How Spiritual Disciplines Work

Eknath Eaaswaran wrote:
I once asked my grandmother, “Why shouldn’t we go after pleasant things, Granny? It’s only human. And what’s wrong with wanting to stay away from unpleasant things?” She didn’t argue with me. She just told me to eat an amla fruit.

It was easier said than done. The fruit was so sour that I wanted to spit it out, but she stopped me. “Don’t give up. Keep chewing.” Out of love for her, I did, and the sourness left. The fruit began to taste sweeter and sweeter. “Granny, this is delicious,” I said.

“But you didn’t like it at the outset. You wanted to spit it out.” That is how it is with spiritual disciplines.

by Eknath Easwaran (1910-1999)

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By.
(Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)
Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

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It all adds up!

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. 

Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, 

but instantly set about remedying them – every day begin the task anew. "
– Saint Francis de Sales

Eknath Easwaran writes:



"While we were living on the Blue Mountain in India, we noticed that our local bank had a very neighborly arrangement for collecting funds from the villagers. Poor villagers have very little to save, only a few copper pennies at most. To encourage them to deposit even these few pennies every day, the bank employed a boy with a bicycle to go into the village to their homes, collect their few coppers, and enter the total in their account.

"In meditation it is the same: when the Self comes, we can say, 'We are no great saint, but a few times today we have tried to be patient. A few times today we have tried to put our family first. A few times today we have resisted some little craving for personal satisfaction.' This is how most of us are going to make progress for a long time: a few pennies here, a few pennies there, collected every day. But in these innumerable little acts of selflessness lies spiritual growth, which over a long period can transform every one of us into a loving person. To quote the bank advertisement, 'It all adds up.'"

 1000 pennies = $10.00

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Unseen Angels

 

I am not an "angel person." Some people collect angels and pictures of various cherubs, but I have always thought they were too sentimental. I like the idea of having a "guardian angel," but how does this angel differ from the Holy Spirit? I would have to accept the reality of angels, which I hedge about. But I believe in the community of saints that surround us, so why can't angels be included?

Anyway, below is a meditation that hit me about angels that I received from Eknath Easwaren's site:

Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you.
   – Saint Francis de Sales

"When the word “angel” is used, we can understand it as a personification of the forces for good in the world. Who will deny that forgiveness is one of the greatest forces on the face of the earth? Show me a man or a woman who can forgive completely and I will show you an angel. 

"If you want to see an angel, you have only to see a person who can return love for hatred. He is not just a person, he is a force. Similarly, a woman who has boundless patience is a powerful force that can transform antipathy into sympathy, ill will into good will, hatred into love.

"There is another meaning as well: there are beneficial forces in life, ready to support those who are sincere but who find their capacities not adequate to the challenges that life presents.

"When you are needed by others, when you have something valuable to contribute, these beneficial forces will support you, and give you greater health, greater energy, longer life, and deeper creativity. Life may strike at you, and challenges can hurtle themselves against you, but you will feel equal to them. Deeper forces from within will support you, hold you up, and act as a shield.

"We are not alone in the universe. We are surrounded by mighty creative forces."

 The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

I can agree with the thought that an angel is a "personification of the forces for good in the world." I've experienced the goodness of others and God moments/synchronicities that I could attribute to "angels."

What do you think of angels?

 

 

For Peace of Mind

I tell you one thing – if you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others.

Rather learn to see your own faults.

Learn to make the whole world your own.

No one is a stranger, my child;

 this whole world is your own.

– Sri Sarada Devi

Eknath Easwaran wrote:

"When we get even the slightest glimpse of the unity of life, we realize that in tearing others down we are tearing ourselves down too. When you sit in judgment on other people and countries and races, you’re training your mind to sit in judgment on yourself. As we forgive others, we are teaching the mind to respond with forgiveness everywhere, even to the misdeeds and mistakes of our own past."

Again, I am reminded of that prayer an alcoholic doctor from Alaska told me in an AA meeting at The Meadows in 1995--to pray for your enemies (though I often pray it for friends or family):

Bless ____________________, change me.



