Whose Face Is Everywhere

Unity is a theme of this week’s reading, pages 98–108 in The Constant Companion.* The Lord is The Self in All, Whose Face Is Everywhere,  Who Has No Form and yet has taken infinite forms as well.

Easwaran shares a story of a mutt, dismissed by a passerby as liking everybody:

“Mutt or not, I wanted to tell her, that dog was teaching us a lesson. Those who like everybody, even if their opinions or color or social status is different, have tremendous potential. Such people can go far spiritually, because they identify themselves very little with their body, feelings, and opinions.”

“When you see someone like this,” he instructs us, “remind yourself that he or she has already some awareness that all of us are one.”

• What is one statement that speaks to your heart in this reading? How will you put it into action this week?

• As we read The Constant Companion, we are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week consider how these stories are speaking to you about your relationship with animals.

For our spiritual treat, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “The One Appearing as Many,” from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Whose Face Is Everywhere through Who Has No Form. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

He Who Wears Garlands of Forest Flowers

“Lovely flowers smell sweet, the Buddha says, but they fade, and their fragrance cannot last. The fragrance of goodness abides.” – Eknath Easwaran

Our reading this week, pages 86–97 in The Constant Companion,* begins with several names celebrating the beauty of the Lord, “which love of him awakens in our heart.” Water Lily, Jasmine, and other forest flowers are reminders of the Lord’s beauty, a fragrance we can carry with us and spread as kindness and patience.

The commonness of these flowers adds to the effect, Easwaran notes. They are helping us to remember the Lord always – like the rest of the names in this book. “That is the purpose of the Thousand Names. If we remember who is the source of all beauty, all plants will remind us of the Lord.”

• 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?

• As we read The Constant Companion, we are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week consider how these stories are speaking to you about your relationship with nature.

For our spiritual treat this week, we hope you enjoy this five-minute video in which Easwaran describes a connection between cultivating patience and deepening our devotion. 

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Water Lily through He Who Never Sleeps. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

Who Makes Love Increase

Building patience with others is a theme of this week’s reading, pages 76–85 in The Constant Companion.* Easwaran recounts, “When somebody who meditates comes to me with a sad tale of how he has been wronged, I often want to beam and exclaim, ‘What an opportunity! This is your chance to break through to a deeper level in meditation.’”

It is through this hard work that love increases, he explains, slowly, over time. And each of us can become a great lover:

“Over many years this kind of love can grow to such an extent that those you love will know you are incapable of hurting them, whatever lapses they may have. Imagine the security this brings!”

We too will benefit, of course. When the wall of our separate ego has broken down, we are freed from the individual burden of sorrow, and see the underlying unity of life. 

• Is there a particular situation that causes you to get speeded up or agitated? What tips does Easwaran offer in this reading that you could try out in this situation? Even if the tips don’t seem to directly apply, try them anyhow and tell us what you find.

• Spiritual Reading has been our focus for practice extension throughout this book study. What have you found most helpful or nourishing about your spiritual reading throughout this time?

Let’s turn again to The Thousand Names Talks** in the Easwaran Digital Library for our spiritual treat, this time with Talk 3. The full talk is 36 minutes, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with the first five minutes, where Easwaran discusses emanation: the Lord becoming the universe, in contrast to the concept of creation.

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Who Makes Love Increase through Abundant. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

** You’ll need to log in for the link above to work. If it’s your first time, use the button Create new account from the login page.

Lover of His Devotees

“The Lord loves all creatures, but those who love him with all their hearts have an innate power to draw his love in return. As Saint Teresa of Avila says, Amor saca amor: ‘Love draws love.’” – Eknath Easwaran

This week let’s read Easwaran’s commentary on the names Kshama, Patience, and Bhakta-Vatsala, Lover of His Devotees, together covering pages 68–75 in The Constant Companion.

Easwaran notes that Krishna “has a particularly warm corner in his heart” for his householder devotees, who live in the world, contending with all its challenges yet managing to remember him during parts of their day.

