a time, you are teach­ing your mind to be scat­tered. That is just the oppo­site of con­cen­tra­tion, which is essen­tial for a good per­for­mance in any field.”

- Eknath Easwaran

One-pointed atten­tion means giv­ing full con­cen­tra­tion to the mat­ter at hand. Click here for instruc­tions on one-pointed attention.

A Practice for Today: Slowing Down

Posted on January 11, 2012 by  | Read 2 Comments | Add Comment

“Devote half an hour every morn­ing for med­i­ta­tion, or for inspi­ra­tional read­ing and reflec­tion. Do not let any­thing intrude on this most pre­cious period of your day.”

- Eknath Easwaran

Slow­ing down means set­ting pri­or­i­ties and reduc­ing the stress and fric­tion caused by hurry. Click here for instruc­tions on slow­ing down.

A New Year’s Resolution: Refry your memory and get rid of resentments

Posted on January 1, 2012 by  | Add Comment

For a fresh start to 2012, here’s some time­less advice from Easwaran from our archives.

“Many years ago on the eve of the New Year, my wife and I were walk­ing along the streets of San Fran­cisco when to my amaze­ment it appeared to start snow­ing. Now, snow is not at all com­mon in the Bay Area, even in Decem­ber; but from all the office win­dows I saw huge snowflakes float­ing down. I must have been stand­ing there star­ing, because Chris­tine began explain­ing to me that these were all pages of old cal­en­dars, being thrown out to cel­e­brate the end of the old year and the birth of the new.

“If we truly grasp what this stands for, it is quite an appro­pri­ate cel­e­bra­tion. But unfor­tu­nately, almost all of us go into the New Year bear­ing the same old resent­ments, jeal­ousies, and con­flicts which made the old year a bur­den on us. If we do carry these encum­brances along with us, we should admit in all can­dor, ‘We’re still liv­ing in 1979.’ Even though peo­ple will wish us a ‘very happy New Year,’ the prospects are all too likely that we will have the same ‘unhappy Last Year’ all over again.

“In order to have a ghost of a chance for a really happy New Year, we must learn how to tear out all the pages in our men­tal note­book where mem­ory has recorded in grue­some detail every­thing unpleas­ant that was said or done to us. In other words, I would say tear out all the old resent­ful episodes from 1979 and never bother dwelling on any of them again. Oth­er­wise they are going to cause a lot of pain in the year to come. Then go into the New Year with a fresh resolve to keep that kind of episode from caus­ing fur­ther anguish in the eight­ies. This is the most press­ing New Year’s res­o­lu­tion there can be.

“In India we had a dear friend with a cook who used to agi­tate her very much. My friend con­fided her prob­lem to me, and after some con­sid­er­a­tion I hit upon a sim­ple idea. Her lit­tle cot­tage sat on an exten­sive prop­erty, and the gate was a good hun­dred yards from her door, clearly vis­i­ble from her win­dow. ‘As soon as this lady appears,’ I advised — ‘in fact, as soon as you hear the click of the gate sig­nal­ing her arrival — start repeat­ing your mantram. Don’t wait for agi­ta­tion to strike.’ It was always a race between the resent­ment and the mantram, but in the long run the mantram won out.

“This is the first word of advice I would give any­one who is try­ing to come to grips with a resent­ful mem­ory: do not let your mind give it even one sec­ond of atten­tion if you can help it. Start repeat­ing your mantram as soon as you feel the slight­est stir of resent­ment in your mind, and over a long period of time I can assure you that the mantram will be able to defuse that time bomb and dis­con­nect its emo­tional charge.

“When we have been able to make some of these dif­fi­cult choices, old mem­o­ries of some­one being rude or dis­loyal to us or cheat­ing us can­not have any emo­tional charge what­so­ever. When these mem­o­ries do come up, as they well might from time to time, it will be like watch­ing a play. They are just mem­o­ries that are nei­ther for nor against any­one in particular.

“In San­skrit there is a delight­fully homely phrase for this: these par­tic­u­lar mem­ory seeds have been fried. It shows you the humor of some of the Hindu sages. Fry a seed and then you can throw it on the ground with­out any fear of its ger­mi­nat­ing. So I would advise every­one, ‘Fry 1979 — with all its resent­ments, its jeal­ousies, its petty hos­til­i­ties, dis­ap­point­ments, and frus­tra­tions. Fry it, deep-fry it, then refry it.’ Then you can mix with all the same peo­ple who used to agi­tate you and find that there is no adverse emo­tional response. Then you are free. So let us treat our­selves to a great feast for the New Year — refried memory.”

Please see our online course if you’d like to read more from Easwaran on choos­ing and using a mantram, for refry­ing those mem­ory seeds.

A Practice for Today: Choosing and Using a Mantram

Posted on December 28, 2011 by  | Add Comment

“Choose a mantram that appeals to you deeply from the list of those I rec­om­mend. (If you are in doubt, I rec­om­mend Mahatma Gandhi’s mantram, Rama, Rama.) Once you have cho­sen, do not change it.”

- 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.

A Practice for Today: Putting Others First

Posted on December 21, 2011 by  | Read Comment | Add Comment

“Prac­tice putting the wel­fare of other peo­ple first, before your own. You can begin within the cir­cle of your fam­ily and friends, where there is already a basis of love and respect on which to build.”

– Eknath Easwaran

Putting oth­ers first means gain­ing free­dom from self­ish­ness and sep­a­rate­ness, and find­ing joy in help­ing oth­ers. Click here for instruc­tions on putting oth­ers first.


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