Furiously Mantraming

This week we have a post from Logan, a YA who's recently moved back to her home state of Texas. Logan shares below how she's using the mantram to navigate difficult times. 

Once again, I find myself in a time of tumultuous transition, unsettling uncertainty, and unexpected change. This chaotic mix is multi-faceted with contributing factors from a number of life’s elements. I just drove a U-Haul nearly two thousand miles across the country without a certain place to live, my grandfather is in the hospital, my finances are wonderfully low, and the dynamics of a close relationship changed without warning. It feels like such a mess!

But lo and behold! I have a toolbox full of things to help me navigate these stormy waters: Easwaran’s eight-point program of passage meditation. And the most powerful tool in the arsenal? The mantram!

As I became overwhelmed with all these things happening at once, I truly felt like I was desperately treading water in a stormy sea, watching as all my ships sank around me. My thoughts became difficult to control as my turbulent emotions hijacked my mind. The storm winds of fear and anger were tossing the waves all around me -- truly a tempest was raging within. Then I stuck out my hand in the dark and found the mantram and, boy, did I hold on for dear life!

Never in the seven years that I’ve been practicing passage meditation have I felt such intense surges of emotion. I didn’t know what to do with all the energy it was causing! I felt like screaming, so I screamed the mantram. If I wasn’t in a place conducive to screaming (such as my grandfather’s hospital room), I furiously wrote the mantram, the pen flying across the page. Every time a rage or fear-inducing thought arose, I clenched my teeth, and OM MANI PADME HUM!

The upsides? These past seven years of repeating the mantram ensured that it was there when I needed it, although there was a bit of groping around until I was able to grab hold of it. The intensity of my emotions means that the intensity of the mantram is also at an all-time high, and just like vigorous workouts yield potent results, so too, I am told, will vigorous mantraming.

Easwaran has taught me that this practice helps us turn fear into fearlessness, that it can transform anger into selfless work, that the power of our selfish desires can be fuel for driving us deeper in meditation. Well, thank goodness, because otherwise this mess would be only a mess, rather than an opportunity to drive my mantram deeper and to challenge the limits of my strength. And man, are they being challenged. Those muscles of the mind are going to be sore. But when the storm passes and the sea is still for a little while, I think I’ll be able to see just a little bit deeper into those waters.

Easwaran on One-Pointed Attention

In June, we shared the first half of a talk that Easwaran gave in 1991 on the benefits of training the mind. This week, we’re eager to share the second half! We really enjoyed Easwaran’s practical examples of how we can work on one-pointed attention in our everyday lives. Whether it’s during mealtimes, or running errands at the post office, Easwaran highlights how slowing down and one-pointed attention can benefit not only ourselves but all of those around us. 

We think this portion of the talk works well on its own, by the way, though you’re welcome to go back and listen to the first half if you’d like to do so.

We’d love to hear from you – what are examples of where you work on training your mind throughout the day? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Using Meditation To Create A More Meaningful Work Life

Meet Susheelkumar, a YA living in Bangalore, India. This week, Susheelkumar shares how he established a daily passage meditation practice, and the benefits he's seen in his personal and work life as a result.

Introduction

My name is Susheelkumar. I am 32 years old. I work for a major Telecommunication company in Bangalore, India. I write this article to tell you how Eknath Easwaran’s 8 point program (or, "8PP") is helping me to have a more meaningful work life in the midst of a high tech, fast paced work environment.

But before that, let me tell you three things about myself. First, my current challenges at my workplace. Second, some of my personal challenges. And third, how I was trying to fix my issues earlier.

My current work environment

I am working as a client engagement manager for my company. All my clients are from different parts of the world. Each of them works in a different time zone. Typically this means I have one or the other task round the clock.

Working in the Telecommunications industry is another challenge. Technology is changing at a very fast pace. Yesterday we had 2G. Today we have 3G. Tomorrow we have 4G. 5G is getting developed even as we speak. And our knowledge has to be up to date at all times.

Since we are working from a cost optimized country, clients have unreasonable demands. We have to be digitally reachable 24/7. There is always a perceived threat that if we do not meet expectations there will always be someone who is ready to do our work at a lesser price and better quality.

