“Spiritual wealth” is the topic of our current essay in Climbing the Blue Mountain. As we complete that chapter this week by reading pages 42–45,* Easwaran describes how we can make our lives a gift to the world.
“For better or worse, personal example is a force,” Easwaran states in this week’s reading. “[I]f we indulge our personal desires, even if only in little things, it encourages those around us to do the same.”
“How and what we eat, what we drink, how we talk to people, how we deal with difficulties – all these things influence others deeply, especially children. In this sense there is a field of forces, selfish and unselfish, swirling around every one of us.”
By learning to be selfless, we can choose the way we influence others. “Then you become not only rich but a real philanthropist, distributing wealth wherever you go.”
Identify something in your life that you find confusing at this time, and where you wish you could ask Easwaran for his tips. See what he has to say in our readings. How can you apply his words to your situation?
We've been extending our practice of putting others first with weekly experiments.
What is one small way you can go against your conditioning and put others first this week?
* For those using electronic versions of Climbing the Blue Mountain with different page numbering: this week’s reading is the second half of the chapter “Spiritual Wealth,” beginning with “Every one of us has many of these little, self-centered desires.”
For our spiritual bonus, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “The Miracle of Illumination” from Shantideva.