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.

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? 

BMCM Webinars: Meditation in a Digital Age

At the end of January, the BMCM held the first of four webinars in 2015. This webinar had 289 registrants from 18 countries ranging from Lithuania to Mauritius to Bolivia. We've been thrilled to see that our webinars are able to offer support to international meditators.

Here are some other interesting statistics about the registrants:

• 45% were new to passage meditation
• 16% found out about it from a friend, 14% from Facebook, and 31% from easwaran.org
• 14% were YAs, from 9 countries

More and more people are turning to digital resources and we're thrilled about this continuing BMCM offering!

This is the third webinar hosted by the BMCM and each time we learn so much both about the technology and the curriculum. 

On the technology side, we're continually experimenting with our cameras and microphones and are amazed at the options out there -- and the difference they make! On the curriculum side, last year there were just two presenters. In our most recent webinar, we experimented with adding a host, who asked questions to draw the presenters out in a more spontaneous and interactive way. This change was made in response to a lot of the helpful feedback we received last year.

We've been pleased with the results so far: our new camera allowed a wider view of our presenter team, and adding a host enabled us to create a more relaxed atmosphere, similar to our in-person retreats.

Another new addition this year is our Webinar 2, which will be held on March 28th, covering the other points in Easwaran's eight-point program (registration is now open!). We hope you'll join us in March, or at the two-part series being held again in September/October in 2015 at a different time zone.

If you've attended a BMCM webinar, we'd love to hear from you! Share you thoughts in the comments below. What has your experience been viewing the webinar? Does satsang work over the internet?

A Passage for February

Choosing a new passage to memorize can sometimes feel daunting. There are so many wonderful passages in Easwaran's compilation God Makes the Rivers to Flow, that at times we've found ourselves with just too many choices! Just this past week the YA Blog team found ourselves in this spot so we played a favorite game – open the book at random and memorize the passage on the page.

We opened to "Prayer for Peace" by Swami Omkar, and were so pleased with the choice. We invite you to join us in memorizing this passage and using it in meditation this month. 

We'd love to hear from you. We particularly like the first line "Adorable presence, Thou who art within and without, above and below and all around." In the comments below, share with us a line or word in this passage that stands out to you.

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Prayer for Peace – Swami Omkar

Adorable presence,
Thou who art within and without,
above and below and all around,
Thou who art interpenetrating
every cell of my being,
Thou who art the eye of my eyes,
the ear of my ears,
the heart of my heart,
the mind of my mind,
the breath of my breath,
the life of my life,
the soul of my soul,
Bless us, dear God, to be aware of thy presence now and here. 

May we all be aware of thy presence
in the East and the West,
in the North and the South.
May peace and good will abide among individuals, communities, and nations. 

This is my earnest prayer. May peace be unto all!