study guide for

From Negative to Positive

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. If you would like to receive this curriculum via email, just let us know and we will gladly send it to you. A full listing of our Satsang groups is 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

Ten Aids to Meditation

Introduction

In this talk, given in February, 1989, Sri Easwaran speaks about the ten aids to meditation, as presented by the Compassionate Buddha. Following the Buddha’s lead, Sri Easwaran says that for every five negative forces in life, there are ten positive forces. The more we try to identify with those ten positive forces, the deeper will be our meditation, and the richer will be our contribution to life.

“All these ten attitudes can deepen your meditation,” says Sri Easwaran, “as I can testify from my own personal experience. If you want to deepen your meditation with the intensity I had to deepen it, with the dedication I had to deepen it, then you can translate these attitudes into your life from tomorrow morning onwards.”

This Study Guide will concentrate on these ten aids to meditation. Through the course of the lesson you will have an opportunity to reflect on your spiritual practice and use the ten aids as tools for building on strengths to overcome weaknesses.

^{Outline of the
Talk}

In this talk Sri Easwaran lists and comments on the Buddha’s ten aids to meditation, as they are written in Pali, a language derived from Sanskrit.

_* Dana is “giving,” which in Sri Easwaran’s presentation can be a revolutionary concept. It represents a reversal in consciousness. If we want peace, love, health, and happiness, Sri Easwaran says, we need to change our attitude from getting to giving – of our skills, time, and talent – without counting how much we will get in return.

_* Sila means “sweetness and tenderness” in our dealings with others. But sila is not soft, since real tenderness requires inner toughness.

_* Paricchaga means “renounce and rejoice.” Be detached from self-interest. Why? Happiness is not something that we can get. Paradoxically, as long as we pursue happiness it eludes our grasp. But when we turn our back upon ourselves, joy follows us. So if we can give up any strong attachments, or palate cravings, or entertainment which lacks high ideals, it will deepen our meditation.

_* Achava is “straightforwardness.” Achava includes the capacity to be courteous, even in personal differences and disagreements. The born leader will have this capacity, but it can be cultivated by all of us who would like to become small leaders in our home and community.

_* Mardava means “tender, soft, sweet, yielding, and lovable.” Mardava in thought, word, and deed helps to prevent resentment, ill will, and hostility, which impede meditation.

_* Tapa is usually translated “austerity.” “But in my presentation,” Sri Easwaran says, “tapa means simplicity in one’s daily life: getting the maximum effect from minimum means. This is key to the art of living.”

_* Akkodha Kkodha means “anger” or, in fact, “fury.” The a prefix is negative, so akkodha means free from any trace of fury. In order to deepen your meditation, do not consider anyone your enemy. Do not allow yourself to become resentful. Learn to deal with everyone affection-ately and with compassion.

_* Avihimsa We may be more familiar with the Sanskrit word ahimsa, which has the same meaning: nonviolence. But complete ahimsa is not achieved even by banning nuclear weapons or abolishing war. True ahimsa is a very high ideal, implying freedom from any act, word, or thought that hurts others – whether they be people, animals, or the environment.

_* Avirodha recalls the words of Jesus, “Resist not evil.” As Sri Easwaran says, this is very subtle advice. Mahatma Gandhi taught that evil has no existence of its own; evil exists only as long as we support it. When we withdraw support from harmful influences, and try to persuade other people also to withdraw their support, we are releasing our original goodness, which is our true nature.

_* Khanti is the capacity to bear with others, with people’s frailties, foibles, and outbursts of temper. “The more
deeply aware we become,” Sri Easwaran says, “the more understanding we will have towards others. We will not blame anybody.”

Practical Exercise:
Identifying Your Strengths

Review the ten aids to meditation and decide which ones are your strengths – which ones come naturally to you? Reflect on how you might act even more on your strengths for the benefit of others and your own meditation. In what sphere of your life does that strength come naturally? How might you carry it beyond that sphere?