Here in the eSatsang, we are each inspiring each other to these little successes, and together drawing much love from the Lord.

• What is Easwaran telling you about the workings of your own mind? This week, use this new understanding to get some cooperation from your mind when it is being uncooperative. Tell us how it goes!

• Through our spiritual reading, Easwaran is helping us to be aware of the Lord’s presence in all. Are there ways in which these stories can help you to share that awareness with others in your life?

For our spiritual treat, here is Easwaran reading the passage “Whatever You Do,” from the Bhagavad Gita.

bmcm-team · Whatever You Do, (p. 166)

The Supreme Self

Our reading this week is pages 56–62 in The Constant Companion, and covers four names: Spirit, The Supreme Self, He Who Has Beautiful Hair, and The Thief.

Commenting on the name Purusha, Spirit, Easwaran explains that purusha is our real Self, “the Inner Ruler that dwells within and governs our activities.” This body of ours is thus a kind of temple or shrine, to which we must give loving care. “But we should always remember that we are not the body but Purusha, pure spirit. No matter how well we care for it, the body, like all things physical, has to pass away someday. We, the Self, can never die.”

• Which lines particularly strike you, and how can you apply them to your life this week?

• Your spiritual reading – and all your interactions with Easwaran – are helping you draw out your ability to see the Lord in all. What do you notice about how that is affecting your experience in different types of situations in your life?

Yoga: The Unitive State

Commenting on the name Yoga, The Unitive State, Easwaran takes us straight to the crux of spiritual endeavor:

“If yoga means union, the word implies that most of us are suffering from a kind of internal disunity. This division in consciousness is the central paradox of the human condition. We respond to what is beautiful, but on the other hand we feel attracted to things that bring ugliness. We admire somebody who is unselfish, but we have powerful urges to be selfish ourselves. We want abiding joy, but we cannot help going after fleeting, frustrating pleasure.

“All these are symptoms of a deeper split in our consciousness which tears us apart. And because we are being torn asunder inside, we express our pain in anger, fear, greed, competition, jealousy, and other negative emotions. It is this inner split that yoga heals – not on the surface but at the deepest levels of the unconscious, where most other methods only tinker with the problem on the surface.”

Meditation and the allied spiritual disciplines “are together called yoga because they give us a path we can follow to make this union permanent.” This week let’s read pages 56–62 in The Constant Companion, covering this name Yoga, along with Nanda, Happy.

• If you have a particular issue you are struggling with right now, look into this reading for tips, and try them out this week.

• Spiritual Reading is our current focus for practice extension. Through our study of The Constant Companion, Easwaran is guiding us to see the Lord in all. What do you notice about how that is applying to your interactions with the people in your life?

For bonus inspiration, here is a six-minute video in which Easwaran explains that by training our mind, “We can become part of the Sea of Love while living on Earth.”

Giver of Peace

This week, as we read pages 50–55 in The Constant Companion,* Easwaran begins by illustrating how self-will traps us even in our most intimate personal relationships: “We go about saying ‘He did this to me’ or ‘She said that to me’ or ‘It’s not my fault!’–all simply because we lack detachment and get blindly wrapped up in our own pursuits.” It is a familiar and terrible predicament.

But the Lord is Shanti-Da, the Giver of Peace. Last week Easwaran ended his commentary by describing how meditation slowly enables us to break through this self-will, which has accumulated like geological layers: “Drilling through these strata in meditation means overcoming limitations, all the obstacles created by self-will.” And through the power of meditation we can finally go beyond self-will: “The biggest leap in meditation comes when we run headlong and throw ourselves over the rim of all duality to land in the unitive state, where nothing is separate from the Lord.”

• Is there a relationship in your life that you wish you could improve? Read this article for tips from Easwaran. Try applying those tips, even if you can’t apply them directly to this particular relationship.

• We are taking this book study as an opportunity to give special attention to our practice of Spiritual Reading. In what ways do you find these stories are helping you see the Lord in others around you?

