- 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.

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.

“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.

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.

- 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

Happy St. Valentine’s Day!

Download the free e-book Learning to Love

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.

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.

- 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.

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.