On Eknath Easwaran’s ‘Meditation’
The radiance of yoga, originally uploaded by Venkatesh K.
Easwaran’s 8-point plan is a guide to meditation for the novice. It details the various reasons for meditating, stressing a greater control over the mind and the senses, and gives a methodology for getting the most out of meditation.
There were, unsurprisingly, some aspects of Easwaran’s book that I disliked, most notably his sometimes ‘holier than thou’ aspect, and how ascetic and lacking in excitement his suggested lifestyle could be. I am no epicurean, certainly, but I do think that going to the cinema and then closing ones eyes during the ‘tawdry scenes’ is rather missing the point of what life has to offer.
However, there were some aspects that I enjoyed. I can respect Easwaran for his learnedness, and the breadth of his reading. He knows a lot outside of his own speciality, too, having previously been an English teacher and not just a spiritualist.
Given its vintage, ‘Meditation’ is something of a snapshot from a different time, when the spiritual movement in America and Europe was still somewhat in its infancy. Certainly, the movement became well-known in the 60s and 70s alongside drugs culture, but it still had some cachet, which now, sadly one thinks, has dissipated with the trend of books like this now to veer towards self-help and self-improvement, instead of the stated spiritual aim.
