STUDY GUIDE FOR

study guide for
Encouragement from the Buddha

How to Use This Course

This video is part of an ongoing monthly series in the teachings of Sri Eknath Easwaran. The talks on this tape, like all of Sri Easwaran’s talks, are rich and deep in content. They shed light on many aspects of life, but their true value emerges as we try to apply their teachings in our daily lives. The Guide is meant to be used in conjunction with a daily practice of Sri Easwaran’s Eight Point Program, based on passage meditation. We do not recommend following the Practical Exercises if you are not practicing this program according to the instructions given in Sri Easwaran’s book Meditation, which can be found on our Web site, www.nilgiri.org. A brief list of those points can be found at the back of this Guide.

The Practical Exercises are suggestions for you to explore as they seem appropriate in your life. If you are already familiar with Sri Easwaran’s books, you will have seen some of these exercises before. But we suggest that you take this opportunity to really put them into practice, and discover their great power to deepen your spiritual life. Try them in moderation, exercising your common sense and not taking them to extreme lengths. Sri Easwaran always emphasized the importance of the middle path.

Before or after watching each talk, we suggest that you read through the notes and the Practical Exercise. Then, after watching the talk, try to put the exercise into action in your life. A week or so later, you may find it interesting to watch the talk again, with the experience of the exercise fresh in your mind. You may want to note the results in a journal.

A week-by-week curriculum for studying this tape, in coordination with readings from Sri Easwaran’s books, is available for use by Blue Mountain Center Satsangs, and other interested individuals. Please see the Videos section of our Web site, under Video of the Month. A full listing of our Satsang groups is also available on our Web site. For more information about this series, other publications of Sri Easwaran and Nilgiri Press, and a schedule of retreats based on the Eight Point Program, please contact

Blue Mountain Center of Meditation
Post Office Box 256
Tomales, CA 94971
800 475 2369
www.nilgiri.org

Swimming Against the Current

Introduction

In the two talks on this videotape, given during the Autumn of 1985, Sri Easwaran draws on the teachings of the Buddha to present the art of “swimming against the current,” or learning to make choices independent of our personal conditioning or the rigid, selfish, or unthinking patterns in the world around us.

In the first thirty-minute talk from October 12, 1985,
he comments on “The Brahmin,” the last chapter of
the Dhammapada. For Sri Easwaran, as for the Buddha, “Brahmin” signifies not a particular caste in India but the most highly evolved human being, such as Saint Francis or Mahatma Gandhi. Anyone, anywhere, who “sees life truly, and lives in accordance with that vision” joins company with these most highly evolved people. In this sense, all of us can become Brahmins.

The key to this transformation is found in the first line of the chapter: “Cross the river bravely.” During the course of this talk, Sri Easwaran examines the various ways in which we are conditioned by society to indulge our likes and dislikes and to pursue our self-interest. That river of conditioning is hard to cross. Its current is swift and strong. But the spiritual aspirant who swims against this current will eventually find a true, lasting happiness in contributing to the welfare of the world.

Outline of the Talk

Sri Easwaran begins with a brief introduction to the Buddha’s concept of the Brahmin, which is a radical reinterpretation of the caste distinctions current during the Buddha’s lifetime. For the Buddha, it signifies a person who sees life as one indivisible whole and bases his or her life on that vision.

Sri Easwaran starts his commentary by reminding us that swimming against the current of conditioning is not a life-denying endeavor. On the contrary, spiritual striving should enhance our health and contribute to our vigor. “The Buddha had a magnificent body, superb in health and ever energetic. He also had a beautiful sense of poetry.”

The first advice the Buddha gives is: “Conquer all your passions, go beyond your likes and dislikes, and all fetters will fall away.”

Here Easwaran notes that there is not much challenge in doing what we like and avoiding what we dislike. “In order to come to life fully, to be absolutely alive, to have your heart singing the song of life, you have got to go against this conditioning of life, which is dictated mostly by self-will – as expressed through the senses – on which the mass media play all the time.”

Easwaran speaks of his own process of awakening in which he noticed the fetters that bound him, and then proceeded to free himself. “Gradually I began to swim against the current, and saw how absurd it was to swim with the current.”

“I started with food. And for some time my meals didn’t taste very enjoyable.” This brought him new insights concerning the purpose of food. He now came to enjoy food that would “make the body strong for carrying on this work, give it longer life, and greater energy.”

Then he began to work on his relationships, focusing especially on those that were difficult. With practice came success. “Now the more difficult a person is, the more eager I am to move closer to him . . . like swimming against the current. The person may be unpleasant, may be discourteous. But it is testing my muscles, testing my swimming skills.” When we try to move closer to difficult people instead of running away, they often begin to respond.

Working on his relationships led to new realizations about many of the goals extolled by society, such as desires for position, prestige, profit, or power. Sri Easwaran began to see how likes and dislikes in these matters acted like chains on his hands.

In these ways Sri Easwaran gradually developed the science of putting others first, a concept which is, as he says, not a natural one at all. But through it he discovered that “when I try to make all of you happy I become supremely happy.” In living for others we finally forget ourselves. “That is how happiness comes. Nirvana is when you have forgotten yourself all the time. That state in which you never think about yourself, in which you are always thinking about all those around you, that is the state of highest happiness.”

Practical Exercise

Easwaran defines the “current” we are asked to swim against as “doing what we like and avoiding what we dislike.” In our practical exercises we will be exploring how that current shapes our lives, and how it feels to swim against it.

First we will look at the external current – the conditioning we receive through our external environment, such as the media, societal habits, and the attitudes of acquaintances.

During the coming week or two, pay special attention to the ways in which the mass media play on your conditioning. Try to notice when your desires are being roused, or when you are becoming anxious or insecure or angry as a result of something you’ve watched or heard.

Then, choose just one area where you will try to swim against this current. Don’t be surprised if this is very difficult. The point of this exercise is not to change your life overnight, but to acquaint you with the power of that external current as it engages with your internal conditioning. Here are some examples:

Turn off the TV just at the point when you’re getting sucked into watching more than you feel is good for you.

Avoid junk food.

Limit your exposure to news, trying to take in only what is really necessary and turning away from what is merely sensational.

Avoid reading “junk” magazines which center on gossip or intrigue.

Don’t gamble or play lotto or participate in promotional contests.

These experiments will show you how powerfully our conditioning impels us. In our second exercise we’ll explore ways to change our internal conditioning to become less vulnerable to such compulsion.