Blue Mountain Has Been Called One of the Foremost Teachers of MediTa Center of Meditation Tion in Our Times
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A Journal for Spiritual Living eka n Published by the Blue easaran Blue Mountain has been called one of the foremost teachers of medi ta Center of Meditation tion in our times. From his & Nilgiri Press Mountain arrival in the United States www.easwaran.org ESTABLISHED BY EKNATH EASWARAN in 1959 on the Fulbright Summer 2009 FOR PRESENTING HIS EIGHT-POINT ex change program until his Volume 20, Number 2 PROGRAM OF PASSAGE MEDITATION passing in the fall of 1999, he taught to modern men and women his eightpoint program, based on his unique beings, an inner necessity every bit as real method of meditation on as our need for food and drink. memorized inspirational pas Learning All the world’s great religions explain sages from the world’s great this in the same way. We need to love, they religions. Many thou sands of to Love tell us, because love is our real nature. “The people representing the full soul is made of love,” says Mechthild of range of cultural and religious backgrounds attest to the By Eknath Easwaran Magdeburg, “and must ever strive to return bene fits of his teaching. He to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor continues to teach through his happiness in other things. It must lose itself twentyseven books on spiri any years ago, after in love.” tual living – over a million Mother Teresa achieved Once we grasp the sense of these quiet copies in print in twentysix world recognition for her statements, they can change our lives for- languages – and through the work in India, she came to ever. They mean that being able to love fully, ongoing programs and publi M ca tions of the organi zation he visit the West. It wasn’t long before she unconditionally, is our native state. We can- founded in 1961 to carry on delivered a surprise: she had decided not lose this native capacity, cannot get rid his work: the Blue Mountain to extend her work to the United States, of it even if we try. The most we can Continued Center of Meditation and its starting missions in New York and manage to do is cut ourselves off on page 4 publishing arm, Nilgiri Press. elsewhere – including, eventually, San Below, from our archives: Eknath Easwaran. Francisco. At the time, the Bay Area met Mother Teresa’s announcement with shock. After all, this was Mother Teresa of Calcutta, not San Francisco. We knew the third world needed her, but this was the first world. What could someone like Mother Teresa have seen here that warranted placing San Francisco in the same cate- gory as Delhi, Colombo, and Addis Ababa? I have never forgotten the answer she gave. “There is hunger for ordinary bread,” she explained, “and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much.” In every human being, she was reminding us, there is a deep need for love – not only to be loved, but to give love as well. This need is written in our hearts. It is part of what we are as human For more about the eight-point program of passage meditation, visit www.easwaran.org/eight BLUE MOUNTAIN blue mountain 1 Learning to Love Blue Mountain Center of Meditation The quarterly journal What five things must The Center offers instruction in meditation and we have in order to allied living skills, following the eight-point program of the Blue Mountain give love? Eknath of passage meditation developed by Sri Eknath Center of Meditation Easwaran offers his Easwaran. The approach is nondenominational, prescription for nonsectarian, and free from dogma and ritual. It can nourishing ourselves be used within each person’s own cultural and reli- Summer 2009 and gious background to relieve stress, heal relationships, others. release deeper resources, and realize one’s highest ©2009 by The Blue potential. Mountain Center of Meditation, Inc. Passage Meditation: An Eight-Point Program 7 Finding the Gift 1 . m editation on a passage Silent After Kathy’s repetition in the mind of memorized inspirational founder husband was struck passages from the world’s great religions. Practiced Sri Eknath Easwaran with Alzheimer’s, for one-half hour each morning. she “resolved not to be a victim, but 2 . r epetition of a mantram Silent board of trustees to accept this chal- repetition in the mind of a Holy Name or a hallowed phrase from one of the world’s great religions. Christine Easwaran lenge as a gift. And that changed every- Practiced whenever possible throughout the day Nick Harvey thing.” or night. Sultana Harvey 3. slowing down Setting priorities and Diana Lightman re duci ng the stress and friction caused by hurry. Terry Morrison 4 . o ne-pointed attention Giving full concentration to the matter at hand. Robert Nichols 10 Memorizing Need Not Be Hard to Do 5 . t raining the senses Overcoming Beth Ann O’Connell Tips and strategies for learning inspira- conditioned habits and learning to enjoy what is tional passages by heart, for use in medi- beneficial. blue mountain tation. When we take these passages deep 6 . p utting others first Gaining freedom from selfishness and separateness; finding joy in executive editor into our consciousness, their meaning comes alive, healing old wounds and helping others. Christine Easwaran bringing new insights. 