“What supports life, according to the mystics, is the principle of unity; what destroys life is separateness, the negation of this principle.” Last week Easwaran helped us to see this unity as always within us – but simply forgotten.
This week let’s read pages 50–56 in Climbing the Blue Mountain* to finish the essay. Here Easwaran shows that it is by appealing to that deep sense of unity that we can get the best out of others and “turn against the current to find our true nature, which is oneness with all life.”
Is there a tip in this reading that is particularly challenging for you? How will you wrestle with it this week?
Here is our challenge this week for putting others first:
Easwaran writes, “…whenever I see somebody changing herself to be kinder or more selfless, my heart leaps in delight.” Can you take the opportunity to make Easwaran’s heart leap by changing something small this week? Use the comments below to let us know how so we can leap too!
Our spiritual treat this week is a 30-minute video where Easwaran comments on the Dhammapada to explore the practical meaning of leading a selfless life, and its rich rewards. If time is tight, consider watching from 20:23 to the end of the talk, during which Easwaran comments directly on lines from the Dhammapada.
* 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 “The Forgotten Truth,” beginning with “Because this truth is inscribed….”