Passage Meditation - A Complete Spiritual Practice: Train Your Mind and Find a Life that Fulfills (Essential Easwaran Library Book 1)

If the whole vista of the spiritual journey lay before us we would see that it divides into three stages, each culminating in a remarkable discovery.

Rather than trying to have everyone be like us, we can learn to see differences as part of the richness of life. Work

The patience we show at work, on errands, and at home is our insurance against all the distressing ailments brought about by hurry.

To be secure everywhere is the mark of sophistication, to be unshakable is the mark of courage, to be permanently in love with every person is the mark of masculinity or femininity, to forgive is the mark of strength, to govern our senses and passions is the mark of freedom.

When we are able to do this — to be completely loyal to our own ideals while respecting the integrity of those who differ from us — often they begin to respond. What matters is the friendliness we show, the attention with which we listen — and, more than anything else, the complete absence of any sense of superiority.

first. In a sense, it comes down to attention. When we are preoccupied with ourselves — our thoughts, our desires, our preferences — we cannot help becoming insensitive to others’ needs. We can pay attention only to so much, and all our attention rests on ourselves. When we turn away from ourselves, even if only a little, we begin to see what is re

why should the conditioning behind our habits always work against us? We can train ourselves to do automatically what benefits the body, mind, and spirit, just as now we too often compulsively do what harms them.

Without reflection, how can we change? We first have to be able to sit back, examine ourselves with detachment, and search out our patterns of behavior. Paradoxically, people who hurry are actually stuck in the same spot.

splendid metaphor. They advise us to speak only after our words have managed to issue through three gates. At the first gate we ask ourselves, “Are these words true?” If so, let them pass on; if not, back they go. At the second gate we ask, “Are they kind?” If we still feel we must speak out, we need to choose words that will be supportive and lovi