Easwaran describes an entry into the unconscious in this week’s reading, pages 98–104 of Climbing the Blue Mountain.* Last week he lead us past the exterior in this “house of the mind.” Now we explore the deepest and highest reaches.
Of course this represents the spiritual journey, on which he is indeed leading each of us. As we progress, “We know what we have to do. It will be terribly hard, but we need to get control of the very source of power in ourselves – get into the basement and wire all those dynamos together to harness the full power of our desires.”
The labor is monumental, but so are the benefits. We look forward to hearing your insights and reflections.
Like owners of an elegant Victorian home, many of us focus elaborate attention on the exterior: our appearance and surface pursuits. To find our divine core, however, “we cannot stay outside. We need to open the door of the Victorian house of the mind and go in.”
In this week’s essay from Climbing the Blue Mountain, Easwaran uses this “homely illustration” to help us remember an eternal truth: “that by whatever name we call him, the Lord of Love is always present in the depths of our consciousness. Nothing we do can displease him. And human life has one single purpose: to discover this divine Self through the practice of spiritual disciplines, of which the foremost is meditation.”
This week let’s read the first half of “The House of the Mind,” pages 93–98, ending with “…impossible to go at all.”
“We get detached from ourselves, from our own ego, by gaining control over the thoughts with which we respond to life around us,” Easwaran explains as we conclude his essay “The Ticket Inspector” by reading pages 86–91 of Climbing the Blue Mountain.
And while detachment may sound negative, he emphasizes that its positive implications are tremendous:
“I would even go so far as to say, on the basis of what I myself have experienced, that we can reverse any negative tendency in our personality by refusing to let negative thoughts have their way. This is a far-reaching statement, for it means that positive thoughts are already on board the train. All we have to do is make sure their places are not usurped. Love, for example, is our nature.”
We are working together to cultivate detachment and realize our loving nature. We are so glad to be traveling this way with you!
Easwaran describes the mind as a crowded train station in this week’s essay from Climbing the Blue Mountain. Our thoughts are the passengers, often hitching rides and forcing unscheduled stops.
“Goodwill has a ticket. Compassion, forgiveness, love, wisdom, are all qualified travelers with lifetime passes. But ill will, jealousy, impatience, greed, and resentment have no tickets. They should never be allowed on our trains.”
Fortunately, “Meditation functions much like a ticket inspector, polite but very firm.” This week let’s read the first half of this essay, pages 81–86, where Easwaran sets the scene and assures us we too can learn to perform this tremendous feat of traffic control.
The secret of happiness lies in forgetting about ourselves and our problems, Easwaran explains in simple language in this week’s essay, pages 73–80 of Climbing the Blue Mountain. He also illustrates the message with this colorful story:
“When my niece was with us in California some years ago, she had her heart set on being a hopscotch champion. It seemed to me that she was making good progress, but the subtleties of the game escaped me. So finally I asked her, ‘What’s the secret of championship hopscotch?’:
“Her answer was right to the point: ‘Small feet.’
“Even I could appreciate that. If you have constable’s feet, so long and broad that they cut across all the lines, you can’t get anywhere in hopscotch. Life is like that too: if you have a big ego, you can’t go anywhere without fouling on the lines. But there are people who have petite, size five egos, who find it easy to remember the needs of others. They may not have much money or be highly educated, but they are loved wherever they go.”
“As long as we look upon joy as something outside us, we shall never be able to find it. Wherever we go it will still be beyond our reach, because ‘out there’ can never be ‘in here.’” – Eknath Easwaran
This week let’s finish Easwaran’s essay “Chasing Rainbows” in Climbing the Blue Mountain, reading pages 67–71. Drawing on Gandhi and the Bhagavad Gita, he helps us see the temporary nature of desire, and the lasting joy found in freedom from the sense of I, me, and mine.
Easwaran repeatedly raised “a question of priorities” in last week’s reading, noting that “if only we make it our number one priority, as young Thérèse did, no matter what difficulties come in our way, our love cannot help but grow.”
This week, as we finish his essay “The Supreme Ambition” in Climbing the Blue Mountain, he shows how the inspiration of someone in whom we see the Self’s beauty manifested drives us into action on such changes:
“The deep longing to be like the one we love gives us motivation to make great changes in ourselves – many of which are distressing – not only with courage but with a fierce sense of joy.”
He says this transformation even becomes “inevitable, inescapable” when we begin to feel drawn to the Self.
Let’s read pages 62–67 to finish this essay and begin the next. We are eager to hear what you feel drawn to in this reading!