The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)



Patience for Another

Eknath Easwaren wrote:

"In India, where families often make severe sacrifices to send a son or daughter to college, everyone is patient with a student who is out of cash. If you are waiting in line for tickets with two or three friends, for example, and your turn comes at the box-office window, everyone understands if you suddenly discover that your shoelace has come loose. You bend down to tie it, giving your friends a chance to buy your ticket, and everybody knows there is no question of generosity or stinginess; you simply do not have the capacity to pay.

"Similarly, when someone suddenly gets angry, you can think to yourself, “Well, his shoelace has just come untied.” He has just run out of inner resources. Whatever he was doing before, he has to bend down and look at his feet; he hasn’t got attention to give to anything else. To grow rich in love – to make yourself into a real tycoon of tenderness – have patience with others."

This reminds me of the prayer: Bless ______________, change me."
 
The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

We offer to the Lord

Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart –

a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water – I accept with joy.

– Bhagavad Gita

"We can look upon everything we do as a gift to the Lord. If we hoe the garden carefully so that our family – or a neighbor’s family, or someone in need – can have fresh vegetables for dinner, that is an offering to the Lord. If we work a little more than is expected of us at something that benefits others, that too is an offering to the Lord. Everywhere, in every detail of daily living, it is not a question of quantity or expense that makes our offering acceptable; it is cheerfulness, enthusiasm, and the capacity to forget ourselves in helping others."

~~Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Everyone is seeking God

All that is sweet, delightful, and amiable in this world, in the serenity of the air, the fineness of seasons, the joy of light, the melody of sounds, the beauty of colors, the fragrancy of smells, the splendor of precious stones, is nothing else but Heaven breaking through the veil of this world, manifesting itself in such a degree and darting forth in such variety so much of its own nature.
– William Law

The great Hindu scriptures say that God is absolute truth, absolute joy, absolute beauty. Any scientist who is seeking the absolute truth, as Einstein did, is seeking God. Anyone seeking absolute joy, whether in a tavern or in the shopping mall or in Monte Carlo, is seeking God. And anyone who is seeking absolute beauty – on a canvas or a stage or a mountaintop – is seeking God. What lovers of beauty seek in paintings, in sculpture, in dance, in music is just a reflection of the absolute beauty that is God. The real source of all beauty is God, the Beloved.

So, there is nobody who is not seeking God. The scientist in his lab, the gambler at the casino, the artist in her studio: all are seeking God. We are all lovers, restlessly searching for the Beloved, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Face behind the veil.

~~Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

You are what you believe

You are what you believe.
– Anton Chekhov

"You are what the deep faith of your heart is. If you believe that money is going to make you happy, then you will go after money. If you believe that pleasure will make you happy, you will go after pleasure. Because, “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” not as he thinketh in his head. There is a vast distance from the head to the heart. In the Greek and Russian Orthodox traditions, they say that whatever spiritual knowledge you have in your head must be brought down into your heart. This takes many, many years."

~~Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

Living to Die

Psalm 51:10-12

51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

51:11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.

51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

During our weekly lectio divina group on Wednesday, this scripture brought me to a deeper understanding of the concept of "living to die." Or as the medieval Book of the Craft of Dying states: "Learn to die and thou shall learn how to live. There shall none learn how to live that hath not learned to die" (Sogyal Rinpoche).

I thought of how any of these phrases could be a breath prayer, a habitual mantra-like saying for me. I truly desire a "willing spirit," so I wish to ask God to "sustain in me a willing spirit." Do I want this enough to pray for it?

Thus I remembered how a habitual prayer practice of a verse, a word, or a phrase from a hymn can remind one of God's presence. A calm spirit will replace anxiety or anger when such is prayed. I remember reading that the Dalai Lama recommended that each person have such a practice so that one can be reminded of it when one is dying, ill and/or agitated.

