Simple practical weekly inspirations to improve various aspects of your thought patterns, emotions, habits and lifestyle.

A WORD, A THOUGHT, A QUESTION

Meditation can be as superficial or deep as the human mind, and focused on as many different objects as humans aspire to become. The most profound systems don’t cost a cent—like the air we breathe and the love we receive, they are the essence of life itself.This month, we dive in deep, to explore the many facets of meditation and intention. We hear from Daaji, Lynne McTaggart, Mirabai Bush, Ichak Adizes, Monica Verma-Vachery, and Senthil Viswanathan. We also have a visual celebration of meditation through the artworks of Narendra Kini. And to share some tips on general health and vitality we hear from ecologist, B. Rathinasabapathy, and nutritionist, Simonne Holm. And for our children, we have a great story on leadership qualities from Sara Bubber.We would love to hear from you, so please share your letters, articles, and stories with us at contributions@heartfulnessmagazine.com.&nbsp;

February 2025 Edition

<hr><h3 style="text-align:center;">SPIRITUAL PRACTICES AND ATTITUDES FOR MODERN LIVING</h3><hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">In the second episode of this new series on spiritual practices, DAAJI answers some of the most common questions he has received about meditation, starting with what meditation is. There are many types of meditation available today, so he explains why he recommends meditating on the heart, and the importance of heart-based meditation in taking us beyond the surface of our existence to more profound aspects of our being, bringing happiness and purpose to life.</h4><h4>What is meditation?&nbsp;</h4>The most common understanding of meditation is that you become the object of your meditation. You imbibe the qualities of that object. So, what is it that you truly want in this life? And if you are interested in the highest purpose of human life, what will be the object that leads you toward that highest purpose or universality?Often people ask me, “Daaji, why do you recommend meditating on the heart?”&nbsp; In response I say, “Would you try to feel with your feet? Can you feel with your liver or kidney? No. You can see things with your eyes, but the heart is the only instrument through which you can transcend your senses and your individual mind, to become one with the universality of existence.”So, the object of Heartfulness Meditation is union with the higher Self, the Source, through the heart, and that is the meaning and purpose of yoga. Only like can unite with like. Oil cannot mix with water. So in order to unite with the Source, you first need to become like the Source. It is possible because we all share that same divine Source, the essential aspect of our being.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">What is the source of divine Light that is the object of Heartfulness Meditation?</h4>So, you meditate upon the source of divine Light in your heart. On its own, the source is so subtle that it is incomprehensible. Light from the source is the closest concept we can take as an object of meditation. But there is no need to see any light. We call it “light without luminosity.” You can simply meditate on the idea and not on the light.While meditation is usually defined as thinking continuously about one object, this is actually the first step, the prelude to meditation, and it is known as&nbsp;Dharana in yoga. Meditation, or&nbsp;Dhyana, is far more interesting! Meditation is the process of diving deeper to experience the true nature of the object upon which you are meditating, in this case the divine Light from the source. Instead of just thinking about the source, you want it to reveal itself to you. Such revelation does not come as thought, but as initially as feeling, as experience.Meditation is a process by which you evolve from thinking to feeling. It is a journey from the complexity of the mind to the simplicity of the heart. It is largely for this reason that we involve the heart in meditation.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/on_meditation2_cf3aaac1b4.webp" alt="on-meditation2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_on_meditation2_cf3aaac1b4.webp 120w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_on_meditation2_cf3aaac1b4.webp 385w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_on_meditation2_cf3aaac1b4.webp 578w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Yet, even feeling has its limitations. In true meditation, you will go beyond feeling and experience to a state of oneness with the object of meditation, and eventually this dissolves into what is beyond that experience, the absolute ultimate essence of existence, which cannot be described. This is a sign of being in osmosis with the source.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">What is Transmission?</h4>The most fascinating aspect of Heartfulness is&nbsp;Pranahuti, also known as yogic Transmission. Transmission has been defined as “the utilization of divine energy for the transformation of a human being.” Here I am not speaking about physical transformation, as our bodies are limited by our genetic makeup. Instead, we refer to the transformation of our personality, our character, and our mental, intellectual, and ego spheres.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Meditation is a process by which you evolve from thinking to feeling. It is a journey from the complexity of the mind to the simplicity of the heart.</h4><hr>Eventually this transformation leads us into spiritual realms of existence. Transmission is the nourishment that allows such unlimited growth on the subtle, spiritual plane. To conceive of Transmission as energy is not completely correct, as energy belongs to the manifested world, the physical dimension, whereas Transmission is not measurable as energy by the standard model of physics. The mystic poet Kabir referred to the sound of “unstruck” music, meaning the music that emanates from a string or a drum that has not been struck. What is the kind of sound to which Kabir refers? He speaks not of the manifest world, but of the un-manifest, the Source from which we have all emerged. It is to this dimension that Transmission belongs, and its purpose is to uncover that same original, authentic state within each one of us that is at the Center of our being.We use the word “Transmission” because this subtle energy is transmitted from the heart of the trainer into the heart of the aspirant. Transmission does not require any physical contact, but is activated by the force of thought. As Swami Vivekananda wrote in his treatise,&nbsp;Raja Yoga, “Thought is a force, as is gravitation or repulsion. From the infinite storehouse of force in nature, the instrument called&nbsp;chitta (consciousness) takes hold of some, absorbs it and sends it out as thought.”Words can never capture the essence of the process of receiving Transmission. The attempt to grasp it intellectually is like trying to understand the taste of a mango or the fragrance of a jasmine flower without having ever experienced them. Transmission must be experienced to be known. Let it be your own inner experience, whatever you feel. There is no need to borrow someone else’s experience.Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.—Hermann Hesse&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/on_meditation3_9d73c48bf1.webp" alt="on-meditation3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_on_meditation3_9d73c48bf1.webp 238w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_on_meditation3_9d73c48bf1.