Below are suggested meditation passages to enhance each particular strength. Choose the one corresponding to the strength you’ve chosen (or another passage from God Makes the Rivers to Flow which seems appropriate to that strength). Read it through with deep concentration. One way to do this is to read one line, stanza, or sentence, stop and reflect, then read the next. You may want to write down your reflections. This type of slow concentrated reading is a potent way to nourish that quality in yourself.

Dana – The Prayer of Saint Francis

Sila – Beloved of the Soul

Paricchaga – The Inner Ruler (Isha Upanishad)

Achava – Duties of the Heart

Mardava – Invocations of Ansari of Herat

Tapa – The Brahmin

Akkodha – The Way of Love

Avihimsa – Discourse on Goodwill

Avirodha – The Sermon on the Mount

Khanti – The Whole World Is Your Own

^{Recommended
Reading}

Eknath Easwaran, “Tremendous Trifles” in Conquest of Mind .

Changing Attitudes from
Negative to Positive

Introduction

In this 1989 talk, Sri Easwaran draws out teachings from the Bhagavad Gita to illustrate how anyone can transform negative tendencies into positive assets. “Through the practice of meditation,” he says, “we can change any attitude from negative to positive, from unkind to kind, from unloving to loving.” In this way, we can gradually transform our whole life. The deeper we go into ourselves by means of spiritual disciplines, the greater will be our skill in transformation. Sri Easwaran says, “This is why I refer to meditation as the mightiest tool ever given to humanity.”

With this video we continue our focus on cultivating the attitudes that deepen meditation. The transformations from negative to positive covered by Sri Easwaran here are ideal opportunities for drawing upon the ten aids listed in the previous talk.

^{Outline of
the Talk}

Sri Easwaran begins by quoting a famous verse from Chapter Twelve of the Bhagavad Gita, in which the Lord says, “That one I love who is incapable of ill will, who is friendly and compassionate, living beyond the reach of I and mine and of pleasure and pain, patient.” His main topic here is the first word, which in Sankrit is adveshta – “free from ill will.”

Ill will, bitterness, and anger create epidemics at least as harmful to mankind as those caused by viruses. Therefore, Sri Easwaran says, let us combat our own ill will.

Generally, when we feel insulted, we want to get even. “In my language,” says Sri Easwaran, “it is not getting even; it is getting odd.” He proposes a more productive approach: go for a walk repeating the mantram. “The mantram will cool you down,” like adding ice water to the hot temper. “Gradually” he says, “even the hottest liquid will cool down.” Over time, transformation takes place. Cooling down leads to love.

Eventually, by calming all agitated thoughts, “You will come to love everybody.” This does not mean letting others trample us underfoot, but when necessary reso-
lutely disagreeing, “without hurting the other person, and yet without yielding to the other person. It is a great art.” If we become established in love like this, he says, with no ill will and no resentment, “The other person is bound to change – not easily, not immediately, but over the long run. That is the nobility of human nature.” And we will find that we are more at peace with ourselves, even in the midst of severe challenges.

The key to facing troubles valiantly is offering everything to God. Sri Easwaran quotes verses from Chapter Nine of the Gita: “Whatever you do, make it an offering to Me.” This attitude of offering can help us remain detached from life’s ups and downs, and thus make us more effective as instruments of peace.

When we learn these great lessons we will find, from that time onwards, that the mind will never be upset. Through these powerful disciplines, as Sri Easwaran puts it, “We can develop such enormous endurance that all the problems of life cannot make us forget the presence of God in every creature.”

Practical Exercise:
Changing Attitudes

This exercise is based on Sri Easwaran’s approach to self-improvement: not to dwell on our negative qualities or failings, but instead to find a corresponding positive quality to strengthen. In the previous exercise, we practiced developing positive qualities that come naturally to us. Now we build on that experience by working on qualities that don’t come so easily.

Review once again the list of ten aids to meditation. Find one quality which you feel needs strengthening in your life. Look up the passage associated with that quality (or find another suitable one in God Makes the Rivers to Flow), and read it carefully in the manner recommended in the previous exercise. Consider memorizing that passage for use in meditation, and look for ways to weave its message into your life.