Eknath Easwaran Quotes

45 Sourced Quotes

Excitement and depression, fortune and misfortune, pleasure and pain are storms in a tiny private, shell-bound realm - which we take to be the whole of existence. Yet we can break out of this shell and enter a new world.

Eknath Easwaran
Eventually, meditation will make our mind calm, clear, and as concentrated as a laser which we can focus at will. This capacity of one-pointed attention is the essence of genius. When we have this mastery over attention in everything we do, we have a genius for life.

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

Eknath Easwaran
Every human heart has a deep need to love - to be in love, really, with all of life. This is the kind of love that comes when the mind is still.... Be still and know that we are all God's children; then you will be in love with all.

Eknath Easwaran
Instead of looking at difficulties as deprivations, we can learn to recognize them as opportunities for deepening and widening our love.

Eknath Easwaran
We all need joy, and we can all receive joy in only one way, by adding to the joy of others.

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

Eknath Easwaran
At the beginning of every winter people are careful to install storm windows. These extra panes of glass protect their houses against the bitter winds. We do something very similar to protect our minds through the practice of meditation.

Eknath Easwaran
But patience can't be acquired overnight. It's just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it, to push its limits.

Eknath Easwaran
We have no need to teach pure motives to the mind. All that is necessary to make the mind pure is to undo the negative conditioning to which it has been subjected; then we will be left with Pure, Unconditioned Awareness.

Eknath Easwaran
I have never been able to understand the compelling phrase, 'keeping up with the Joneses.' It does not matter very much whether I keep up with Tom Jones or anybody else; what is important is to keep up with myself by making my today a little better than my yesterday.

Eknath Easwaran
Activity is not achievement. It is not enough to rush about beginning a lot of things and keeping busy. A well-spent life is one that rounds out what it has begun.

Eknath Easwaran
In memorizing the prayer, it may be helpful to remind yourself that you are not addressing some extraterrestrial being outside you. The kingdom of heaven is within us, and the Lord is enshrined in the depths of our own consciousness. In this prayer we are calling deep into ourselves, appealing to the spark of the divine that is our real nature.

Eknath Easwaran
Wherever people gather for selfless ends, there is a vast augmentation of their individual capacities. Something wonderful, something momentous happens. An irresistible force begins to move, which, though we may not see it, is going to change our world. In this lies the power and the meaning of spiritual companionship.

Eknath Easwaran