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_on_meditation3_9d73c48bf1.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;<h4 style="text-align:justify;">How to handle the thoughts that occur during meditation?</h4>The mind is your friend, not your enemy. Just as the eyes are for seeing and the ears are for hearing, the mind is for thinking.Why would you wish to forcefully stifle its activity? There is a reason for the rush of thoughts that sometimes occurs during meditation. Think of what happens when you open a fizzy beverage: There is a rush of bubbles toward the surface. All the carbon dioxide that was trapped inside now escapes and the result is fizziness. If you leave the bottle standing for some time without its cap, all the gas escapes.&nbsp;Similarly, in meditation, if you keep your mind open, the thoughts and emotions that you have been accumulating inside may come out. You will experience their exit as a rush of thoughts. While this can be disturbing, the after-effect is one of stillness—as long as you do not add to the disturbance by worrying about the rush of thoughts. Therefore, the best practice is to treat thoughts as if they are like clouds passing in the sky. Do not entertain them, and do not try to forcefully remove them. Simply let them pass and, if necessary, remind yourself that you are meditating. If the disturbance is too great, you can open your eyes for a few seconds and look down, which will clear that condition.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">When I meditate, I often feel like I fall asleep. What should I do?</h4>Is it so easy to fall asleep in an upright pose in a matter of only a few minutes? Actually, in deep meditation your condition resembles that of a sleeping person, and it is known as a Samadhi-like state. You can easily understand whether you have been sleeping or meditating by observing how you feel afterward. If it were asleep you would feel groggy, whereas if it were deep meditation you would feel refreshed.As you progress, you will gain awareness within those deeper states of meditation. You are simultaneously awake and in a state of deep sleep. As this state develops further, you will find that in wakeful daily life, your thoughts and actions proceed so naturally, lightly, and even automatically, that you do not feel that you are actively bringing them about as their doer.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Is it best to meditate in a specific posture?</h4>The best pose for meditation is the one in which you are comfortable. In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, he writes, “Posture should be that which is steady and comfortable.” Your pose should be steady enough that you can hold it easily for the duration of your meditation. As <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-mind-according-to-patanjali" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Patanjali</a> points out, only a comfortable pose can truly be steady, otherwise you will fidget and be distracted by your discomfort.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/on_meditation4_470bb4f221.webp" alt="on-meditation4.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_on_meditation4_470bb4f221.webp 120w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_on_meditation4_470bb4f221.webp 385w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_on_meditation4_470bb4f221.webp 578w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;That being said, a cross-legged pose facilitates deeper meditation—if that cross-legged pose is comfortable. You can even sit on a chair and cross your legs at the ankles.It is also best to sit upright, but not rigidly. It is also fine to rest your back, but do not rest your head or you will fall asleep. Above all, remember that this is meditation and not gymnastics. The main purpose of the <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/a-silent-revolution-in-the-heartland-of-india" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">meditative pose</a> is to allow you to forget your body and go inward.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">For how long can I sit in meditation?</h4>The length of meditation is dictated by how you feel. If you are benefiting you will sit for longer. If you are feeling disturbed, it is a good idea to start with the Heartfulness Cleaning for 10 minutes, and then attempt meditation. If you are able to sink into deep meditation within a few minutes, then perhaps you only need to meditate for a short while. If it takes longer then sit for a longer period. There is no need to attempt to go into a state of deep absorption or Samadhi. Let it happen naturally without force. On some days you will achieve greater depth than others.Initially, try to meditate for at least 20 minutes daily, consistently. Then you may gradually increase the time to an hour as you find your rhythm. The only strict guidance is that meditation should not exceed one hour in duration.Meditating for too long creates mental pressure. If you have the time and inclination to meditate a second time, please do so, provided that you give a gap of at least fifteen minutes in between. There is no restriction on how many times a day you can meditate, as long as you do not neglect your duties.Ultimately, your lifestyle will become meditative. No matter what activity you are engaged in, you can remain meditative and centered within. The act of meditation triggers an ongoing meditative state, which supports all your activities.<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Is it best to meditate at any specific time of day?</h4>Meditating with regularity, at the same time ever day, makes meditation easier. It will become your natural inclination at that moment—just as taking breakfast at the same time daily makes you naturally hungry at that time. With regularity of timing, you will sink into deep meditation from the very moment you sit down. Regularity creates a biorhythm, establishing a biological clock within.Traditionally, we are advised to take advantage of certain times of day, which are especially conducive to meditation. Those times are the meeting point of night and day—just before dawn and at sunset. If you are unable to meditate at those times, try to meditate whenever possible. Regularity is important, no matter which time you choose for meditation.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/on_meditation5_3ee734163f.webp" alt="on-meditation5.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_on_meditation5_3ee734163f.webp 120w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_on_meditation5_3ee734163f.webp 385w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_on_meditation5_3ee734163f.webp 578w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Traditionally, we are advised to take advantage of certain times of day, which are especially conducive to meditation. Those times are the meeting point of night and day—just before dawn and at sunset.</h4><hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Can children meditate?</h4>Children from the age of five years can learn both the Heartfulness Relaxation and Heartfulness Prayer. Many children enjoy doing these practices, but there is also no need to force them.Those who have completed 15 years of age can learn the Heartfulness Meditation, as long as parents or guardians give permission if they are not legal adults.*Most of all, approach meditation with interest, enthusiasm, and a willingness to see where it takes you. That attitude will take you a long way!