“The only purpose which can satisfy us completely, fulfill all our desires, and then make our life a gift to the whole world, is the gradual realization of this Self, which throws open the gates of love. We cannot dream what depth and breadth of love we are capable of until we make the discovery that this divine spark lives in every creature.”– Eknath Easwaran
Using the example of Thérèse of Lisieux, Easwaran puts before us the majesty of this supreme ambition in this week’s reading, pages 57–62 of Climbing the Blue Mountain.
How can we learn such love? It is helpful to draw inspiration from those like Thérèse who practice love in their daily lives. Yet, Easwaran emphasizes, “we all have the syllabus of love right inside us, printed on every cell. We need look no further afield. There burns in the recesses of our consciousness a divine spark of pure love, universal, unquenchable.”
“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.”
The principle of unity supports life, and our selfishness and separateness are simply a forgetting of this truth. “Samadhi according to this interpretation,” Easwaran explains in this week’s reading, “is not union with God but reunion.”
In this week’s short reading, pages 47–50 in Climbing the Blue Mountain,* Easwaran illustrates this compassionate perspective with an engaging story from the Hindu tradition, the story of a modern magician, and the Bible’s Prodigal Son.
May we draw on the support of our teacher and this dedicated community to leave behind separateness and recall our unity.
“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.”
“The mystics have a different way of thinking about wealth,” Easwaran explains in this week’s reading, pages 37–41* in Climbing the Blue Mountain. “It is not how much we have that makes us rich, they say; it is how much we give – not only of our resources, but especially of ourselves.”
To bring this truth to life, Easwaran presents us with the example of Gandhi, a “zillionaire.” Easwaran tells the story of his own visit to Gandhi’s ashram, anchored by the evening prayer meeting:
“As I watched, Gandhiji’s eyes closed in concentration. His absorption in the verses was so complete that you could almost see the words filling his small frame. Suddenly I understood the answer to the question I had come with. Here was the source of all his wealth – his power, his love, his wisdom, his tireless service. He had turned his back on his little ‘I,’ his ego; now he lived in all.”
“All of us have a supreme jewel in the depths of our hearts, and we have come into life for no other purpose than to discover this jewel here on earth while we are alive.” With this matter-of-fact revelation, Easwaran entices us to seek the Atman: the Self, the unchanging truth, abiding joy, and flawless beauty who we really are.
And when we do – by practicing meditation and the allied disciplines to the very best of our ability – the results are both predictable and astounding:
“First your health improves; some long-standing physical problems may be alleviated. But don’t stop there. In the next stage you will learn to solve difficult emotional problems. If you persist, you may make your whole life a work of art, so that not only you but those around you benefit from your patience, understanding, love, and wisdom. Gradually even people who do not like you learn to respond to you, by responding to what is deepest in themselves. Then your life is a lasting contribution to all.”
But even this is not enough, Easwaran explains:
“After you have solved physical and emotional problems and made your life a creative force, one great achievement remains: the personal discovery that all of us are one and indivisible.”
Our reading this week is Chapter 2 of Climbing the Blue Mountain (pages 29–36).
In this week’s reading Easwaran describes “a kind of gnawing hunger deep inside” that led him to meditation. For example:
“One problem that began to torment me at the university was that though I knew how to teach my students about Shakespeare and Spenser, I did not know how to teach them what they most needed and wanted to know – how to live.”
Relief came as meditation developed the capacity to help:
“As meditation deepens, wherever you find sorrow – in the lives of your friends, in a community crisis, even in a tragedy on the other side of the globe – that sorrow is your own. But at the same time, this deeper sensitivity releases the capacity to help. You find ways to help others solve physical problems, set emotional difficulties right, repair their relationships, and even forget their personal problems in making a lasting contribution to the rest of life. In this way the power of sorrow is harnessed, and the deep gnawing hunger I spoke of begins to be relieved.”
Let’s finish Easwaran’s essay “Taking the Plunge” by reading pages 22–27 in Climbing the Blue Mountain (starting on page 22 with "Second, meditation brings vibrant health"). We are eager to hear your reflections in the comments below.
We are now underway with Easwaran’s Climbing the Blue Mountain. This is our third-ever book study as an eSatsang, and we’re building an excellent habit of systematically reading whole volumes from Easwaran.
This week let’s begin the book’s first essay, “Taking the Plunge,” and read from the start on page 17 through the middle of page 22, ending with “…where is the room for boredom?”
As promised in the introduction, Easwaran is rousing us to pursue the spiritual journey:
“Here we have a uniquely human choice: shall we wait for millions of years, knocked about in the painful process of evolution, until we finally enter this sea of joy; or shall we try to enter now, in this very lifetime, by taking our personal evolution into our own hands? Whatever our past, whatever our condition, this is something that can be done by every one of us through the practice of meditation.”