Let’s turn again to The Thousand Names Talks** in the Easwaran Digital Library for our spiritual treat, this time with Talk 2. The full talk is 33 minutes, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with the first five minutes, where Easwaran recounts a thrilling conversation from the Mahabharata, where Yudhishthira asks the great sage Bhishma, “How can the human being attain supreme joy which knows no change?”

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names Giver of Peace and The Eternal. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

** You’ll need to log in for the link above to work. If it’s your first time, use the button Create new account from the login page.

Perfect Peace

“The surest evidence of the Lord’s compassion is how swiftly a deep, heartfelt change in our ways of thinking and acting today can bring a better tomorrow.” – Eknath Easwaran

Our reading from The Constant Companion this week covers three of Vishnu’s names: Lord of Past, Present, & Future; The Immeasurable; and Peace (pages 42–49). Easwaran’s commentaries on those names are wide ranging: practical, playful, and profound.

One theme is the good news Easwaran derives from the first of these names: “if our thinking and acting today shapes our tomorrows, then the future lies to a significant extent in our own hands.” Together our eSatsang community is helping to shape that future with light and love.

• What is the most important thing that Easwaran said to you in this reading? How can you apply it in your life?

• We are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading. Can you find ways to share parts of these stories with the children in your life?

For bonus spiritual entertainment, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “The Nectar of Immortality,” Eknath Easwaran’s translation of the Amritabindu Upanishad.

The Essence of All Beings

We'd like to encourage anyone who may be interested in attending our upcoming introductory weekend online retreat, July 28 - July 30. We find the most successful way to build a strong practice is to come to retreats. We would love to see you there!

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“It is worth a few moments of reflection to grasp what it means to say that God has become all things,” Easwaran begins his commentary on the name The Essence of All Beings. This week’s reading is pages 35–41 of The Constant Companion, covering that name along with Maker of All Things and The Eternal Law. Throughout, he helps us with this reflection using vivid illustrations of the universe’s grandeur.

Together we can grow our gratitude to the Lord as we admire the magnificence of creation. “‘Everybody praises the building,’ says Sri Ramakrishna, a towering mystic of nineteenth-century Bengal. ‘But how many seek to know its Maker?’”

• Is there a particular situation that causes you to get speeded up or agitated? What tips does Easwaran offer in this reading that you could try out in this situation? Even if the tips don’t seem to directly apply, try them anyhow and tell us what you find.

• We are taking this book study as an opportunity to give special attention to our practice of Spiritual Reading. On the days you are able to do spiritual reading, what benefits do you find?

The Support of All Creatures

We'd like to encourage anyone who may be interested in attending our upcoming introductory weekend online retreat, July 28 - July 30. We find the most successful way to build a strong practice is to come to retreats. We would love to see you there!

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This week we cover five names of the Lord as we read pages 28–34 in The Constant Companion,* including The One and The Many. How is the Lord both one and many? “This apparent paradox is the result of looking at the same reality from different points of view.”

This point is fundamental to the Thousand Names, and we see it in several of the names this week. For example, Easwaran explains that in the climax of meditation, when we discover this Self in the depths of our consciousness, “at that moment we see the Lord in every other creature as well. These are not two different discoveries, in other words; they are different aspects of the same realization. To find out who I am, then, is to find out who you are – and who everyone else is, too.”

• Is there a tip in this reading that is particularly challenging for you? How will you wrestle with it this week?

• As we read The Constant Companion, we are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading via reflection. This week consider how these stories are speaking to a loving relationship in your life.

For a spiritual treat this week, here is a brief video in which Easwaran draws inspiration from the great mystic poet Kabir.

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is Easwaran’s commentary on the names The Support of All Creatures through The Many.

He Who Is Everywhere

Thanks to all who joined in our celebration of Christine Easwaran’s birthday, including last Sunday’s culmination!

Also, we'd like to encourage anyone who may be interested in attending our upcoming introductory weekend online retreat, July 28 - July 30. We find the most successful way to build a strong practice is to come to retreats. We would love to see you there!