On meditation

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">In this interview, MIRABAI BUSH is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the influence of spiritual practice on relationships and the healing of wounds like betrayal and loss. She also explores the interconnectedness of all beings and the impermanence of life through the lens of spiritual practice.</h4>&nbsp;PR: Welcome Mirabai. It’s lovely to have you with us again.MB: Thank you Purnima, for me too.PR:&nbsp;Today I’d like to ask you about how a spiritual practice can influence our relationship with others.MB: When I first learned meditation and other practices in the Buddhist tradition, which came out of a monastic setting, they were about sitting on the cushion, closing your eyes, and being with yourself. It had nothing to do with other people. And yoga was something you did with other people, but it wasn’t about relationships. There are old clichés about navel-gazing, and how contemplative practices cut you off from the world and others rather than connect you. Well, the truth is, some practices done in silence, like meditation, do leave you by yourself, even in a room with others. Through spiritual practice, though, you begin to recognize how you are interconnected with everything, including other people.As you learn to be at home in the space of awareness, you naturally recognize that it holds everything and that there is no other. We’ve been working on a new book, curating some of Ram Dass’s writings on interconnection, and we’re going to call it There Is No Other. Because, at this time, especially in the USA, but also in India, people are increasingly separating themselves from other groups. We know that treating others as if they are separate means they are not treated with the care, love, and respect we give to those we see as like us.Meditation, and other <a href="https://heartfulness.org/global/making-meditation-a-daily-habit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spiritual practices</a>, help us come home to awareness, show us that there is no other. This is something we begin to know ourselves. We don’t have to hear it from anyone else, though teachers help by reminding us of what we’re discovering inside.Also, practices of compassion, love, and kindness help in a specific way. Compassion is empathy. It is the ability to walk in another’s shoes and feel what they’re feeling. That’s the heart of compassion. Compassion also includes the desire to relieve another’s suffering, rejoice in their happiness (which can be difficult), and be moved to act in ways that ease their suffering. To do this, you need to be aware and empathic, knowing what another person is going through, and what their suffering is. You also need self-awareness.In dialogue and relationships, it’s important to understand what you’re bringing to the situation, as well as what the other person is bringing. That awareness comes from <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/4-pillars-of-self-development" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">self-awareness</a>. We all know times when we’re on automatic, bringing prejudgments to a situation. Seeing that is crucial. It allows you to see who the other person is, separate from who you want them to be, or what your biases are. These practices are directly and practically useful for creating good relationships and for truly being present, being here in this moment with others.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Compassion is empathy.&nbsp; It is the ability to walk in another’s shoes and feel what they’re feeling. That’s the heart of compassion.</h4><hr>I’m not making Ram Dass into a saint, but he taught me a lot about this. When I first traveled with him, he was already a teacher. People loved being with him, loved hearing what he said, and they were always happy talking to him. That seemed normal, and we took it for granted. At the airport, he’d go to the desk, and he would just be there, not saying anything special, not doing anything in particular, just being really present with the person behind the counter. And I’d notice how that person, while doing their job, would suddenly smile a little or seem genuinely happy handing him his ticket. It kept happening, over and over.How does that happen?It wasn’t about the particular person he encountered. Over time, I worked on it myself because it’s such a beautiful way to go through life. To have these moments with people you may never see again, with all kinds of people, as well as in your closest relationships. To have those moments of “here we are, doing our thing. This moment will never come again, let’s be here for it.” We can talk about that idea, but the ability to actually do it, to let everything else go and be fully present in the moment, comes through practice. In my experience, that’s what has helped me.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_more_powerful_death2_7afb87e782.webp" alt="love-more-powerful-death2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_love_more_powerful_death2_7afb87e782.webp 119w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_love_more_powerful_death2_7afb87e782.webp 382w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_love_more_powerful_death2_7afb87e782.webp 573w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;PR:&nbsp;Thank you. That’s really beautiful. I would like to ask you about the other side of a relationship: How do spiritual practices help heal wounds like betrayal, loss, and grief? It’s easy to discuss these ideas, but how do we truly heal the heart? Betrayal, loss, and broken trust happen not only in relationships with a spouse or partner, but also in friendships, professional connections, or any bond.MB:&nbsp;I was thinking about this before we got on this call, and some examples in my life came up, like a blues song by American blues singer Keb’ Mo’. He said, “I’m feeling like dust on an empty shelf.” I can remember feeling that way.The basic things a spiritual practice teaches us are: first, it’s all interconnected, and second, it’s all impermanent. Now, at 85, I can say everything is changing all the time. The message is to recognize that. Moments come and go, so many things in our lives come and go, and even within relationships, they’re always changing. Spiritual practice helps us let go of negative emotions, not repress them, but let them go and be here in this moment. Often, even if someone has left and your heart is broken, in this moment, everything’s okay. I’m here, I’m alive, and the future’s ahead of me.Self-awareness really helps with recovering from hard loss, seeing how much of it is real and how much you’re bringing to it. In a classic relationship: “Okay, he or she has left. He doesn’t love me anymore. He’s gone.”The whole issue of self-judgment is important. It’s not about stopping it, but seeing it as it arises and letting it go. Then continuing to see it and let it go. Self-compassion allows you to love yourself. Simple self-compassion meditations, like putting your hand on your heart and saying, “I’m having a hard time right now. Everyone suffers. I’m suffering now. I give myself the care and kindness I’d give a good friend if she were suffering,” can really help. Just breathing in and out that loving-kindness for yourself makes a difference.In recent years, I’ve worked a lot with grief and loss around death. I wrote Walking Each Other Home with Ram Dass, and I’m old, so people around me are dying. Every relationship ends in one way or another; ultimately, one person will die and that relationship, as it stands, will end. But loving relationships never truly end. When people die, the love remains within you. That being is there in a different way, you’re not alone. I’ve heard that before, but after losing so many close people, I’ve realized it’s true.I had a dream about Ram Dass after he died. We’d been friends for 50 years, and losing him was a huge loss. In the dream, we were sitting on cushions in a circle, waiting in silence. I leaned back and touched him, and I felt this warm, light feeling that everything was fine. He leaned back too and said, “I’m here.” That was the end of the dream. It felt like a confirmation that even when the loss is through death, the love and connection remain.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Spiritual practice helps us&nbsp; let go of negative emotions,&nbsp; not repress them, but let them go and&nbsp; be here in this moment.