Quotes from Eknath Easwaran

It takes a lot of experience of life to see why some relationships last and others do not. But we do not have to wait for a crisis to get an idea of the future of a particular relationship. Our behavior in little every incidents tells us a great deal.

When we meditate every morning we are putting on armor for the day's battle against our own impatience, inadequacy, resentment, and hostility.

Nothing really worth having comes quickly and easily. If it did, I doubt that we would ever grow.

Meditation is warm-up exercise for the mind, so that you can jog through the rest of the day without getting agitated or spraining your patience.

When someone at peace and free from hurry enters a room, that person has a calming effect on everyone present.

Human relationships are the perfect tool for sanding away our rough edges and getting at the core of divinity within us.

Love is so exquisitely elusive. It cannot be bought, cannot be badgered, cannot be hijacked. It is available only in one rare form: as the natural response of a healthy mind and healthy heart.

Place this salt in water and bring it here tomorrow morning. The boy did. Where is that salt? his father asked? I do not see it. Sip here. How does it taste? Salty, father. And here? And there? I taste salt everywhere. It is everywhere, though we see it not. Just so, dear one, the Self is everywhere, within all things, although we see it not. There is nothing that does not come from it. It is the truth; it is the Self supreme. You are that, Shvetaketu. You Are That.

As long as we lean on anything outside ourselves for support, we are going to be insecure. Most of us try to find support by leaning on all sorts of things - gold, books, learning, sensory stimulation - and if these things are taken away, we fall over. To the extent that we are dependent on these external supports, we grow weaker and more liable to upsets and misfortune.

One learns a good deal in the school of suffering. I wonder what would have happened to me if I had had an easy life, and had not had the privilege of tasting the joys of jail and all it means. ~ Badsha Khan, quote in Nonviolent Soldier of Islam, p. 87

All negative thoughts – anger, fear, passion, compulsive craving -- tend to be fast. If we could see the mind when it is caught in such thoughts, we would really see it racing. But positive thoughts like love, patience, tenderness, compassion, and understanding are slow - not turbulent, rushing brooks of thinking, so to speak but broad rivers that are calm, clear, and deep.

mind that is fast is sick, a mind that is slow is sound, and a mind that is still is divine. This is what the Bible means when it says, "Be still and know that I am God.

Why do you want a new truth when you do not practice what you already know? Far better to read a few books and make them your own than to read many books quickly and superficially.

As meditation deepens, compulsions, cravings, and fits of emotions begin to lose their power to dictate our behavior. We see clearly that choices are possible: we can say yes, or we can say no. ... All we are is the result of what we have thought. By changing our mode of thinking, we can remake ourselves completely.

As by knowing one tool of iron, dear one, We come to know all things made out of iron - That they differ only in name and form, While the stuff of which all are made is iron - So through spiritual wisdom, dear one, We come to know that all of life is one.

People say that modern life has grown so complicated, so busy, so crowded that we have to hurry even to survive. We need not accept that idea. It is quite possible to live in the midst of a highly developed technological society and keep an easy, relaxed pace while doing a lot of hard work. We have a choice.

When people used to complain to the Buddha that they were upset, telling him, Our children upset us; our partner agitates us, his simple reply would be, You are not upset because of your children or your partner; you are upset because you are upsettable.

Attention can be trained very naturally, with affection, just as you train a puppy. When something distracts your attention, you say "Come back" and bring it back again. With a lot of training, you can teach your mind to come running back to you when you call, just like a friendly pup.

Live only for yourself and you will never grow; live for the welfare of all those around you and you will grow to your full stature.

People who have strong likes and dislikes find life very difficult; they are as rigid as if they had only one bone.

The law of karma says that no matter what context I find myself in, it is neither my parents, nor my science teacher, nor the mailman, but I alone who have brought myself into this state because of my past actions. Instead of trapping me in a fatalistic snare, this gives me freedom. Because I alone have brought myself into my present condition, I myself, by working hard and striving earnestly, can reach the supreme state which is nirvana.

You are an exalted creature, with a spark of the divine within you that nothing you do can extinguish; and you have been granted life in order to give, because it is in giving that we receive....

If someone who is agitated comes to visit you, wanting to discuss their agitation and weigh the pros and cons of what action he should take, my suggestion is to give him the mantram album and say, why don't you just write Rama, Rama, Rama a thousand times?

Peace would always be less compelling than war. Perhaps that was why there was so little of it in the world. (p. 160)