The Mantram Handbook Quotes

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“At the first gate, the gatekeeper asks, “Is this true?” At the second gate, he asks, “Is it kind?” And at the third gate, “Is it necessary?” If we applied this proverb strictly, most of us would have very little to say. I am not recommending silence, however, but control over our speech.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook: A Practical Guide to Choosing Your Mantram and Calming Your Mind

“Full concentration brings relaxation and joy. It is the struggle of divided attention that brings a great deal of the misery that we associate with jobs we don’t like.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook: A Practical Guide to Choosing Your Mantram and Calming Your Mind

“In themselves, most of these thoughts are not actually harmful; a few of them may even be rather elevating. The trouble is that we have very little control over them. If you ask the thoughts, they would say, “This poor fellow thinks he is thinking us, but we are thinking him.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook: A Practical Guide to Choosing Your Mantram and Calming Your Mind

“Each time a divine incarnation comes to us, it is not to bring new truths or to establish a new religion but to remind us of what we have forgotten: that we are all one, and that we must live in harmony with this unity by learning to contribute to the joy and fulfillment of all.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook: A Practical Guide to Choosing Your Mantram and Calming Your Mind

“The popular etymology of the word mantram gives us some clue what it means to have the holy name at work in our consciousness. It is said that mantram comes from the roots man, “the mind,” and tri, “to cross.” The mantram is that which enables us to cross the sea of the mind. The sea is a perfect symbol for the mind. It is in constant motion; there is calm one day and storm the next.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook: A Practical Guide to Choosing Your Mantram and Calming Your Mind

“The effect of the mantram is cumulative: constant repetition, constant practice, is required for the mantram to take root in our consciousness and gradually transform it, just as constant repetition makes the advertiser’s jingle stick in our minds.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook: A Practical Guide to Choosing Your Mantram and Calming Your Mind

“I have tremendous respect for anyone who can control his palate enough to learn not only to drink beer but to enjoy it too.”
― Eknath Easwaran, The Mantram Handbook