</h4><hr>Relationships of all kinds—romantic, familial, and friendships—benefit from appreciation and forgiveness. Compassion practice helps; recognizing that this person, like me, just wants to be happy, and they’re doing what they think will make them happy, even if it hurts me. And they’ve suffered too, just like me.We’re all doing the best we can with what we understand at the moment. That perspective helps. It’s not all about you, it’s also about them. I’ve been the person who left, and that’s hard too. Practice helps you not take yourself too seriously and see things as they are.PR:&nbsp;You spoke about loving and dying, about impermanence in relationships, and about feeling that the person is still with you. When we say affirmations, like, “Yes, my loved one is with me,” or think about someone who has passed, we do feel that connection. Sometimes we have had very little time with someone who is very loved, cherished, and close. I think about how that love carries forward, even if the time together was brief.MB:&nbsp;Grandparents and great-grandparents, for example, are very important. I am one too, a grandparent. I have one granddaughter, and my relationship with her is one of the most precious in my life, and I know it is for her too. And I know I’m going to die pretty soon before she does. When I started writing the book, I began thinking about how long people remember us after we die. I thought about my mother, who died 40 years ago, and tried to remember, what do I really remember about her? I have an idea of my mother, but how much do I actually remember?I used to run groups for women in spiritual practice, and we’d go around the group in the beginning. Each woman would say her name, her mother’s name, her grandmother’s name, as far back as she could go. Most women in this country couldn’t go past their grandmother’s first name. Immigration cut off a lot of family lines for various reasons. That made me realize that if Dahlia (my granddaughter) has a daughter in the future, that daughter probably won’t know my name. That hit me. How could that be? But it was true for so many women.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_more_powerful_death3_80b86eb3ff.webp" alt="love-more-powerful-death3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_love_more_powerful_death3_80b86eb3ff.webp 119w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_love_more_powerful_death3_80b86eb3ff.webp 382w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_love_more_powerful_death3_80b86eb3ff.webp 573w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">It’s important to know that&nbsp; we grieve because we’ve lost someone we love.&nbsp; Without love, there’s no grief.</h4><hr>So I asked: What practices can we do to keep the people we love alive, so what they brought into the world can continue to be a gift for the rest of us?In many cultures, they already do this, but I made a little altar. I put up pictures of the people I love who have died and promised to visit them every day, even if just for a moment, to remember. I put it in my meditation room, and every day I’d stop at the little table altar and look at each picture. What I found (and this is an aside, but it has to do with aging) was that in the beginning, there were about half a dozen pictures. By the end of the two years writing the book, there were so many pictures that I had to start another table. So many people were dying. Now there’s a crowd there. I have to go in and say hello to each one of them. A lot of times, we just have pictures around of people we love who have died, but I tried to make it more ritualistic, more formal, so it became a practice. I’m more likely to do it every day than just appreciating the pictures when I happen to see them.It’s important to know that we grieve because we’ve lost someone we love. Without love, there’s no grief. If someone dies who you don’t care about, they’re just gone. Grief is really about love, and that love doesn’t go away. You carry them in your heart, you just need to awaken it, to remember, for them to come alive within you. As I said, I’d heard those words in my life, but it wasn’t until I started losing people I really loved, people I didn’t want to lose, that I began to see grief as not a loss, but a transformation.Neem Karoli Baba Maharaj ji said, “Love is more powerful than death.” It turns out, the people we love stay alive in that love, even when their bodies die.I just finished writing a memoir because I wanted the stories to be there. We learn through stories. Also, grief is real. Just because it is only the body that dies doesn’t mean grief isn’t real. It’s different for everyone, because it depends on the whole relationship and past losses that resurface. It comes in surprising ways.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Neem Karoli Baba Maharaj ji said, “Love is more powerful than death.” It turns out, the people we love stay alive in that love, even when their bodies die.</h4><hr>It’s important not to feel, “I shouldn’t be grieving,” but to honor it. If you’re feeling sad, acknowledge it: “Yes, I’m feeling sad. People feel sad when they lose someone they love.”Honor that grief. Don’t repress it. Use the same self-compassion to see it, honor it, because it’s there for a reason. It’s there because you’ve loved someone so much, and it’s trying to find a new way to be with that being.PR:&nbsp;I like what you said: it’s a new way of being with your loved one. And it’s a very mature way of looking at it. I never thought of it like that. Thank you so much for this beautiful and insightful time we spent together.MB:&nbsp;Thank you, too.&nbsp;

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<h4 style="text-align:justify;">LYNNE McTAGGART is one of the central authorities on the new science of consciousness, and the award-winning author of seven books, including the internationally bestselling The Intention Experiment, The Field, The Bond, and The Power of Eight. Here, Lynne is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the transformative power of intention, the profound impact of group intention, and the potential for individuals to create significant change in their lives and the world.</h4>&nbsp;Q: Lynne, welcome. You are known for your pioneering work in the science of intention in <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-journey-of-total-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">consciousness and healing</a>. You’ve explored this science behind intention so deeply. Can you share how you personally define the power of intention?&nbsp;LM: Okay, well, first of all, it’s important to understand that our thoughts aren’t locked inside our heads. They’re trespassers, and they can go out and affect other people and things. We’ve seen that from countless studies on everything from single-celled organisms to human beings. In my own work, I’ve seen that we can affect everything from making plants grow faster, to purifying water, to lowering violence in war-torn and violent areas, and even healing people of things like post-traumatic stress disorder. And I’ve seen it in big groups and small groups. Essentially, thoughts are energy, just as everything else in the body is a collection of energy and energy fields of different varieties. And those thoughts can go out and affect things.I see an intention as a focused thought. You and I are having about 80,000 thoughts a day, and most of them are undirected, most of them are negative. And they oftentimes undermine our life because we’re focusing on negative outcomes, instead of intending for what we want.So, I always teach intention as a respectful and very specific request to the universe. And I find it gets amplified in small and large groups.Q: During your intention experiments, have you encountered any surprising results? Are there poignant moments, epiphanies, which have made you stop and think? What has defined or redefined your expectations of these intention experiments?LM: I think many of the peace intention experiments really surprised me. I wasn’t at all sure they were going to work when we started in 2007. We started with simple things, trying to affect the light emissions of a leaf. And then we moved on to seeds, trying to make them grow faster. And then we moved on to water, trying to purify water, then trying to lower violence in areas.My first experience of something mind-blowing was the seed experiments. I did my very first seed experiment in 2007 when I was speaking in front of an audience in Sydney, Australia. I worked with the University of California’s Dr. Gary Schwartz, a noted psychologist who has a special laboratory with the Laboratory for Consciousness and Human Evolution. He prepared four sets of seeds, each set with 30 seeds, and had his team photograph them and send them to me. And I showed these to the audience and allowed them to select one of the four seeds to send an intention to. So we sent an intention to seed group A for ten minutes. After we were done, I called Dr. Schwartz and told him we were done, but I did not tell him which seeds we sent the intention to. I told him as that was the cue for him to plant the seeds.Five days later they measured the seeds. After they’d measured them, I unblinded the study and told them which seeds we’d sent an intention to. And lo and behold, those seeds grew taller than any others.We did this five more times in different locations with different-sized audiences. And every single time the seeds that were sent an intention grew taller than the controls. But here’s the fascinating part—I was with my audience in Sydney, Australia, and the seeds were back in Tucson, Arizona, 8,000 miles away. Plus, we weren’t sending an intention to the seeds themselves, only to a photograph of the seeds, a symbolic representation of the seeds. So I realized from that very early time that we essentially create a psychic-internet when we make an intention in a group scattered around the globe. That I could see over and over again with the other intention experiments.