There is nothing so lovely and enduring in the regions which surround us, above and below, as the lasting peace of a mind centered in God.

– YOGA VASISHTHA

Steering a middle course between being elated and being dejected does not mean resigning ourselves to a flat and monotonous life. Far from it. There is a third state which is neither elation nor depression, and if we can avoid these two extremes, we will find the abiding joy which is our real nature.   from Eknath Easwaran’s Words to Live By.

You are what you believe.

– ANTON CHEKHOV

You are what the deep faith of your heart is. If you believe that money is going to make you happy, then you will go after money. If you believe that pleasure will make you happy, you will go after pleasure. Because, “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” not as he thinketh in his head. There is a vast distance from the head to the heart. In the Greek and Russian Orthodox traditions, they say that whatever spiritual knowledge you have in your head must be brought down into your heart. This takes many, many years.    Eknath Easwaran’s Words to Live By.

The Keys of Jeshua, Chapter 18, p. 227

If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in its Master’s presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it again in Our Lord’s presence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed.

– SAINT FRANCIS DE SALES

The mind does not like to meditate; it wants to wander. When someone is not doing very well in meditation, one explanation is simple: his or her mind is elsewhere. The early stages of meditation are like a primary school for the mind. At first we are simply trying to get the mind to stay on the school grounds until the last bell rings. This is all we can do at first. The mind has been playing truant for years; when we try to concentrate, it simply is not present. All we can do is stand at the doorstep and whistle, trying to call it back in.

Even if all we do in thirty minutes of meditation is to call the mind back thirty times, we have made great progress. We don’t have to wait for the day when the mind is completely still to receive immense benefits from meditation. As the Bhagavad Gita says, even a little of this discipline protects us from great dangers.

MARCH 10

Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all else shall be added unto you.

– THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW

The mantram is one of the best of prayers – one that we say not just when we get up or when we go to bed, but countless times throughout the day, and throughout the night as well. This prayer is not addressed to someone outside us, but to our deepest Self, the Lord of Love, who dwells in the hearts of us all. When we repeat it, we are not asking for anything in particular, like good health or solutions to our problems or richer personal relationships. We are simply asking to get closer to the source of all strength and all joy and all love. To use Jesus’ words, we are asking for “the kingdom of heaven,” and we find at the same time that our health improves, our problems begin to be resolved, and our relationships blossom.