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We hope you are enjoying and finding inspiration in our new book study of The Constant Companion. This week let’s read pages 22–27, where Easwaran comments on the names He Who Is Everywhere and Maker of All Beings.

“It takes a lifetime to grasp the significance of this simple truth that the Lord is present everywhere,” Easwaran writes. “But as it seeps into our consciousness, we gain a new respect for all creation.” We look forward to hearing your reflections.

• Is there some tip from Easwaran in this reading that you tend to skim over because you have already heard it many times before? Try focusing on it this week.

• As we read The Constant Companion, we are working to strengthen our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week consider how these stories are speaking to a difficult situation in your life.

For our spiritual treats in the Easwaran Digital Library, we’ve been enjoying Easwaran’s Patanjali talks for some time. This week in coordination with our book study let’s try something new and dip into The Thousand Names Talks,* also in the vast Audio Talks section. If you are new to this series, the player should begin automatically with Talk One. The majority of this half-hour talk is Easwaran’s sonorous Sanskrit chanting. If time is short, consider starting with just the first five minutes, where Easwaran introduces the scripture and begins the recital with an invocation.

* You’ll need to log in for the link above to work. If it’s your first time, use the button Create new account from the login page.

Celebrating Christine Easwaran

We have arrived at the week of our Celebration of Christine Easwaran’s birthday! We have a special curriculum in which you can participate here in the eSatsang, as well as in Satsang Live this week.

Let’s begin with Easwaran reading one of Christine’s favorite passages, “Prayer for Peace” from Swami Omkar.

Next we have three special readings to enjoy, providing inspiration from Christine’s life and her foremost themes:

1. With My Love and Blessings, pages 16–17

2. Christine’s Publisher’s Page from the Summer 2010 Blue Mountain Journal

3. Strength in the Storm, pages 160–162

And let’s end our birthday curriculum with another passage: here is Easwaran reading “The Prayer of Saint Francis” from Saint Francis of Assisi.

• What is one statement that speaks to your heart in these readings? How will you put it into action this week?

• We have recently been reflecting on our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week consider how your spiritual reading contributes to your role in the spiritual renaissance.

• Join us on Sunday for a Day of Mantrams for Peace and Healing in the World in Christine’s honor. The centerpiece of our day is BMCM Satsang Live, where we will repeat this curriculum together. Your presence is important!

For this week’s spiritual treat, we hope you enjoy the special video available in the Easwaran Digital Library in Christine’s honor.

He Who Is Everything

Special Announcement

Our beloved Christine’s birthday falls at the end of June. In former times, during this whole month, your cards and letters poured in, and Christine read each one with great joy.

Last year, instead of sending cards and letters, you poured your hearts into the mantram for her as she was preparing to shed her body. Doesn’t it feel right to continue this tradition in her honor?

So let’s make special effort with our mantrams throughout the month of June. Sunday, June 25 will be our actual celebration of her birthday with a special program on Satsang Live and a day of mantrams for peace and healing in the world.

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Quoting the great sage Bhishma from the Mahabharata, Easwaran ends his introduction to The Constant Companion: “Now, O Prince, I shall recite the Thousand Names. Listen carefully, and they will remove fear and evil from your life."

For our second week of this new book study, let’s read pages 15–21,* finishing the introduction and taking in the first name on which Easwaran comments: He Who Is Everything. “[T]he Thousand Names reminds us from the outset that the Lord is the universe. He has entered into all things. At the core of creation, in the heart of every creature, is the Lord, the very basis of existence.”

• Is there a relationship in your life that you wish you could improve? Read this article for tips from Easwaran. Try applying those tips, even if you can’t apply them directly to this particular relationship.

• Last week we began reflecting on our practice of Spiritual Reading. This week, look for ways that reading Easwaran’s books helps you make your highest ideals a part of your daily life.

For our extra spiritual tidbit, here is Christine Easwaran reading the passage “Life of My Life” from Meera.