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Essentially, thoughts are energy, just as everything else in the body is a collection of energy and energy fields of different varieties. And those thoughts can go out and affect things.</h4><hr>Another one that blew my mind was a Sri Lanka peace intention experiment we ran in 2008, when Sri Lanka was in the midst of a 25-year civil war. We did a peace intention for 10 minutes a day over eight days with 15,000 people participating from around the globe. Now, during that week, to my alarm, violence went up rather than down. And I had a professor of statistics doing the analysis. It then plummeted after that. But a more interesting thing happened. The government won a few decisive battles during that week that turned around the entire course of the war. For some time, both sides had been at a stalemate. Then, within a few months, the government was able to take back the north, which was held by the rebel forces. And a few months later, that 25-year intractable war was over.Now, did we do this? Well, it turned out that during the week of our intention pivotal battles occurred, and that was cause for an extraordinary surprise. When you do one experiment like that, it means nothing. There are too many variables in a war. But when you keep doing it and keep getting results, as we’ve done with peace intention experiments, they start becoming interesting.For instance, in 2017, we ran an experiment to lower violence in St. Louis, Missouri, officially the most violent place in America. And we chose a neighborhood called Fairground that was the most violent of all. We had very accurate police data. I once again asked Dr. Jessica Utz from the University of California to analyze data from several years beforehand to six months afterward, to look at the effect of our intention. She found that violence had been going up in all areas of St. Louis, and continued to go up everywhere except the neighborhood we intended where violence went down by 43%. And so it’s happened over and over again.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp" alt="intention-revolution2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 110w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 353w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 529w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">I always teach intention as a respectful and very specific request to the universe. And I find it gets amplified in small and large groups.</h4><hr>Perhaps the one that amazed me the most is an intention experiment I did that same year, at the end of 2017, with eight Arab cities and a large audience of Israeli Jews. I had special equipment so we could put cameras in eight different locations in Arab cities. Each different Arab city had an audience there. And the ninth camera was with an audience of Israeli Jews. I asked them all to make an intention to lower violence in an area of Jerusalem that was suffering from a high degree of violence.Before that, I had to broker the entire thing, as nobody was speaking to anyone else. They started talking, because I could call on the different places. They would talk to me, and then they would also communicate with the people in all the other locations. And they started sending love to each other, they started sending “Your God is my God,” talking about beautiful visions of people coming together from both sides. There was a big love fest. I found that every time I put together polarized and hated enemies, they seemed to come together after these intention experiments.Since 2008, I’ve run 41 intention experiments, and 37 have shown measurable significantly positive effects. I also surveyed the people involved, and for those who responded, about 40% have reported more peace in their own lives. They’re getting along better with estranged partners or parents or children. They’re getting along better with bosses and coworkers. They’re feeling more love for everybody, and around 50% consistently report they feel more love for everyone they meet.Essentially, they’re hugging strangers and peaceful things happen in their lives. Also, about one-third have reported an improvement in a health condition or a downright cure. So that is the biggest and most amazing effect, the mirror effect of these intentions: the people who are sending intentions are being healed as much as the targets.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">So that is the biggest and most amazing effect,&nbsp; the mirror effect of these intentions:&nbsp; the people who are sending intentions&nbsp; are being healed as much as the targets.</h4><hr>Q: I was blown away by the seed experiment. How has the scientific community embraced this, or conversely, what are the challenges you’ve faced to try to share this with them?&nbsp;LM: I'm not interested in the scientific community because they aren’t going to accept it. Scientists are supposed to be explorers and very few of them really are. There are a lot of reasons for that. People lose their positions at universities for stepping out of the accepted paradigm. So I don’t need to convince scientists. There are enough scientists who are true explorers, who are fascinated by my work, and who have helped to measure the work.I work with people at prestigious universities to run the intention experiments—Princeton, Penn State, University of California, University of Arizona, and others in Europe. I choose people who are open-minded enough to do decent research.There are skeptic organizations who attack my work, but they attack it in the flimsiest of ways. My book, The Field, had more than 400 solid scientific references. I had interviewed exhaustively—frontier physicists, biologists, etc.—and had them check every last fact in that book to make sure I had written it correctly. The skeptics have said the book was based on nothing more than Star Wars, which is just incorrect, close-minded, and ignorant.So, I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in getting this information out to people so they can understand that we have extraordinary capabilities waiting to be unleashed, and we are very different from what we are told in mainstream orthodox science.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp" alt="intention-revolution3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 214w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Orthodox science is only 300-plus years old, and new studies and discoveries are being found in universities, in little pockets of academia here and there, that are completely transforming the way we think about ourselves and our world. And we’re far greater than we’ve been told!Q: Thank you for that very candid response. For someone who’s intrigued by your work, who’s curious about your work, and who wants to start applying this <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/how-to-manifest-peace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">power of intention</a> in their own life, how can they begin?LM:&nbsp;They can join my community and my website. When they join, they receive some basic tools and information about how to do intention and how to form a group. They can also read my books. <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-intention-revolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Power of Eight</a>, the last book published on this topic, has basic descriptions of how to do intention in a group. For people who really want to learn more, I have a whole series of foundation courses.I also have a <a href="https://lynnemctaggart.com/courses/intention-masterclass/the-power-of-eight-intention-masterclass-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">year-long masterclass</a>, my kingpin course, where I work with people live and interactively for a year. Participants start working in groups after six weeks, and each group meets once a week. Under my instruction, they use intention for relationships, for health and healing, for finances and career, and for life purpose. There’s specific information and instructions, and I coach them throughout the year.So there are all kinds of things at all kinds of price points, including free, and every intention experiment is free. I feel everybody should be able to participate.Recently, Gaia released a documentary about my work with large and small groups, The Power of Eight, plus the intention experiments. They interviewed the various scientists who’ve worked with me, and numerous people who have had extraordinary healings with The Power of Eight, too. And it will culminate in an intention on February 1, 2025. I’m going to have a live audience at Gaia’s headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, and we’re also going to livestream it around the world.It's an invitation. So everyone can take part by going to <a href="https://lynnemctaggart.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://lynnemctaggart.com</a>, where there are instructions.Q: I am really looking forward to it.To be continued.

