Easwaran continues with the theme of pleasure and pain as he comments on the names Sat and Asat, Reality and Unreality, in this week’s reading, pages 282–291 in The Constant Companion.* “Just as the experiences of the dreamer and daydreamer are not real,” he reminds us, “but only constructions imposed by the mind, so the pleasures and pain of this world have no reality apart from the mind.” The implications are revolutionary:
“When you reach a certain depth in meditation, you will look back upon some of the occasions when you felt a great deal of pain and see it as a kind of optical illusion. You will not see any reason for the pain, which means that there was no pain in the world outside. You did suffer then, just as in a bad dream, but now that you are awake at that level of consciousness, you can look on the same experience without any overlay of suffering.”
Pain and pleasure are not real, he explains; they come and go. Joy stays with you, increasing with the passage of time; it knows no end.
What is one statement that speaks to your heart in this reading? How will you put it into action this week?
Spiritual Reading has been our focus for practice extension throughout this book study. How does reading Easwaran’s books helps you make your highest ideals a part of your daily life?
Finally, for bonus spiritual entertainment, here is Christine Easwaran reading Psalm 100, the passage “Worship the Lord in Gladness.”
* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Reality through Joy. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)