* For those using electronic versions of The Constant Companion with different page numbering: this week’s reading is the second half of the introduction, beginning with “Vishnu is also…,” plus Easwaran’s commentary on the name He Who is Everything. (Please note that the latest edition of our ebook is titled Names of the Lord.)

The Constant Companion

Special Announcement

Our beloved Christine’s birthday falls at the end of June. In former times, during this whole month, your cards and letters poured in, and Christine read each one with great joy.

Last year, instead of sending cards and letters, you poured your hearts into the mantram for her as she was preparing to shed her body. Doesn’t it feel right to continue this tradition in her honor?

So let’s make special effort with our mantrams throughout the month of June. Sunday, June 25 will be our actual celebration of her birthday with a special program on Satsang Live and a day of mantrams for peace and healing in the world.

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“Most of the world’s major religions have a tradition celebrating the Holy Names of God,” Easwaran begins his introduction to The Constant Companion, also titled The Thousand Names of Vishnu. Along with this global context, Easwaran shares his intimate family context: “My grandmother, my spiritual teacher, would place a lighted oil lamp in front of the image of Sri Krishna. Then an uncle who was a Sanskrit scholar would chant the names of the Lord one by one, with the sacred word Om before each name and the word namah after it.” Easwaran says he must have heard these thousand names a thousand times while growing up, recited at dawn for an hour.

He also shares the practical purpose of this ritual: “Even for a child, then, the Thousand Names were a constant reminder that there is a spark of divinity in everyone.”

As we embark together on this book study, may we too fill our minds with the thought of God, and know that “what we think of constantly, we see wherever we look.” Our reading this week is the start of the introduction on page 11 to the bottom of page 15, ending “…light and peace.”

• Read this article as if you and Easwaran are having a conversation. What advice does he give you, and how can you apply it this week?

• As we take up The Constant Companion, let’s give special attention to our practice of Spiritual Reading. What do you find most helpful or nourishing about the ways you already practice Spiritual Reading?

Returning Home

As Easwaran takes us through the later stages of his journey up the Blue Mountain – and by analogy the adventure of attaining the highest state of consciousness – a marked change occurs. “Until now we have been making all the effort in our climb. But from now on we feel an unseen power drawing us from above, guarding us against the dangers of the precipitous ascent. This grace does not come from any external power. We have shown our dedication, purified our effort; now the Lord of Love, the Divine Mother within, begins to draw us to her, infusing our limited will with hers, which is infinite.”

This week’s reading is the final pages of Climbing the Blue Mountain, 164–169.* Together we’ve completed our book study and continued to build our helpful habit of reading a whole volume from Easwaran.

• What is one statement that speaks to your heart in this reading? How will you put it into action this week?

• Throughout this book study, we have given special effort to our practice of Putting Others First. What is one positive effect you have noticed from this work?

• Next week, on June 9th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s The Constant Companion. To prepare, make sure you have the book available.

  • For readers living in the United States, the print book is available here on our BMCM web store. Electronic versions are available worldwide and are also linked from that page.

  • Here is the cover of the edition we’ll be using:

For this week’s spiritual treat, Easwaran summarizes the insights of the sages of ancient India and shows how they can transform our daily life and our world. As the awareness of unity dawns in us through meditation, our consciousness gradually expands to embrace all of life.

* 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 “Climbing the Blue Mountain,” starting with “Now we are three thousand feet….”

Climbing the Blue Mountain

“For thousands of years, mystics of all religions have used the image of ascending a mountain to describe the adventure of attaining the highest state of consciousness,” Easwaran writes, as he introduces the journey he used to make each year to the summit of the Blue Mountain.

From the heat and dry, oppressive wind of Central India's summer he traveled south by train on the Grand Trunk Express to Madras, then on the Blue Mountain Express to Coimbatore, hot and dusty across the southern part of India. Then by rural bus he made a slow, imperceptible ascent to the town of Mettupalayam, which means “elevated camp.” “I breathe a sigh of relief as the bus leaves behind the din and dust of the town and crosses the Bhavani River, named after the Divine Mother,” he shares.