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<h4 style="text-align:justify;">CHRISTIANNA DEICHMANN is the Director of Education at the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH), where she educates both professionals and parents on fostering the most nurturing environments for welcoming new life into the world. She is based in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. With a multidisciplinary approach, Christianna blends Craniosacral Therapy, massage, and prenatal and perinatal psychology into her holistic practice. Her work uniquely combines science and spirituality.</h4><h4 style="text-align:justify;">In part 2 of this interview, Christianna continues to shares her expertise with DR. SNEHAL DESHPANDE, a Developmental Therapist, PPNE, and the Director of Heartfulness Family Connect Programs, offering a rich dialogue on Birth Trauma and Obstetrical Intervention.</h4>&nbsp;Q: Christianna, when fostering the connection between mother and newborn baby, how can we recognize signs of PTSD in both? Mothers and babies may be experiencing these problems without even realizing it. Often, it’s an issue of connectivity, where mothers feel overwhelmed but don’t recognize the root cause. In what ways might these expressions of PTSD manifest or be felt, particularly when the bond is disrupted?<ul class="todo-list"><li style="text-align:justify;"><label class="todo-list__label"><input type="checkbox" disabled="disabled">CD: Babies communicate with us through their bodies. They communicate to us with their cries. And I see all the time that people are just not aware that babies are conscious and sentient, that they have emotions. Maybe they’re the most basic emotions, but they’re the key emotions. Am I safe? Am I loved? Do I have the right to have needs and have somebody care for me? Do I have the right to feel supported? And society has it that babies are not conscious. Our fast paced life is not attuned to the sacredness or the holiness of human development. So the first thing that you can do in order to connect more is to connect with yourself through <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/mindfulness-heartfulness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mindfulness practices</a>, mind-body practices, and slowing down.</label></li></ul>The easiest thing is to breathe. We don’t even breathe consciously. When we consciously breathe, three deep breaths reset the nervous system. As a mother, when you are feeling a little overwhelmed, let your baby know, just as if they’re an older person. Think that they understand because they do. And say, “I’m overwhelmed right now, but this isn’t your fault. This is just me having my own personal feelings. You can let that go.” When you have that kind of two-way conversation with your baby, whether in the womb or right after the birth, it takes a lot of anxiety off your shoulders. You will recognize that your child understands you and really just wants to love you.There’s a lot of need for education about how babies communicate and what their cries mean. Babies have different types of cry for different needs. Mothers can come to understand what those cries are for. Usually if their physical needs are taken care of—you've given them food, you’ve changed their diaper, they’re in comfortable clothes—and they are still crying, then there’s something emotional happening and the emotional needs of the baby have to be addressed. They have a story to tell. I envision a day when we have a world where mothers have returned to the understanding that birth matters and the story that happened continues even after they’re born. It takes time for them to heal from that trauma and all they want to do is share it with somebody.You asked how we know that mothers have postpartum depression or anxiety. There’s lack of sleep, you feel really frustrated, you’re overwhelmed, you’re angry, you don’t want to deal with anything, or you just want to disappear. These are all signs that you need more support. It is the biggest thing we need to do in the postpartum world. In olden times, it took a village. There’d be a circle of women around a mother, and they would mother the mother after she gave birth, so she could focus on recovering the outpouring of chi, her life force. She could focus on her baby and have the team of people around her cooking, cleaning, doing rituals to restore her body, and that for the large part doesn’t happen today. Our postpartum care is mostly to take the baby out of the home in the car to the doctor’s office to check their weight. If you want my opinion, doctors should be making house calls to our most vulnerable population, so mothers don’t have to leave the sacred hearth of their home for those first 40 days after birth. There’s so much disruption that can happen just in the simple journey to go to the doctor’s office in those first few weeks.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">It takes time for them to heal&nbsp; from that trauma and all they want to do is share it with somebody.</h4><hr>Q: &nbsp;In the past, the way we welcomed babies was beautiful and made them feel wanted. What you’re discussing is a continuation of that tradition, which is truly remarkable. I have a question related to Kendall-Tackett’s research. How do you think her work has influenced the current understanding and treatment approaches for PTSD related to birth trauma?CD: I love Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, she’s brilliant! She focused on symptoms women were experiencing from seemingly simple things like breastfeeding. Through her research, we’ve come to understand that when a mother is unable to breastfeed, or if the initial bond between mother and baby is interrupted, there’s a domino effect of symptoms that can appear in both. Kathleen realized that these symptoms resemble PTSD. Women could have flashbacks to their birth experience, break out in sweats, and experience thyroid issues, which are quite common among postpartum women. Anxiety, disrupted sleep patterns, and other signs also emerge.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Our fast paced life is not attuned to the sacredness or the holiness of human development.&nbsp; So the first thing that you can do in order to connect more&nbsp; is to connect with yourself through mindfulness practices,&nbsp; mind-body practices, and slowing down.