In fact, Christine Longaker writes about this in her book Facing Death and Finding Hope: A Guide to the Emotional and Spiritual Care of the Dying:

"Above all, we can encourage our dying loved one to identify a spiritual practice--a special prayer meditation, hymn, or scriptural reading--that inspires her with confidence and strength. Regularly doing an inspiring practice, especially if she is suffering, will focus the energy of her heart and mind in a positive way and help to rekindle her devotion and trust. The sacred inspiration of this continual prayer or meditation may begin to pervade her every waking and sleeping moment, and this is an excellent way to prepare for death. And, if her family, friends, or caregivers do this practice with her whenever they visit, they will feel more prepared at the moment of her death--more inspired to let her go, peacefully and with love." (115-116)

Sometime ago, I read how someone's mother was ill with Alzheimer's and often became restlessly anxious. When her son reminded her of the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd" by soothingly repeating it, his mother would grow more peaceful. This was a practice that helped both of them and was a way for him to show his love for his mother.

Last week in Seattle, at times Terry or Dennis would be overwhelmed by anxiety or anger. That is natural in times of illness and stress. Few people are taught how to cope with extenuating circumstances, which I only realized in retrospect during the lectio divina time.

Ecknath Easwaran writes in Dialogue With Death: A Journey Through Consciousness:

"Whatever your physical situation, your mind can help you to deal with it if you train your mind to be forgiving, compassionate, calm, and kind. 'You can no better friend,' the Buddha says, 'than a well-trained mind--and no worse enemy than an untrained mind.'" (75)

With greater awareness, each of us could short circuit extreme emotions with a phrase, even like "This will pass." Don't you remember how people used to say "count to 10" before acting on anger? Creating a habit of reminding oneself of love or peace could bring more serenity into one's life, even if one is not actually ill or dying.

Self Will

Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.

– Saint Augustine

"In India we have a flaming-hot chili pepper called “little thing” in my mother tongue. It is smaller than your little finger, so small that you don’t take it seriously; but even a tiny bite will burn your mouth. Self-will is like that; a little dose of it can cause harm for a long time.

"The remedy, in the Buddha’s language, is nirvana, from nir, “out,” plus vana, “to blow.” You don’t snuff self-will out in one day; you have to keep blowing away, in meditation and then during the day, especially in your relationships. This world is a place where we learn to return good will for ill will and love for hatred, to work harmoniously with others, and to put other people’s welfare before our own. You keep blowing for years and years and one day the fire goes out."

~~Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

Give

"In the spiritual lore of India, it is said that God whispered only one word in our ears when he sent us into the world: “Give.” Give freely of your time, your talent, your resources; give without asking for anything in return. This is the secret of living in joy and security."

~~Eknath Easwaran


The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

Little Ego

Yesterday my friend JS talked about her little ego taking over. . . I hadn't heard the false self or shadow called that before, and then today I get Eknath Easwaran's reading, and he mentions just that! Everything that attracts me these days is about detachment, which is acceptance, the present moment--looking to God and not ME!

God expects but one thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself insofar as you are a created being and let God be God in you.
– Meister Eckhart

In those moments when we forget ourselves – not thinking, “Am I happy?” but completely oblivious to our little ego – we spend a brief but beautiful holiday in heaven. The joy we experience in these moments of self-forgetting is our true nature, our native state. To regain it, we have simply to empty ourselves of what hides this joy: that is, to stop dwelling on ourselves. To the extent that we are not full of ourselves, God can fill us. “If you go out of yourself,” says Johannes Tauler, “without doubt he shall go in, and there will be much or little of his entering in according to how much or little you go out.”

~~Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

The Spiritual Life

This is the spiritual life--with the parts of my ego that must be tossed aside so I can rest in God's Love.

The grace of God is a wind which is always blowing.
– Sri Ramakrishna

"All that you and I have to do is to put up our sails and let the wind of grace carry us across the sea of life to the other shore. But most of us are firmly stuck on this shore. Our sail is torn and our boat is overloaded with excess baggage: our likes and dislikes, our habits and opinions, all the resentments and hostilities which we have acquired.