“That is how sadhana proceeds these first few years,” he explains. “From day to day you seem to make no progress.” But we have risen significantly. Above the foothills now, new challenges begin: “For miles the road winds through a dense forest, abounding with wild animals….” This week, let’s read the first half of the ascent, pages 159–164 in Climbing the Blue Mountain.*

• Which lines particularly strike you, and how can you apply them to your life this week?

• Let’s continue extending our practice of Putting Others First. Easwaran writes, “Nothing we do could have a more beneficial influence on those around us than remaining calm and considerate in the midst of ups and downs.” For this week’s challenge, reflect on a situation where you’ve been agitated recently and craft a strategy for remaining calm and considerate the next time you face it.

• In two weeks, on June 9th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s The Constant Companion. To prepare, make sure you have the book available.

  • For readers living in the United States, the print book is available here on our BMCM web store. Electronic versions are available worldwide and are also linked from that page.

  • Here is the cover of the edition we’ll be using:

Let’s return to Easwaran’s Patanjali talks** for our spiritual treat, this time with Talk 15. The full talk is almost an hour, but you can listen to part of it now and when you return the player will resume where you left off. If time is short, consider starting with the first five minutes, where Easwaran begins, “This evening we take up three aphorisms together in which Patanjali shows us how illumination is a deliverance from time into the eternal now.”

* For those using electronic versions of Climbing the Blue Mountain with different page numbering: this week’s reading is the first half of the chapter “Climbing the Blue Mountain,” ending with “…resentment into love.”

** You’ll need to log in for the link above to work. If it’s your first time, use the button Create new account from the login page.

From Death to Immortality

Quoting the King of Death, Yama, in the Katha Upanishad, Easwaran writes, “As long as you identify yourself with the body, which is subject to change, so long will you be subject to the last great change called death. If you can break through this identification with the body and learn to identify yourself instead with the changeless Self, the Lord within your heart, you will transcend death here and now.”

Easwaran tell us this is the “greatest of secrets to have come down through all religions.” In this week’s reading, pages 154–158 of Climbing the Blue Mountain,* Easwaran describes how ordinary men and women like us can prepare for this breakthrough by “trying to abolish every vestige of selfishness and separateness from our lives and hearts.”

• If you have a particular issue you are struggling with right now, look into this reading for tips, and try them out this week.

• Here is our Putting Others First challenge this week:

  • Easwaran writes, “Ideals are merely ideas until we translate them into daily life – and that means learning to go against the conditioning that urges us to put ourselves first instead.” What is one small way you can go against your conditioning and put others first this week?

• In three weeks, on June 9th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s The Constant Companion. To prepare, make sure you have the book available.

  • For readers living in the United States, the print book is available here on our BMCM web store. Electronic versions are available worldwide and are also linked from that page.

  • Here is the cover of the edition we’ll be using:

We’ll end with another spiritual treat: we hope you enjoy this recording of Easwaran reading the passage “The Inner Ruler” from the Isha Upanishad.

* 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 Candle of the Lord,” beginning with “When Dr. Robert Oppenheimer….”

The Candle of the Lord

“The principles that underlie all major religions may be stated very simply,” Easwaran writes in this week’s reading, pages 149–153 from Climbing the Blue Mountain:*

1.  “All life, the entire phenomenal world, has as its basis something completely divine.

2.  It is possible for everyone to know this divine ground of all existence.

3.  Life has only one purpose: not to make money, nor to enjoy pleasure, nor to achieve success, nor to attain fame, but to know and be united with this divine ground, which we call God.”

 We can verify these truths in our own life – not through the senses, which as finite instruments cannot reach the infinite – but by undergoing universal disciplines, “the purpose of which is to still the mind so that it can reveal, like the still waters of a crystal lake, the divinity at its uttermost depths.” Our united efforts as a satsang are bringing us closer to this great goal.

•  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?

• As we continue our Putting Others First exercises, we are looking for ways to deepen them, for example by practicing more consistently or via a bit of extra effort or preparation.

