Easwaran: The Mantram

/

 "Meditation slows down the thinking process; the mantram keeps it from acting from conditioning and speeding up again during the day. The mantram keeps the stream of concentrated thought flowing throughout the day." –Eknath Easwaran

Here on the YA blog, we focus a lot on the practice of meditating on a passage, but meditation is just one of the eight points in Easwaran’s spiritual practice. So this week we’d like to focus on one of the other points: repetition of a mantram. If you’re not familiar with Easwaran’s instructions for choosing and using a mantram, we recommend checking out this overview.

YA-Easwaran

We’ll admit that, for some of us, using a mantram felt a bit awkward initially, but it’s now a discipline that we at YA Blog HQ love dearly! One of the things we find incredibly useful about this point is that it can be practiced anytime, anywhere.

This week we’d like to share an audio talk by Eknath Easwaran on the repetition of a mantram. The talk is from August 1982 and is full of stories and illustrations about the power of the mantram. We really appreciate Easwaran’s ability to use stories and similes to describe the spiritual life, so this talk is one of our particular favorites.

We would love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments below:

  • Is there a story or part of the talk that you particularly enjoyed?
  • How has using the mantram helped you in your daily life?