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Secret #1:
The True Purpose of Meditation
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Many people feel a sense of fascination when confronted with the possibility of mystic visions, psychic intuition and heightened mental functioning. While meditators often report these sorts of improvements, these experiences should not be the primary reason for practice. The purpose of meditation is to bring us back to ourselves.

As we become healthier, happier and realize greater self-awareness, the other benefits of meditation begin to follow naturally — improved mental functioning, greater intuition as well as greater access to unconscious resources and abilities.

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Secret #2:
Distraction Does Not Equal Failure
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Meditation is not work in the sense that you have to “force” yourself to concentrate completely for long periods of time. If we consciously try to prevent thinking, it’s going to have a negative impact on the meditation.

Instead, whenever we become lost in thought or confusion, we simply acknowledge those thoughts and then gently return the attention to the object of the meditation. We do this as many times as distraction or thought occurs. Eventually, the mind becomes calmer and discursive thought begins to slow.

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Secret #3:
Insight Alone Is Not Enough
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Insight alone will not transform our lives. Meditation is likely to help us by giving us larger perspectives and increasing clarity of thought. But although our sense of inner guidance might become stronger, unless we ACT on that guidance, we will never manifest the changes we truly want in our lives.

This doesn’t just mean we need to take action in our outer world, for example, having an honest conversation with a friend or paying a bill.

It also means we must actively request the assistance of the unconscious in a clear and persistent way. When you do that, as I teach in “Secrets of Meditation, Energy and Manifestation,” you find yourself magnetically drawn toward your dreams with an irresistible impulse.

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Secret #4:
Learn To Let Go
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Once you have made your request, it’s important that you let go. Don’t be concerned with HOW you’re going to get what you truly want in your life. Needing to know how can hamper the process of making it manifest in the outer world. Learn to trust your unconscious.

Some changes — perhaps all of them — will happen automatically. I have personally found that many of my destructive habits simply dropped away with minimal conscious effort.

For me, this was achieved not by self-discipline and will power, but rather a “letting go” and a realization that spiritual growth is a natural process powered by parts of ourselves that know more than we can understand consciously.

As we let go consciously and receive more input from these parts, we learn to trust this feeling, this feeling that we are in safe hands and that something amazing is about to happen.

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One slogan that may be useful to hold on to for your spiritual growth is “move on”. Even during one day so many things happen in which we can find ourselves getting stuck, getting caught up in conflict over or regretting! “Move on” is a great mantra for those who like adventure, risk-taking or simply daring to live, but then, no matter what the outcome, using those experiences to grow and… keep moving on!

To move on means to hold on to only the beauty and lesson of the moment. If we have taken pain or praise then it is assured we will not be able to move on. The pain anchors us in negativity and we lose the inner strength to see the meaning. Only, when we take the courage to look at the lesson, and the direction it is pointing us in, can we begin to free our self from that sorrow. To dwell on praise received can equally hinder our spiritual progress, interfering with recognition or full enjoyment of the next opportunity.

From this place of strength, we begin to appreciate and trust ourselves and attract others. We are not delicate, needing to be treated with velvet gloves! When we are strong enough to move on, it is a sign of maturity. Others then feel comfortable, working with and in relationship with us.

The best way forward is to imbibe the humility to accept and learn from the lesson of the experience. When we are unable to move on from a place of honesty it is because of ego. We feel wounded, insulted, betrayed, offended and much more. We then spend time staring at the wound rather than healing it with our strong and powerful thoughts. As we give ego more attention it continues to grow and becomes our controller, our master. It traps us in a cycle of fear and desire for revenge. We are stuck and the cycle repeats… and repeats!

Water is a wonderful example. Water naturally “moves on”, at times forging its way to the ocean, smoothing rocks, creating rivers and streams but sometimes also collecting in lakes or pools. When we are able to move on as fluidly and flowingly as water and not get stuck in a pool of negativity, we will indeed be merged in the ‘Ocean’, cleansed of our hurts, and experience pure freedom.

Om Shanti
(I am a peaceful soul)

Tel: +973-17-712 545, meditate@batelco.com.bh, www.bahrainmeditationcentre.org

Aruna is an international management development trainer, a teacher of meditation and a freelance writer currently based in Bahrain. She is also the director of the Bahrain Meditation Centre, which is administered by Brahma Kumaris, London, an international organisation with over 6000 centers in over 85 countries (http://www.bkwsu.org.uk) and she continues to coordinate various activities for them in the Middle East.

Aruna has spent the last 22 years focused on learning, living and teaching the art of self-development. As a lecturer and teacher of meditation she gained a wealth of experience working with the Brahma Kumaris, teaching meditation, values and ethics, positive thinking and creativity seminars.

Moving her base from London to Canada in the mid-90’s she turned her focus to the area of Conflict Resolution and began to arrange and conduct seminars on self-development subjects.

She brings together the three key strands of the new millennium -spirituality, management/leadership development, and continuous learning – in a unique blend of insight, wisdom and technique.

What does the appearance of The Fool mean for you when it appears in a Tarot spread?
Do you get excited or worried?
In this short article we explain what The Fool means when he appears in the Tarot.

The Fool is perhaps one of the most important tarot cards in the deck.
He is the first card of the Major Arcana, the first of 22 cards.
He is also the only one of the Major Arcana to remain in our modern card deck, appearing as the Joker.
His journey is at a deeper level the journey we are all on – the journey through life and life’s troubles, as no matter how old we are or what experiences we have been through we will still contine to find ourselves in areas where we are unsure, and vulnerable.

The Fool has appeared in many guises over the centuries in the different decks that have appeared.
In the Visconti Sforza deck he is seen looking a bit like a tramp without shoes in his stocking soles, and threadbare at that!
He carries a large stick or staff over his shoulder as though ready to commence a long journey.

In the Wirth deck he looks a bit like the court jester of old, and most like the forerunner of today’s joker in the traditional card deck.
He has however a cat with it’s teeth sunk into his left leg, and a crocodile in the distance. The picture on this card seems to indicate the urge of The Fool to get on with his journey in spite of all obstacles both past and future.
The Arthurian Tarot portrays The Fool as Parsifal who sought the mythic Holy Grail, and the Mythic deck depicts him as the Greek god Dionysus, wearing animal skins of many colours, and dancing gaily at the edge of a cliff.

No matter which deck we use the appearance of The Fool is a sign that we should follow our own path no matter what.
We need to have the courage to jump off the cliff into a new venture if that’s what is called for.
We need to have faith in our convictions no matter how hard this might be.

There are risks to everything in life and the appearance of The Fool in a spread is a great opportunity for a new beginning provided you are willing to make the jump!

Leonard Mutch is a writer with an interest in all things psychic and paranormal. He makes it easy to develop an understanding of The Tarot at his Tarot Cards website.