&nbsp;</h4><hr>Kathleen found that many mothers experience these symptoms without getting help, and often they don’t voice their struggles due to societal expectations that they should “just deal with it.” The nuclear family model and the prevalence of single motherhood mean women often don’t have enough support.Today, women are managing full-time jobs, marriages, and motherhood, which are each huge responsibilities, but they’re doing it without the support of a village. This stress has been shown through scientific evidence to be a toxic, detrimental factor during pregnancy, leading to mental health issues, obesity, and other health problems. Kathleen Kendall-Tackett helped lift the veil, showing the scientific community and psychologists that our most vulnerable population—babies—are coming into a world where their mothers are under-supported and burdened with overwhelming stress on their nervous systems.Q: It’s clear that we need to start building communities because, as the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. We need to take care of these beautiful souls and create a shift in both mindset and community. So how do different healing modalities such as Craniosacral Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and Body-Mind-Spirit Awareness help with recovery from birth trauma? And do you think integrating Heartfulness practices into prenatal care can help prevent birth trauma?CD: I believe people should start Craniosacral Therapy even before planning to get pregnant. It helps clear the nervous system and return to what we call the “zero point field” or the original blueprint. It’s similar to Heartfulness practices. If we teach people how to reflect on their day and take regular breaks with <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/asana-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mind-body exercises</a>, like breathing, we can slow the nervous system and align ourselves with natural rhythms. Craniosacral Therapy is one example, but we now have biofeedback and many psychosomatic and energetic modalities that help individuals enter more conscious states—where they are open, curious, and connected to their heart.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/sacredness_human2_12c0b984b2.webp" alt="sacredness-human2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_sacredness_human2_12c0b984b2.webp 159w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_sacredness_human2_12c0b984b2.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_sacredness_human2_12c0b984b2.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">This, I believe, is the best way to deal with today’s challenges—by going within,&nbsp; learning who we really are, and knowing what truly matters to us.</h4><hr>It’s an exciting time to be alive, as quantum physics is now influencing therapeutic modalities, offering tools for all of us to return to our inner selves. This, I believe, is the best way to deal with today’s challenges—by going within, learning who we really are, and knowing what truly matters to us. The more we do this, the more creative and productive we become. I love integrating Heartfulness because anyone can do it, and it can be a daily practice for everyone. In the United States, the HeartMath Institute is showing us the benefits of creating brain-heart coherence, and that’s what Heartfulness is about—connecting mind and body, macrocosm and microcosm, by going within to find the answers that are already inside us.Q: Thank you so much, Christianna, for being with us and braodening our awareness.&nbsp;

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<h4 style="text-align:justify;">DAAJI offers us a guide to daily living and human transformation. This series is based on a book written more than 75 years ago, by Ram Chandra, called Commentary on the Ten Maxims of Sahaj Marg, which is still relevant for anyone wishing to evolve to their highest potential in today’s world.</h4><h4>Origins</h4>Some 75 years ago, a holy man in a remote town in Uttar Pradesh in the north of India decided to to put into words some amazing truths that he had received through direct perception from the universe. As a result, he came up with a method by which people could completely transform themselves and reach the highest level of consciousness possible, and go beyond. This method was based on taking the essence of the ancient practices of Raja Yoga, and modifying them for the present era of humanity. His name was Ram Chandra, and we know him today as Babuji.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/babuji_5a8f005eed.webp" alt="babuji.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_babuji_5a8f005eed.webp 115w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_babuji_5a8f005eed.webp 369w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Here is the preface to his first book, Commentary on the Ten Maxims of Sahaj Marg, which was originally written in the Urdu language, and has now been translated into over 30 languages worldwide:<h4>A Word</h4>In this book I have endeavored to put up in words those spiritual secrets which have up till now come down from heart to heart. But since they relate to direct perception, which depends upon the study of Nature and can be revealed by means of vibrations, it is not only difficult, but almost impossible to express them adequately in words.“True love cannot be expressed by words. This is the very reality which is inexplicable in any way.”In this respect, I may therefore say that it is proper for the readers to try to reach up to the real spirit, ignoring the defects of expression and language, and be profited, and help others to be profited by it.Ram Chandra 8 December 1946He was eager to share this knowledge with everyone, to help us all experience those elevated states of consciousness that he had experienced. Being a householder he knew that <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/spirituality-in-daily-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spirituality</a> and materiality are like the two wings of a bird, and no one can soar on one wing alone. He was a humble man of simple means, but in the spiritual field he was a giant, the like of whom no one had seen before. His concern was not for himself, or for humanity alone, but for the whole universe. In order to bring positive change, peace and growth to suffering humanity, he knew that inner transformation was needed. He had developed a simple method that was easy to practice, and that was available to everyone, irrespective of culture, race, age, class, religious belief, education, and sex.<h4>Direct perception through superconsciousness</h4>The discoveries Babuji made were simple but revolutionary in the field of consciousness, much like the discoveries that Einstein made a few years earlier in the field of physics. In some ways these two men were alike. Their greatest ideas came to them through direct perception or inspiration. More importantly, unknown to each other, they were both exploring similar phenomena—one from the perspective of spirituality and the other from the perspective of science. Through his now famous equation E=mc2, Einstein proposed the interchangeable nature of mass and energy, creating tremors in the world of science. But Einstein was limited to the manifested world of physics. Babuji was able to express the inexpressible, and he gave us an understanding that transcends the aspect of interchangeability of mass and energy, writing in a letter to one of his associates:The energy itself in the long run returns to the Absolute—the cause of the power. The whole of matter, every particle of the body, becomes energy and then goes to its absolute.Einstein only knew the method to convert mass into energy, and not beyond it. In short, I can say that energy can also be converted into mass and this is a very easy job.Having only studied up to high school level in rural India, Babuji would not have been taken seriously by those scientists in the evolving field of quantum physics, yet the discoveries he made through direct perception were literally mind-blowing. He not only perceived directly that matter and energy were different vibrational states of the same manifestation, but that consciousness was the basic stuff of creation: Everything created since the Big Bang has emanated from consciousness.There is a sweet story of a meeting between Babuji and a physicist in London in 1972, through a mutual friend. The physicist did not consider Babuji worth listening to, as an uneducated simple man from rural India, until Babuji proceeded to describe to him in detail the intricate structure and movement of the particles in an atom. The physicist was astounded and asked Babuji how he knew this, to which Babuji replied, “I penetrated matter and I have described to you what I observed.”