Recently at Ananda Village, in a study group on The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita by Paramhansa Yogananda as remembered by his disciple, Swami Kriyananda, we read this: “The unenlightened man sinks back, at death, into the negative sleep state…. The yogi who can fix his concentration on the spiritual eye leaves his body consciously, whether in deep ecstasy or in death.”
In his writings, Yogananda shares that in his early training he kept his mind always at the spiritual eye, and that this is an extremely important aid to spiritual progress.
We decided to take as our first assignment for the study group to focus on keeping our minds at the spiritual eye throughout the day. The more that we live with our energy at the spiritual eye, the more uplifted we feel, and the more we feel God’s presence.
We assembled a variety of techniques, which I’m happy to send to you if you’re interested. They’re from the writings of Swami Kriyananda and from a new book of Paramhansa Yogananda’s called How to Awaken Your True Potential, due to come out from Crystal Clarity early in 2016.
Each of us began to work with the techniques and reported our joyful discoveries to the group. One of the simplest exercises is to place your finger at the point between the eyebrows and to draw your energy there.
I noticed that if my mind started thinking of something unnecessary, I could just drop that thought and bring the mind back to the spiritual eye. With the practice of this exercise came a feeling of God’s presence, not just in meditation but more consistently through the day.
One of the women in the group reported how well the technique worked for her. She was walking to work rehashing a disagreement she’d had with her husband. Not liking her state of mind, she stopped, put her finger at the spiritual eye, and felt her consciousness shift from the back of the brain to the spiritual eye. At the spiritual eye, there was no annoyance whatsoever, only joy and freedom—and God’s presence.
She marveled at the simplicity of the technique, but noticed after a while that she was feeling annoyed again. She realized she’d begun to mentally plan how to explain her opinion to her husband that evening. This time, she stopped, placed her finger at the spiritual eye to refocus, and made a vow to God at the same time: “I will not say another word about this issue.”
That vow combined with the energy from the spiritual eye put the event totally behind her. God’s presence and joy were back again. She was extremely impressed. What a useful technique!
We invite you to join in the experiment today!
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