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Auther

Ramakrishna Ananda

The Friends Relationship

Would you like a deeper, loving relationship with the Lord?

The servant grows. But as you mature in the servant mood, you begin to feel there must be something more. While you find yourself much more fulfilled and successful as a servant than when you looked upon yourself as boss, your growing familiarity with the nature of higher consciousness impels a new understanding.

Relating with Spirit, Bhakti Yoga, Companionship

Your higher consciousness reveals more fully as the days and months go by that it loves you very much and is more interested in your happiness than you ever were. Higher consciousness reveals it doesn’t love you because you’ve become a good servant. It loves you for yourself not because of services rendered — however deeply they are appreciated.

A Dynamic Relationship

So you begin to perceive the servant relationship is extremely beneficial to your life but that the higher consciousness itself wants you to go on, to move forward in your relationship. Higher consciousness wants you to grow into a more dynamic relationship which has greater intimacy — one with more love, sharing, and communication.

Interplay of Friendship

As you relate more appreciatively with your higher consciousness, an incredible friendship begins. Your relationship, which began in awe and then progressed into serving the higher consciousness, now moves forward another major step. Because of your accelerated awareness, your higher consciousness wants to be your friend and enjoy the interplay of friendship with you. It wants to do more than tell you what to do.

In the awe and servant relationships, you sloughed off old tendencies and became a more developed instrument of higher consciousness. As old habit patterns are released, your true personality and sense of identity gradually emerges. Being a servant has accomplished this new growth while at the same time helping you become relatively free of selfishness. You have a growing sense of what is important to, and deeply appreciated by, the higher consciousness within you.

A Happy Ally

Trained by the servant mood, your discernment has been greatly increased. You begin to distinguish your real self from false patterns of thoughts and emotions. You no longer think of yourself as incapable of good judgments. Your enlightened sense of self is emerging.

Caring so much about the nature and works of higher consciousness, you find its concerns and challenges are your own. Your interests are deeply shared. The two of you have much in common. In a natural tide of love, complemented with your developing individuality, you become a true friend and happy ally with higher consciousness.

From your new coalesced individuality you share your personal thoughts, feelings, and battles with your friend. But, more and more, you live for the goals and delights of higher consciousness. At the same time, you sense higher consciousness is interplaying with you, sharing in all the significant events and commonplaces of your life. There’s a delightful sense of give-and-take, of sport and fun. You share interests as well as concerns.

Your Immortal Friend

Still pervaded with a deep sense of respect and a permanent awareness of the greatness of your new companion, you are so aware of being loved that you do not hesitate to share your deepest thoughts and worries — or honestly confide your character flaws.

Of course, in the friend relationship you feel you are a different kind of being from your immortal friend. You humbly reflect at times that you are a mortal friend of an immortal, who very graciously loves you. You sense you have a very different nature from your benevolent companion.

The Treasure of Your Life

The mood of close friendship with the higher consciousness can resemble a hilarious game of tag or a heavenly conversation — a conversation from the soul, and beyond words. Much as regular friendships enrich people in sorrow and delight, illness and health, poverty and wealth, hectic times and quiet times, your mood of friendship will be the treasure of your life. You’ll discover higher consciousness to be loyal and true to you under all circumstances.

Reflection

I clasp this hand you offer me.
You walk in my time
And I in immortality.

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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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