My personal challenges

I have always been a people pleaser. It is very difficult for me to say No when someone has unreasonable demands. This has made me a workaholic. Work has become a central part of my life. Even though I don’t consider myself ambitious, I always found myself under pressure and stress. I now realize that my friends and family tried to put sense into me, but I never listened to them.

How I tried to fix these issues

It did take me quite some time to realize that things were not quite right for me. The first step I took was to talk to some of my seniors and see if they had suggestions to improve my situation. Nobody had any. In fact, many had problems similar to me.

The next thing I did was to read self-help books. These books seemed to convey that the way to fix all the issues was to become more productive. Do more in less time. The tips that they gave seemed to work initially but could not give me lasting solutions. I was still stressed and under pressure.

Passage Meditation, my first experiment and learning

I then ended up reading Eknath Easwaran’s Passage Meditation by pure luck. The moment I finished reading the book, I knew I had laid my hands on something great!

Being an overenthusiastic person used to quick fix solutions, I immediately jumped into implementing something which I “thought” was an answer to all my problems – Slowing down. I did this without sincerely practicing the other seven principles in general and meditation in particular. I cannot explain to you in words how miserably I failed. I was surprised at this since somehow I felt this book made so much sense! 

I then re-read the entire book – slowly. I understood that the eight point program was not about quick fix solutions. It was rather about a way of living. It was not only a program to handle your daily issues but a means of reaching the highest ideal a human being is capable of.

But, the success of this entire program depended on one key thing – Meditation. The success or failure of the other seven points depended on how sincerely we meditated.

How I am now living EE’s 8 PP and new discoveries

The first thing I started to do was meditate sincerely. Meditating helped me to get closer to my real feelings.

For me one of the deepest needs has always been to find an answer to the question – Who am I? To get my sense of Identity, I worked hard. I strived hard to get appreciation from everyone. This made me feel worthy and complete.

So, I decided to start meditating on passages that answer my question – Who am I? I picked passages that spoke about my true self, passages that spoke about Brahman within us, and passages that spoke about how complete we already are.

I have now been meditating for nearly six months daily for 30 minutes.  Meditating early in the morning is giving me a deep sense of security and peace. It acts like a generator that generates a lot of positive energy. As of now, this energy stays with me for the better part of the day. This is helping me to stay calm and composed.

The other great thing that I am discovering each day is the immense power of the Mantram. I am consciously trying to repeat the Mantram whenever possible. I have experienced firsthand that whenever I repeat the Mantram to myself, it seems to conserve the energy that is already generated during meditation. It is very strange and tough to put it in words here, but I have experimented on this and found it to be true.

I am now discovering that the beauty of the 8PP seems to be in its simplicity. One point logically leads to the other. You meditate to generate a lot of positive energy. You then repeat the Mantram to conserve this positive energy, so that you can use it only when needed. And when you tap into this energy to do some work, you cannot help but do this with a lot of one pointed attention and so on.

Earlier, even as I was doing some task, I was worried about what would be the result of the task I had finished earlier. I used to be over anxious about what my next task would be like. This simply sapped out a lot of my energy. But, with the combination of meditation and Mantram, this is improving a lot. Not only am I doing the work at hand much better but I also feel less tired after doing the same amount of work. This strangely but surely is giving me a sense of things moving slowly and me being in better control. The overall quality of work life seems to be improving.

This sense of control also seems to be spilling into my personal life. To put my family first, I tried an experiment.

Mobile phone has always been like an extension to me. Even when I am home, I used to always keep checking emails, talking on phone, planning for meetings and so on. My wife always complained about this, but I never listened. Then I decided - why don’t I simply go home one day and handover my mobile phone to my wife. By doing so, I tell her that she is more important to me than my mobile phone. No emails, no phone calls unless she wants it. This small thing not only made my wife feel good but also made me feel much happier and lighter. I also discovered that my company does not go bankrupt due to this. I now am doing it as a daily practice. This is something I would never even have done before starting to live EE’s 8PP.

Finishing thoughts

The first six months have been very exciting. I look forward to experiment and imbibe all of EE’s 8PP into my life as I move along. I intend to expand it into other spheres of my life. But, just like you – I too am human. I may fail sometimes. So, I request you to pray for me and keep me in your Mantrams. I hope that will give me the faith and will to walk on this path.

I also hope that you liked this article. I look forward to share more experience of mine and know more about yours as we walk along this path.