7. s piritual fellowship Spending time regularly with other passage meditators for Post Office Box 256, mutual inspiration and support. Tomales, ca 94971 8 . s piritual reading Drawing inspiration from writings by and about the world’s great Telephone 707 878 2369 We Welcome spiritual figures and from the scriptures of all Facsimile 707 878 2375 religions. Your Help Email [email protected] Eknath Easwaran Web www.easwaran.org The Blue Mountain Center depends on Schooled in both Eastern and Western traditions, donations to carry on its work. Every gift, Eknath Easwaran took to the spiritual life amidst a Printed on recycled paper large or small, is much appreciated and successful career in India as a professor of English put to good use. literature, a writer, and a lecturer. He came to the University of California, Berkeley, in 1960 on the Fulbright exchange program and established the The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in Northern is a 501(c)(3) California nonprofit California in 1961. His 1968 Berkeley class is believed corporation. Contributions to the to be the first accredited course in meditation at any Western uni versity. His deep personal experience Center are deductible from state and his love for his students have made the ancient and federal income tax. art of meditation accessible to those who hold jobs and live active lives among friends and family. 2 PUBLISHER’S PAGE his prescription are: time, attention, caregiver. As an aid in memorizing, we energy, discrimination, and awareness include in this issue the instructions Turning of the unity of life. The role of care- we give at our retreats. If you have any giver calls for large amounts of each of other tips or suggestions for memoriz- an Obstacle these. We are pleased to bring you on ing, we would be pleased to hear from page seven an example of how this can you. into an work. Along with the use of the mantram, Opportunity a meditation passage to fit the situa- tion can be of significant help to a For the Board of Trustees I have been asked to say a few words about the financial cri- sis through which we are passing at present. My heart is full Christine Easwaran of sympathy and support for those people who have suffered kna Easaran serious losses. I do hope that the situation will stabilize itself wrote the words for our lead article at a time when this soon. But I do not agree with all these financial experts and Ecountry and the world were in a state of greater affluence, driven economic commentators who seem to think the world has by a consumer society. But his words – and those of Mother Teresa which he crashed around our ears. Nothing of the kind. quotes – are even more relevant today. Necessity is bringing us back to our communities, back to our homes and We haven’t lost our capacity to love. We haven’t lost our families, back to a more personal life- style. Now we have no choice; we must capacity to work hard to change the political, economic, and simplify. But we can make it an oppor- tunity. We can respond in a creative social order to be free from these ups and downs, which are manner, even with joy. Easwaran grew up in a large joint the very nature of a profit-oriented society. I am not in favor family in a small village in South India, where life was very personal, and all of poverty. But I am in favor of simplicity. I would like to ask his life he maintained personal ways of interacting with people. This was one people everywhere, especially in this country, to free them- way he demonstrated his love, but he always advised using discrimination. selves from these ups and downs by cultivating a simpler “You show your love for the postman in a different way than for your family, mode of living – comfortable, artistic, and not at the expense for example.” Easwaran quotes Mother Teresa as of the environment. saying that every human being has a deep need not only to be loved but, even more, to give love, and he offers a – ekna easaran surprising prescription for how to learn to love – not always an easy task Speaking after the worldwide stock market crash of October 1987 in today’s impersonal society domi- nated by technology.