I highly recommend this book for anyone that is looking for a way to learn to slow down or is already living a life at a 'slower' pace. I am the latter and found great encouragement and insight into many things that I hadn't considered. I think the world would be a better place if each of us learned to set aside the hustle and bustle of the world for a more focused slowing down.

Excellent words beautifully written that make you Want to slow down the rushing of life.. it took me long to review bec. I,m still reading the thought-provoking pages. ( )

I wrote this review while listening to baseball and (later) opera. Obviously, I have not taken to heart one of the primary messages of this book: "Do Only One Thing At A Time!" Why should we limit ourselves to one thing at a time? Because "Every moment is a doorway to meaning, purpose, and joy. The key is an unhurried mind." I do recommend this book, especially if you have tried meditation and not been able to "make it stick". I have read many books on meditation, stilling the mind, slowing down. Most seem to make sense while you are reading them, but are too abstract to be much help in everyday life. Take Your Time by Eknath Easwaran is much more practical in its approach. Easwaran uses real life examples to explain each step in his approach to slowing down via the Eight-Point Program of Passage Meditation.

My favorite example describes the well-trained mind as like a loyal, well-trained dog. Even when it goes running off after squirrels, if you call it back, it will come. Meditation instructions often focus on "letting go" of unwanted thoughts. I've found that when I "let them go" my mind follows them. Changing the focus to calling the attention back worked much better for me . . . whenever the mind wanders, just say "Come back" and don't worry about where the stray thoughts might go.

I also appreciated the concept of "painting the bullock cart wheels" (p. 89). Many of us know that when faced with a big task, we easily get sidetracked with trivial details instead of what we are supposed to be doing. It helps to tell ourselves not to "paint the bullock cart wheels" when we need to be harvesting the grain! :)

The eight chapters cover various aspects of slowing down including doing one thing at a time, finding balance, and finding time for relationships. Each chapter also includes a list of Ideas and Suggestions on how to put the ideas into practice throughout the day. The eight-point program starts in the morning with meditation on a passage from spiritual literature and then uses other steps (repetition of a mantram, slowing down, one-pointed attention, training the senses, putting others first, spiritual fellowship, and spiritual reading) throughout the day to reinforce the meditation experience.

Another thing that helps this book is that, in addition to his work teaching meditation, the author was a professor of English Literature. In between the practical examples mentioned above were quotations from William Blake and Shakespeare, as well as Schopenhauer, Buddha, and the Upanishads.

My only criticism is more about book design than the book itself. Scattered throughout the chapters were indented quotations in large blue print. Sometimes these passages seemed to be subsection headings, but other times they were more like extracts used to grab the eye in a magazine article and thus seemed inappropriate in a book. Mostly I found them distracting. I would include only those indicating a new subsection in the chapter and I would not indent them.

Favorite passages:
Make wise choices about what you read. Read only what is necessary or worthwhile. And then take the time to read carefully.

Trying to get through life without control over your attention is a little like trying to reach a destination with no control over your car.

The Buddha said, "When you are walking, walk. When you are sitting, sit. Don't wobble."

To live in balance we need a mind that listens to us, not one that drags us about as it pleases.

[Buddha says] "If an experience calms your mind, slows you down, makes you more likely to be compassionate and kind, that experience is beneficial; you can enjoy it. If it agitates your mind, speeds you up, excites your senses, or makes you angry or resentful, it is not beneficial; you should avoid it."

Between one thought and the next is a tiny gap when the mind is at peace. Extending that gap is the secret of an unhurried mind.

When I travel on the freeways I see stickers that say "I love my dog," "I love my cat," "I love New York." If I were ever to put a sticker on my car, it would simply say "I love." ( )

[Take Your Time The Wisdom of Slowing Down] by [[Eknath Easwaran]] This review is from a new edition of the book, which was given to me by the publisher.

Although I have about a zillion books on the topics of meditation and slowing down, focusing on the present, I'm glad I read this one and recommend it both to those who are new to the subject, and those who are not. It falls into the "simple yet profound" category of addressing this topic because of the author's writing and the book organization. At the risk of sounding naive, I have to say that I've read many books about meditation and present moment awareness in the last few years, and I am still convinced that living in the now is the answer to everything! I keep looking for something it won't work with, but have yet to find it. It seems to me that there is no difficulty it will not help to ease. This is one that will go on my nightstand to be read and reread again in small daily doses. ( )

This book was actually first published in 1994, long BEFORE Easwaran's death in 1999. This is a reprinting of that original 1994 book. I read it then, and even as I reread it again over the years, I still find the premise solid and soothing: that we can have a richer life, a simpler, calmer life, if we just choose to stop doing two things at one time. Once you can slow down and quit texting and talking and FB-ing and Tweeting and pretending to listen. Easwaran is a teacher in the best sense - without lecture or guilt, just simple suggestions of regular moment-to-moment choices we can each make, every moment. ( )