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Ramakrishna Ananda

A Thoughtful Person Opens the Door

Discover how good will helps you overcome obstacles

In being a true friend you become a thoughtful person. As a thoughtful person you become able to meditate — to center in your true self and realize your ideals. Two splendid states of higher consciousness open before you as a result of thoughtful meditations. Each of these states will render you greater value than can ever be estimated.

Growing on the Path, Goodness, Awakening

These two thrilling stages of awareness are the two major entrances to higher consciousness. You will find it impossible to achieve these two states without being a thoughtful person or a fit companion. These two states have different names in different disciplines but we will call them:

  • The Good Will Witness, and
  • The Universal Self

Good Will

The thoughtful person does not strive to overpower or manipulate other people. He values others and considers their lives as important as his own. He considers the needs and rights of others, too. He looks for opportunities to be of service. He loves to console and uplift.

In his personal effort to be more conscious he also strives to help others discover the benefits within them and the possibilities of the days ahead. He becomes incapable of thinking only of himself. He always considers the effects of his actions on other people. He goes through life thinking of the welfare and happiness of others as well as his own.

A very important characteristic of the thoughtful person, then, is good will. Good will is delightfully — and frightfully — essential. It’s great fun to have good will but it’s “frightful” not to have good will — because you cannot achieve or maintain higher consciousness without it. The significance of good will cannot be overstressed. Higher consciousness itself is an ongoing state of good will.

Wishing Others the Very Best

The main characteristic of good will is: Wishing others the very best. The thoughtful man or woman of good will bears no ill will toward other people. He hopes for their happiness and would like to be of help if he can. His emotions are expansive and he does not experience jealousy or an inner resistance as others around him find success or favor. He does not, vocally nor in his mind, insult or look down upon other people who happen to be involved with him in the human race.

In becoming a friend to others, he has discovered that his good will must also extend to those who practice different faiths, techniques, and other forms of sincere worship. He wishes them success and fulfillment. He wishes them happiness and dynamic growth. He wishes them whatever they need to be the better.

Do You Have Good Will For Others?

Do you have good will for others? Do you wish them the very best — even though their paths or goals may be different from yours, or even seemingly in conflict with yours? Can you, in the largeness of your heart, put aside jealousy or condemnation? Do you truly have no ill will for them but instead a fraternal good wish for each and every one?

Do you accept people as they are? Do you notice their needs and struggles? Do you actively and constructively help people close to you and the world at large? Do you also perform these services with a happy attitude, with genuine good will? Helping others from a sense of obligation may still be of value but it does not open your life to higher consciousness.

A Steady Flow

Good will is of extraordinary importance! You can only achieve in the realm of consciousness that which you hold in good will. Never forget this. For example, if you are striving to gain higher consciousness, you can only achieve it when you have a very positive and constructive attitude toward it. And higher consciousness can only fill your being when you are a thoughtful person who maintains good will toward others, even when you are in highly exalted awareness. Good will is vital.

If you have ill will, fear, or resentment toward higher consciousness you need not worry about whether you will achieve it. It will never become yours. Higher consciousness will never flow into a vessel which is closed.

Furthermore, in your meditations, as you do various practices and techniques to become more conscious, unless you have good will for the focus or techniques of your meditations, you’ll not be able to succeed. You must persist and allow your ill will, resentment, or pettiness to be worn through until you develop good will. You must develop a steady flow of good will for yourself, your meditation techniques, and the object of your meditation.

Appreciation Is Key

Suppose you’re striving to grow through religious observances. A lackadaisical attitude toward your practices, or toward a mantram, or a painting of Christ or Buddha, for example, will result in continual separation from what another part of your mind and heart say they are seeking. Don’t you agree, from many observations, that people in an atmosphere of good will draw closer together? Similarly, in good will you and your meditation practices must become closer, more comfortable and intimate.

To succeed in meditation and the higher awareness it will give you, you must become conscious, appreciative of what you are doing. To resent your practice as if it is an intruder, to yearn for your time of meditation to be over, or to study your meditation practice with utter boredom is to be in a state of ill will — or certainly an absence of good will. You will not succeed.

Just as ill will makes people separate and grow farther and farther apart, you can become more and more estranged from meditation and the peace of meditation. This division creates a progressively greater distance between yourself and the whole field of higher consciousness and a harmonious life as well.

Are You Ready?

Are you ready to contact your higher consciousness? Are you patient, thoughtful, and full of good will? In the next two Lessons you will learn how to develop The Good Will Witness and The Universal Self.

If you have trouble experiencing either of these two states of superconsciousness within a month of sincere practice, study the previous Lessons found here. Become an expert in the knowledge and application of each major area. In the field of higher consciousness you must develop at your own rate. And, every effort toward your great fulfillment will add subtle but noticeable benefits in the quality of your daily life.

May you find success and greater fulfillment!

Reflection

The soul which dwells within me
Loves and cares about you.

Watch Next

Want a sure-fire practice to enter higher consciousness?
Want inspiration every day? Try good will meditations
Think you can’t experience Infinite Consciousness? Think again!
Which of these is part of the triple transformation?
1. The true self replaces the false self
1. The true self replaces the false self
True, but there is a better answer
2. Love, light, bliss, and knowledge descend on you
2. Love, light, bliss, and knowledge descend on you
True, but there is a better answer
3. Your consciousness moves from mental to spiritual
3. Your consciousness moves from mental to spiritual
True, but there is a better answer
4. All of the above
4. All of the above
Correct

Learn more about the signs that you are progressing in your yoga practice.