  • Easwaran writes, “Exercising discrimination is part of being kind. We need to combine a soft heart with a hard nose.” This week, watch for examples of people who exercise good discrimination and are able to be warm-hearted yet firm when necessary. Are there situations when you can exercise this skill yourself?

• In four weeks, on June 9th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s The Constant Companion. To prepare, make sure you have the book available.

  • For readers living in the United States, the print book is available here on our BMCM web store. Electronic versions are available worldwide and are also linked from that page.

  • Here is the cover of the edition we’ll be using:

* For those using electronic versions of Climbing the Blue Mountain with different page numbering: this week’s reading is the first half of the chapter “The Candle of the Lord,” ending with “…glory and effulgence.”

Put Meditation First

“Whatever the obstacles, I wanted to keep on making progress in meditation. That desire is the key.” – Eknath Easwaran

Last week Easwaran began his essay “Deepening Meditation” by helping us understand how meditation works and giving practical suggestions for our meditation period. This week he ends the essay by focusing on one piece of advice: “never allow anything to come in the way of your meditation.” This simple decision, he explains, will save us from innumerable difficulties in stilling the mind. Our reading this week is pages 144–148 in Climbing the Blue Mountain.*

• What is the most important thing that Easwaran said to you in this reading? How can you apply it in your life?

• Let’s continue strengthening our ability to put others first:

  • As a challenge this week, practice listening. Take time to listen to others this week. Particularly if there is disagreement, make it your goal to understand what the other person is expressing. But don’t stop just with disagreements. Simply enjoy listening to verbal and non-verbal connections with others. Try to listen knowing that the Lord lives in this person.

• In five weeks, on June 9th, the eSatsang will begin studying Easwaran’s The Constant Companion. To prepare, make sure you have the book available.

  • For readers living in the United States, the print book is available here on our BMCM web store. Electronic versions are available worldwide and are also linked from that page.

  • Here is the cover of the edition we’ll be using:

For a spiritual treat, here is the second half of the video we started last week. The player will start automatically where we left off at timepoint 8:30, so feel free to restart at the beginning if you missed it last time. In the video, Easwaran reminds us about all the opportunities our desires offer for gaining a firmer, fitter will. He also discusses practical ways we can make great strides towards realizing our true Self within.

* 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 “Deepening Meditation,” beginning with “Last, let me share….”

Deepening Meditation

How can we deepen our meditation? In this week’s reading, pages 137–144 of Climbing the Blue Mountain,* Easwaran helps us via two main approaches. “To begin with, understanding how meditation works can help a good deal in understanding all the little ways in which it can be improved.” So in the first half of the reading he uses numerous metaphors to help us understand the process of stilling the mind.

The second half is full of practical suggestions for our meditation period itself. Easwaran ends this section by assuring us that these simply suggestions “are so important that if they are followed scrupulously, to the letter, you cannot help making steady progress.” May we take little steps towards depth together this week.

• What is Easwaran telling you about the workings of your own mind? This week, use this new understanding to get some cooperation from your mind when it is being uncooperative. Tell us how it goes!

• We have been making a second pass through our Putting Others First exercises and looking for ways to deepen them, for example by practicing more consistently or via a bit of extra effort or preparation. Here’s our challenge this week:

  • When you are feeling negative, tired, bored, sad, or anxious, try this easy fix-it. Do something for someone else. For instance, make some soup to share with a neighbor; do an errand for your partner; play a board game with the kids; call a lonely friend. Notice for yourself how quickly your own state of mind changes. Tell us how it goes!

For our spiritual bonus this week, let’s enjoy the first half of this video, ending at timepoint 8:30. Of course you are welcome to continue and watch the second half as well, but note that we’ll be using it for our treat next week. In the video, Easwaran reminds us about all the opportunities our desires offer for gaining a firmer, fitter will. He also discusses practical ways we can make great strides towards realizing our true Self within.

* For those using electronic versions of Climbing the Blue Mountain with different page numbering: this week’s reading is the first half of the chapter “Deepening Meditation,” ending with “…making steady progress.”