Eknath Easwaran > Quotes

“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.
”
― Eknath Easwaran

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Upanishads

“Around the world–even in some of the countries most troubled by poverty or civil war or pollution–many thoughtful people are making a deep, concerted search for a way to live in harmony with each other and the earth. Their efforts, which rarely reach the headlines, are among the most important events occurring today. Sometimes these people call themselves peace workers, at other times environmentalists, but most of the time they work in humble anonymity. They are simply quiet people changing the world by changing themselves.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Your Life is Your Message: Finding Harmony With Yourself, Others, and the Earth

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The End of Sorrow

“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”
― Eknath Easwaran, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan: A Man to Match His Mountains

“A mind that is racing over worries about the future or recycling resentments from the past is ill equipped to handle the challenges of the moment. By slowing down, we can train the mind to focus completely in the present. Then we will find that we can function well whatever the difficulties. That is what it means to be stress-proof: not avoiding stress but being at our best under pressure, calm, cool, and creative in the midst of the storm.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: The Wisdom of Slowing Down

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook: A Practical Guide to Choosing Your Mantram and Calming Your Mind

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Upanishads

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: How to Find Patience, Peace, and Meaning

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Meditation: A Simple Eight-Point Program for Translating Spiritual Ideala Simple Eight-Point Program for Translating Spiritual Ideals Into Daily Life S Into Daily Life

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Meditation: A Simple Eight-Point Program for Translating Spiritual Ideala Simple Eight-Point Program for Translating Spiritual Ideals Into Daily Life S Into Daily Life

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Passage Meditation: Bringing the Deep Wisdom of the Heart into Daily Life

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: How to Find Patience, Peace, and Meaning

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook: A Practical Guide to Choosing Your Mantram and Calming Your Mind

“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.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The End of Sorrow

“….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....”
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: How to Find Patience, Peace, and Meaning

“People who have strong likes and dislikes find life very difficult; they are as rigid as if they had only one bone.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook

“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?”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook

“In every endeavour, it is man or woman with unbreakable will who excels”
― Eknath Eswaran

“When we are caught up in likes and dislikes, in strong opinions and rigid habits, we cannot work at our best, and we cannot know real security either. We live at the mercy of external circumstances: if things go our way, we get elated; if things do not go our way, we get depressed. It is only the mature person – the man or woman who is not conditioned by compulsive likes and dislikes, habits and opinions – who is really free in life. Such people are truly spontaneous. They can see issues clearly rather than through the distorting medium of strong opinions, and they can respond to people as they are and not as they imagine them to be.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook: A Practical Guide to Choosing Your Mantram and Calming Your Mind

“Peace would always be less compelling than war. Perhaps that was why there was so little of it in the world. (p. 160)”
― Eknath Easwaran, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan: A Man to Match His Mountains

“Make wise choices about what you read. Read only what is necessary or worthwhile. And then take the time to read carefully. One book read with concentration and reflected upon is worth a hundred flashed through without any absorption at all.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: How to Find Patience, Peace, and Meaning

“To love, we need to be sensitive to those around us, which is impossible if we are racing through life engrossed in all the things we need to do before sunset. In fact, I would go to the extent of saying that a person who is always late will find it difficult to love; he will be in too much of a hurry.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: How to Find Patience, Peace, and Meaning

“Children naturally ask all kinds of questions and take a long time to tell their stories, and in millions of homes the parents are doing something else as they reply, “Yes, yes, I see.” And in millions of homes, the parents are surprised when their children don’t listen to them.
Those little bright eyes know when your attention is wandering. When they are telling you the news from school, give your full attention. Everything else can be set aside for the moment. You are teaching your children to listen to you.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: How to Find Patience, Peace, and Meaning

“Meditation is the basis of a life of splendid health, untiring energy, unfailing love, and abiding wisdom. It is the very foundation of that deep inner peace for which every one of us longs. No human being can ever be satisfied by money or success or prestige or anything else the world can offer. What we are really searching for is not something that satisfies us temporarily, but a permanent state of joy.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: How to Find Patience, Peace, and Meaning

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy.   O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, To be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Passage Meditation: Bringing the Deep Wisdom of the Heart into Daily Life

“Let nothing upset you; Let nothing frighten you. Everything is changing; God alone is changeless. Patience attains the goal. Who has God lacks nothing; God alone fills every need. – Teresa of Avila Radiant”
― Eknath Easwaran, How to Meditate

“We can all avoid travel that is unnecessary; we do not need to travel around the world when the source of all joy and all beauty is right within us.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The End of Sorrow

“When we do things with only a part of the mind, we are just skimming the surface of life. Nothing sinks in; nothing has real impact. It leads to an empty feeling inside. Unfortunately, it is this very emptiness that drives us to pack in even more, seeking desperately to fill the void in our hearts. What we need to do is just the opposite: to slow down and live completely in the present. Then every moment will be full.”
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: The Wisdom of Slowing Down