The 8-Point Program of Spiritual Living, Part One

 No matter who you are or where you are in life, you need tools for "living the good life", as the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers would have put it.

First, I believe that you need to be grounded in a religion.  And by "religion", I don't mean the form of fundamentalism that some of you may have in mind.  I mean religion as a living Wisdom Tradition.  The two Wisdom Traditions that have shaped me throughout most of my life are/were Zen and Eastern Christianity.

Even once you are "grounded" in a Wisdom Tradition, you still need tools for your daily living.  One of the best tools that I have found comes from the late (and great) Indian philosopher and professor of religion Eknath Easwaran.  Easwaran is most noted for developing what he called "passage meditation" where you memorize an inspirational passage and then use it in meditation to go deep within.  But it's not his passage meditation that I want to discuss in this post.  It's his "8-Point Program" - and even though its often called the "8-Point Program of Passage Meditation" it's a truly great program for anyone of any Wisdom Tradition.  If you were to apply each one of his points to your daily life, you would truly transform yourself, no matter your religious beliefs or attitudes.

What I want to do in this post is use his 8-Point Program as a "springboard" to discuss spiritual living.  Each of the points come completely from Easwaran, leave no doubt, and I will quote him wherever I feel it's necessary.

Take what follows seriously, and you may truly be a transformed person after several months of working with them, if you follow each one.  And if not "transformed" - if you are a broken person such as I - then maybe you will at least be a little calmer and more at peace than you would have been otherwise.

photo courtesy of Jay Castor at "Unsplash"

Point One: Meditate

In Easwaran's "point one", you meditate on a passage from a spiritual text from one of the great Wisdom Traditions.  And if you want to read about what he has to say, and are interested in trying his version, you can visit  https://www.bmcm.org/learn/eight-point/.  But there's no need to do that.  If you already have a meditation practice, or belong to a Wisdom Tradition that teaches one, then practice it.

The main thing here is consistency.  I have meditated "regularly" for almost twenty years, even though I started meditating - using zazen - when I was as young as 12 years old (I'm not entirely sure of the age) and did it on and off throughout my teenage years.  But I have found that, for it to truly work, then you must be consistent.  It's sort of similar to lifting.  If you don't lift consistently - at least several times each week - then there's no way you are going to achieve the results.  And, to be honest, I have found that meditation is much like lifting weights.  It doesn't really in the end matter so much what kind of lifting or what kind of meditation you do so long as you do it consistently throughout the week.

Pick a form of meditation that you enjoy in the same way that you would choose a form of lifting you enjoy.  YES, I undoubtedly am personally favorable to zazen and to the Eastern Christian forms of meditation such as the prayer of the heart, often called the Jesus prayer.  And I could argue, also, how radically different they are from other forms of meditation in ways that I think and believe are more transformative for the practitioner.  But I also do them because I enjoy them.  And you won't stick with something that you don't enjoy, so if you like Easwaran's passage meditation, or Centering Prayer, or vipassana meditation, then stick with it.  But do it consistently.

Point Two: Repetition of a Mantra

Easwaran called it a "mantram" and he believed that using it throughout the day, instead of when sitting in silent meditation, was the best way to put it to use.  Here are some words he had to say about its practice:

A mantram, also known as mantra, is a powerful spiritual formula which can be repeated at any time outside of meditation. It will steady your mind when you’re feeling angry or agitated, and give you calm and patience throughout the day. Another ideal time to repeat the mantram is when falling asleep at night, or if you wake up during the night.

The practice is simple – you choose a mantram, and then silently repeat it in your mind, over and over. The more you practice, the more it becomes a habit, which means it will come to you when you need it.*

For myself, this is where the prayer of the heart  comes into play.  You use the Jesus Prayer - "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" - over and over throughout the day.  Allow the prayer, when possible, to "sink" into your heart.  Whenever you feel tired, or angry, or some emotion has overwhelmed you, then slowly and steadily repeat the words, sinking them into your heart.  If you do this throughout the day as much as possible, even when you are not emotionally overwhelmed, it will have an uplifting, positive effect on your daily life.