The whole of life, Easwaran tells us, “is moving inexorably toward the sea of joy and fulfillment that we call God.” We are so glad to be continuing the journey with you!
This week we begin our study of Easwaran’s book Climbing the Blue Mountain, starting with his introduction on pages 9–15.
Easwaran uses the metaphor of travel: “you can look upon me as a travel agent for the world within.” He compares the spiritual journey – for which he is rousing our interest – with travel in the external world, for example using this marvelous stanza from the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita:
If a thousand suns were to rise together,
The blaze of their light would resemble a little
The supreme splendor of the Lord within.
“No external novelty is needed” Easwaran explains, for “when you travel within, every day is fresh with discoveries and challenges, inspiration and profound peace.”
May we progress together on this journey and see rising “a sun which will never set.”
To complete our study of The Mantram Handbook, this week we will read all of the final chapter, pages 179–190.
Systematically reading a whole volume from Easwaran is a great habit to practice together. As we complete our book study, we can appreciate our accomplishment and reflect on how we’ve grown. In this chapter Easwaran reminds us:
“From the very first day you begin to use the mantram, it begins to grow in your consciousness. It germinates like the tiny seed that will eventually grow into a magnificent tree, and as you repeat it often and enthusiastically, it sends its roots deeper and deeper. Over a period of many years, if you have been practicing all the other spiritual disciplines which strengthen your will and deepen your concentration, the taproot of the mantram will extend fathoms deep, where it works to unify your consciousness – resolving old conflicts, solving problems you may not even be aware of, and transforming negative emotions into spiritual energy.”
May we each make use of every opportunity to repeat the mantram!
“In the eight-point program I teach, the mantram plays a unique role as the bridge between the interior discipline of meditation and the other, external disciplines, for it helps greatly in applying the power gained in meditation to the other disciplines throughout the day.” – Eknath Easwaran
Easwaran completes his brief tour of the spiritual disciplines he teaches in chapter 11 of The Mantram Handbook with a fascinating discussion of their interrelationship. And he gives special attention to the role of the mantram as a bridge:
“In this way, the mantram can give the day real continuity. At the beginning, it may only extend your morning meditation a little into breakfast. You may have felt at peace with the whole world in your meditation room, but when you sit down to burned toast and cold coffee, that is the end of your patience for the day. Gradually, however, as your meditation deepens and you try your best to remember the mantram at every possible moment, it will extend your morning meditation into your mid-morning break, then to your lunch hour, and eventually into the afternoon. Finally, if you are practicing these disciplines sincerely, systematically, and with sustained enthusiasm, the mantram will enable you to take up your evening meditation exactly where you left off that morning.”
Our reading this week is pages 170–178. We are eager to hear what insights you gain for applying these comprehensive disciplines.
“If you find yourself getting speeded up, repeat the mantram as a reminder to slow down.” – Eknath Easwaran
Our reading this week from The Mantram Handbook is pages 164–172,* which includes Easwaran’s descriptions of slowing down, one-pointed attention, training the senses, and putting others first. Reading these eight-point program essentials is a valuable boost for us all, and often gives new insights.
For example, we found it very helpful to read this reminder from Easwaran about the damage hurry does to our relationships: “[H]urry makes for superficial relationships, because it deprives our family and friends of our time and attention so that we are not able to be sensitive to their needs.”
Let’s make the most of this opportunity and reflect on how to put these insights into practice in our lives!
Thanks to all who joined in this year’s Celebration of Easwaran’s Life and Teachings, including last Sunday’s culmination! Taking part in that five-week program with you was a joyful and inspiring experience. Let us each continue our united effort to infuse the spiritual renaissance with a little more life, a little more love. We have Easwaran’s support in this. Our daily meditation and our mantram are healing forces in the world.
Our shared study here in the eSatsang each week supports this effort as well. Now we return to The Mantram Handbook. This week we begin chapter 11 of The Mantram Handbook, which puts the mantram in the context of the other spiritual disciplines Easwaran teaches. Easwaran tells us that the disciplines he presents are comprehensive, providing the tools to transform our lives into the highest form of art, in which we make “our every word and deed an expression of the unity of life.”
And he emphasizes that “these disciplines are suited for life in the modern world.” With these disciplines we too can follow the approach of his beloved granny, “in which we live in the midst of the world but never take our eyes off the supreme goal of life.”
This week let’s read pages 157–164, which include Easwaran’s introduction and his descriptions of passage meditation and repetition of a mantram.
