Easwaran on the Benefits of Meditation

At the end of this month, on Saturday, October 31st, the BMCM will be holding a free one-hour webinar, “Learn to meditate.” This is the first BMCM webinar which will be held at a time which works for our friends in the Pacific region (as well as any YAs who don’t wake up early) so we hope you’ll sign up: www.easwaran.org/webinar.

In honor of the “Learn to meditate” theme of the upcoming webinar, we’re sharing two audio clips from a published collection of talks by Eknath Easwaran titled “Meditation: A Complete Audio Guide.” What we like about this collection is Easwaran’s practical approach to the basics of meditation, covering everything from the lofty reasons that can draw a person to meditation, to the everyday concerns of time, place, and posture.

Today we’re sharing two excerpts that focus on the benefits of meditation. In the first excerpt, “Introduction,” Easwaran talks about one of our favorite topics – meditation as the greatest and most compelling adventure of our lives. Next, in the aptly named second excerpt, “The Benefits of Meditation,” Easwaran details how meditation positively impacts our daily lives.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on these excerpts – share them in the comments below. We hope you’ll join us for the webinar!

Sharing Meditation With A Partner

This week we're pleased to share a post from long-time meditators Charley & Kathleen. Though no longer YAs (they in fact have three YA-aged sons), they began meditating while they were YAs themselves and share in this post how approaching meditation as a couple has supported their practice.

Charley:
Having a spouse who also meditates is quite nice. We have been together for 40 years, and our love for each other has grown for 40 years. We both started meditation about a year after we met, and Easwaran’s passage meditation about 10 years later. I give Sweetie Pie (Kathleen) and the 8 point meditation practice, all the credit for allowing our love together to grow and grow.

Meditation practice is very hard, but doing it together as the smallest satsang has made it doable for us. This is not to say that we can always meditate together. One of us is early to rise and early to bed. The other is not so early to rise. Our meditations usually overlap.

Now for the nitty gritty of living together for 35 years: we both work hard to slow down, be one pointed and put others first throughout the day, every day. However, we each at times fall off this path. Thankfully, almost always we fall off one at a time. It is almost impossible to squabble with the one remaining on the path that is slowed down and one-pointed. Thank God there is almost always a peacemaker in the slowed-down, one-pointed, putting-others-first place.

Kathleen:
I would add one very important aspect of supporting each other on the path that has worked well for us. The one who is still firmly on the path has never, ever said to the fallee—“Hey you’re off the path!” The quiet, unspoken total support that goes on during those tough times seems to be rooted in the practice of the eight points.

Another aspect of doing Sri Easwaran’s meditation practice together is very dear to me. We have had the opportunity to introduce our three sons to Easwaran. They were blessed to meet him personally, but just as important, they have been in on our devotion to this practice from a very early age. Even if they are not using the practice now, I have great confidence that it has and will have a deep effect on their lives.

A Passage for October

To celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday this month, we thought it would be a good idea to choose a passage by Gandhi. 

Gandhi was one of Easwaran’s role models for both spiritual and social change. He led by example, inspiring Easwaran and countless others to transform their lives, changing fear into fearlessness and anger into fuel for peaceful, positive change. Easwaran often mentions that Gandhi thrived on challenges and was at his best during the toughest of situations. 

Gandhi’s skill at transforming negative challenges into positive change is reflected in this passage. He sees beyond the external difficulties to the core of goodness within.

We would love to hear what you think! Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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In the Midst of Darkness – Mahatma Gandhi

I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates. That informing power or spirit is God. And since nothing else that I see merely through the senses can or will persist, He alone is.

And is this power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent. For I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is the Supreme Good.