Here is a quote from Easwaran in his book "Passage Meditation: Bringing the Deep Wisdom of the Heart into Daily Life":

"In the simple act of repeating the mantram, we create remarkable things.  The tension in our bodies, the cause of specific complaints and general malaise, ebbs away, and we find delightfully that real health is more than just an absence of disease.  We toughen our will too, which signals the end of addictions that may have enslaved us for years."**

Even if you doubt that repeating a sacred word or phrase can help that much, I say it's worth a try.  I know, when practiced daily, it has helped me as much as anything to recover from some of my addictions.

Point Three: Slowing Down

“Even to see life, we need to go slow. To enjoy life, we need to go slow. To understand people, to understand situations, to arrive at considered conclusions and to make wise decisions – for all of these, we need time.”
– Eknath Easwaran

Being slow does not mean being lazy and slothful.  In fact, it in many ways means the opposite.  It means doing things with precision and care.  It means being mindful and taking the time to pay attention to the thoughts that cross your mind.

 

Here I would like to offer a few strategies for slowing down from one of Eknath Easwaran's students in a wonderful blog post on the Blue Mountain Center for Meditation website.  Here are the author Merritt's ideas for slowing down that work well for her:

• Driving slower, limiting myself to 5 miles over the posted speed limit--no matter what the circumstance.

• Consciously not pursuing new opportunities in order to have more free time to “allow good things to come in” (as a fellow Cleveland satsang member suggested).

• Reducing the number of trips to the grocery store, facing down my irrational fear of running out of certain items I like (such as Greek yogurt – mmmm!).

• Bypassing self-checkout lanes and not scheming for the fastest line at the store, choosing instead to have a brief interaction with whichever clerk I end up with.

• Trying not to interrupt others, and pausing to let others speak first, even if it means shutting my mouth mid-comment and gesturing for the other person to “go on.”

• Accepting gracefully a moderate (trampoline-induced) knee injury, respecting my (apparently temporary) reduced physical capacity.

The goal of all this is, of course, to reduce my ego to zero so that I may be a better servant of the Lord, living calmly, patiently, and joyfully, (not only as a school principal, but also in other areas of my life). Emphasizing this as my goal (rather than prior goals of gaining power/prestige at work, being physically fit for the sake of appearance, or earning accolades for scholarly pursuits), is helping me to slow down by taking on less. I am learning to pass up activities that are not directly aligned with my goal. I have full faith that any effort I make toward discrimination in my choices (that is, how much to do and at what speed I do it) is progress on this path.***

Point Four: One-Pointed Attention

Point four goes hand-in-hand with point three.  Slowing down simply isn't enough.  It must coincide with giving one-pointed attention to anything that you are doing.

I have written about the benefits of doing this time and time again on this blog when I talk about when lifting just lift, or when fighting just fight!  The truth is that you simply can't do two things at once in a proper manner.  The fighter or martial artist knows this, as does the lifter going for the big lift.  To be distracted from one-pointed attention at any time means to fail the big lift or to lose the fight.  (And - to use an ancient example - in the times of the samurai, it might just mean the loss of one's own life!)

Also, this point - as you may have already noticed - coincides with the first two points discussed, and will also coincide with the remaining four points we will discuss in part two.  For instance, when you are seated in meditation, one-pointed attention on your breath, your prayer word, your sacred passage, or on don't-know Mind is needed for each one.  And when repeating your mantra or your prayer word throughout the day, you must have one-pointed attention.

If you strive to practice this point, and find yourself at any point throughout the day lacking one-pointed attention, do not be judgmental or hard on yourself.  Simply return to one-pointed attention once again with patience and love toward yourself.

In part two - the final part of these posts - we will discuss training the senses, putting others first, spiritual fellowship, and spiritual reading.  Until then, begin to put the first four points into practice and see where they lead you on the spiritual path.

 *From the website bmcm.org

**From the book "Passage Meditation", pg. 68

***From the blog post "Slowing Down in a Busy Workplace" by Merritt, on the website bmcm.org