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#2 THE MYSTIC GAZE
A Classic Technique

This classic technique is one of the mystic’s greatest treasures.

It is designed to stimulate your mystical faculties and begin the process of spiritual awakening.

With the Mystic Gaze enjoy the developing sense of clarity, coordination and attunement with life in all you do.

  1. Sit calmly and relax your eyes
  2. Gaze slightly upwards 20-30 degrees
  3. Look into space 20 feet or more
  4. Gaze, don’t stare or strain your eyes
  5. Simply observe and appreciate your awareness of space
  6. Enjoy the dawning wholeness for several minutes
  7. Gear down and go about your day

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#7 EXPANSION THROUGH ATTITUDE AND GOOD WILL
Change Your Heart

Your practice of good will cultivates the heart’s truest, deepest feeling:  love.

These good will practices are a boon to mystical study.

The goal of good will practice is the change of the heart.

When your heart naturally and spontaneously radiates forth a palpable good will, then you are a changed person.

  1. Consciously direct your thoughts and feelings toward an attitude of good will
  2. Bring a person to mind
  3. Or place your awareness on a person closest to you
  4. Direct good will toward this person
  5. Feel free to add specific well-wishes like health, love, courage, etc.
  6. Allow your heart to expand, to change

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#6 EXPANSION LEVEL ONE
Quality of Life

Mystics break out of body bondage through numerous expansions of the heart — of the sense of self.

Your feeling of self-awareness imprisons or frees you.

Happily, you can do something powerfully liberating about the state of your heart and the quality of your life.

  1. Sit comfortably for 15 minutes
  2. Choose a person you know
  3. Imagine you’re walking in his/her shoes
  4. Feel you’re inside this person
  5. Say “If I were (name), I’d feel and think…”
  6. Have fun with it and let your heart expand

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#5 THE HEART AND ITS LIBERATION
Your Sense of Self

Mystics break out of mind and body bondage through expansions, expansions of consciousness.

Your “Heart” is your sense of self, your feeling about who you are.

Who are you as a distinct person from everyone else? This is your core individuality, your mystical heart.

  1. Focus on your mystic heart
  2. It is located in the right-central chest or inside the spine behind the heart
  3. Practice The Radiance or The Mist:
  4. Feel that your mystic heart…
  5. Radiates love, light and energy, or
  6. Generates a white mist flowing outward

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#4 THE MYSTIC BREATH
Your Window

Your breath is the key to the mystery of your life. The Mystic Breath is conscious use of this key.

Our individual natures will require different windows — different energy centers — from which to view the life force.

Allow the mystic breath to reveal your personal window.

  1. Stretch and then sit comfortably
  2. Take 5 to 7 deep breaths
  3. Focus on the center of your upper lip
  4. Witness the breath come and go
  5. Let your mind move to a natural center
  6. Watch your breath and the life force from this “window”

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#3 THE ASCENT
The Essence of Your Life

We begin meditation on the Infinite by focusing our awareness on Spirit, the life essence within us.

How can we do something so seemingly abstract? It’s easy. Spirit empowers your breath night and day.

Let the life force reveal itself to you. Sense the higher power which flows through you.

You’ll feel more alive.

  1. Stretch and relax your body
  2. Sit comfortably
  3. Take 5 to 7 deep breaths
  4. Focus on your nostril rims
  5. Witness the breath come and go
  6. Enjoy for 10 to 12 minutes
  7. Inhale deeply and stretch

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#0 THE MYSTIC SELF
Our True Nature

In the view of mystics, the major problem in life for most of us is ignorance of our true natures.

The Mysteries reveal many ways that you can actually contact your mystic self — and the Infinite Consciousness.

Do you, can you, contact your Mystic Self? Yes, indeed!

  1. Practice this anytime you like
  2. Probably your mind wanders quite often
  3. At times during the day, look at your mind and notice when it’s wandering
  4. Then, turn your attention to that part of your consciousness which observes that your mind is wandering
  5. That special overseeing awareness is part of your marvelous mystic self

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#1 MYSTIC AWAKENING
Benefits

Stimulate your mystical awakening.

When you wake up from a dream you realize you were only dreaming.

Consider too that this normal state of awareness in which you live may be a kind of sleep also.

As you do this technique you’ll find the world becomes more beautiful and enjoyable.

  1. Try this many times a day
  2. Whisper to yourself, “Wake up!”
  3. Mentally say, “Wake up!”
  4. Increase your attention, appreciation and feeling of love
  5. Just cheerfully exhort yourself
  6. Wake up!

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How to Succeed

As you may know, we do not charge for our courses. All Yoga World content is free and available to you with our blessings. However, we do have a simple, but important request that’s key to the transformations necessary to succeed on the path.

We ask you to commit two hours a week to selfless service. This service can be anything you choose ranging from helping a family member or neighbor to volunteering at a nonprofit organization.

I Commit to Serve

This commitment is solely between you and your inner self.

Why the Commitment?

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