"But just as it is we, ourselves, who have acquired this baggage, it is we who can gradually learn to toss it overboard. The wind is blowing, but we have to make our boat seaworthy. We can patch up our sail, and unfurl it to catch the wind that will carry us to the other shore."

~~Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

Learn to Love

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.
– Saint Francis de Sales

In learning to love, we start where we are – somewhat selfish, somewhat self-centered, but with a deep desire to relate lovingly to each other, to move closer and closer together. Love grows by practice; there is no other way. There will be setbacks as well as progress. But there is one immediate consolation: we don’t have to wait until our love is perfect to reap the benefits of it. Even with a little progress, everyone benefits – not only those we live with, but ourselves as well.

by Ecknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

Transformation

Out of compassion I destroy the darkness of their ignorance. From within them I light the lamp of wisdom and dispel all darkness from their lives.
– Bhagavad Gita

"With infinite tenderness, the Lord lets it dawn on us only gradually that we are not separate, that we belong entirely to him. If this realization were to come overnight, ordinary people like you and me would not be able to withstand it; it would be more than our nervous systems could bear. That is why the Lord is so gentle with us; he spreads the transformation from separateness to unity out over many years so that all these changes in the mind and body can take place gradually. Often we are not even aware they are taking place until we look back and remember how we were some years before.

"We should not ask when illumination will come. We should have a patient impatience to reach the goal. Finally, after many years, no matter what our past has been, we will begin to live in the light that knows no night. The temple may have been dark for a thousand years, but once the lamp is lit, every corner will be ablaze with light. "

~~Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

December 25

We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all Eternity. . . . But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me.
– Meister Eckhart

"The Lord of Love, immortal and infinite, comes as a divine incarnation in times of great crisis to rescue mankind from disaster. In age after age, whenever violence and hatred threaten the world, the Lord comes down to inspire and protect those who turn to him, who live in harmony with the law of unity. He comes to protect such people from the heavy odds ranged against them, and to reestablish peace on earth and good will among all.

"Yet there is another level on which this divine birth can take place. Every one of us has this choice: shall I prepare for the divine birth to take place in my consciousness by abolishing my own selfishness? It is up to you and me to keep our doors open, to put up a little sign, “Ready for receiving an incarnation.” But our house must not be cluttered up. It must be empty of selfishness and self-will. Only then can the blessed child be born in our humble hearts. "

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By.(Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Look and See

If your heart were sincere and upright, every creature would be unto you a looking-glass of life and a book of holy doctrine.
– Thomas a Kempis

"The pure in spirit, who see God, see him here and now: in his handiwork, his hidden purpose, the wry humor of his creation. The Lord has left us love notes scattered extravagantly across creation. Hidden in the eye of the tiger, the wet muzzle of a calf, the delicacy of the violet, and the perfect curve of the elephant’s tusk is a very personal, priceless message.

"Watch the lamb in awkward play, butting against its mother’s side. See the spider putting the final shimmering touches on an architectural wonder. And absorb a truth that is wordless. The grace of a deer, the soaring freedom of a sparrow hawk in flight, the utter self-possession of an elephant crashing through the woods – in every one of these there is something of ourselves. From the great whales in the blue Pacific to the tiniest of tree frogs in the Amazon basin, unity embraces us all. "

by Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

Thought for the Day: Spiritual Disciplines

I once asked my grandmother, “Why shouldn’t we go after pleasant things, Granny? It’s only human. And what’s wrong with wanting to stay away from unpleasant things?” She didn’t argue with me. She just told me to eat an amla fruit.

It was easier said than done. The fruit was so sour that I wanted to spit it out, but she stopped me. “Don’t give up. Keep chewing.” Out of love for her, I did, and the sourness left. The fruit began to taste sweeter and sweeter. “Granny, this is delicious,” I said.

“But you didn’t like it at the outset. You wanted to spit it out.” That is how it is with spiritual disciplines.

by Eknath Easwaran (1910-1999)

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By.
(Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.


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