&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/introduction2_4f58b14f82.webp" alt="introduction2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_introduction2_4f58b14f82.webp 245w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_introduction2_4f58b14f82.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_introduction2_4f58b14f82.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;During this same period, quantum scientists were spooked by the observer effect—the fact that an observer can affect the outcome of an experiment. Some held the view that it could be because everything is fundamentally made up of consciousness, so the consciousness of the observer will influence the consciousness of the object of the experiment. This idea did not initially go down well with the scientific community and even today scientists are divided on this issue.The subject of consciousness is now being researched and debated not only by scientists, but also by people in all fields and walks of life. We have come full circle, in fact, as this was also the case in ancient times in many cultures.<h4>The discovery of the Center and the mapping of consciousness</h4>In the meantime, back in the 1940s, Babuji not only demonstrated that we can change our consciousness by a special <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/become-faster-emotions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">method of meditation</a> on the heart, utilizing Pranahuti or yogic Transmission, he also went on to discover and map the various incremental levels of consciousness, and what lies beyond consciousness.Spiritual scientists from ancient India were familiar with the seven chakra system of energy consciousness, and most believed that the crown chakra was the pinnacle of spiritual achievement. Babuji was to change all that. Along with his teacher, another great sage of the 19th and 20th centuries, Lalaji, they together described a more complete chakra system, culminating in the 16th chakra, which Babuji called the Central Region, the source of everything. They had opened human awareness to an entirely different dimension of existence.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/introduction3_f306287e27.webp" alt="introduction3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_introduction3_f306287e27.webp 204w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_introduction3_f306287e27.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_introduction3_f306287e27.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/introduction4_b33ec8246f.webp" alt="introduction4.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_introduction4_b33ec8246f.webp 245w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_introduction4_b33ec8246f.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_introduction4_b33ec8246f.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/introduction5_ec9163f705.webp" alt="introduction5.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_introduction5_ec9163f705.webp 164w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_introduction5_ec9163f705.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_introduction5_ec9163f705.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Lalaji transmitted the knowledge of the Central Region to Babuji, and also taught him the techniques to master that Region. Based on his own personal research and experience, Babuji then mapped the stages of consciousness, from the most solid levels of matter to the Center. This was the first time in the history of humankind that anyone was able to accomplish such a task.<h4>Meditation is a quantum experiment</h4>Babuji taught a simple method of meditation on the heart, rooted in the ancient traditions of Raja Yoga, yet simplified and modified to meet the needs of modern life. He explained why meditation is the best way to change and expand consciousness. And unlike traditional methods of yoga that took years of austere practice to bring the mind to balance, Heartfulness gave instantaneous results, because of the revolutionary use of Pranahuti.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/introduction6_4f295ef50e.webp" alt="introduction6.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_introduction6_4f295ef50e.webp 234w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_introduction6_4f295ef50e.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_introduction6_4f295ef50e.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;What happens in meditation? In the last fifty years, scientists have made impressive strides in understanding how meditation impacts our physiology, especially the brain. This has been made possible by advancements in measuring technology, like brain scanning and its ability to pinpoint what function of the brain is improved with meditation. Some of the conclusions are that meditation reduces stress, improves sleep, reduces blood pressure, improves learning and memory, and increases happiness. The human brain is an amazingly complex system and science has only taken small steps in understanding it.Yogic scientists have known the value of meditation since ancient times. They knew about the observer effect long before science figured it out. In fact ancient texts like the Vedas and Upanishads could describe the various stages of consciousness in meditation that correlate with the brain waves now identified by EEG machines at each stage. For example, the ultimate depth of meditation, a stage called Samadhi in yoga, correlates with the very slow delta waves produced by the brain during deep sleep. Typically it takes many years of meditation to achieve a deep delta state, but Babuji enabled his students to experience Samadhi when they first started meditating.Each one of us transmits his or her vibration to the universe, and an evolved master of caliber, who is in osmosis with the Center, can transmit the essence of that Center, Pranahuti, into the heart of a student, thus enabling the student to advance faster and more effectively. This is what happens in the Heartfulness tradition.Yogic scientists also recognized the role of the Central Nervous System in a much wider context than just the brain. The heart, the spinal cord, the connection between heart and brain as two aspects of the spectrum of consciousness, and the consciousness at the cellular and atomic levels, have all been vital components of physiology in yogic science, which modern scientists are now starting to understand.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Each one of us transmits his or her vibration&nbsp; to the Universe, and an evolved Master of caliber,&nbsp; who is in osmosis with the Center, can transmit the essence of that Center, Pranahuti, into the heart of a student, thus enabling the student to advance faster and more effectively.&nbsp; This is what happens in the Heartfulness tradition.</h4><hr>Babuji perfected the method of Heartfulness and the science of yogic Transmission as a means to help human beings evolve through the various incremental stages of consciousness. But he was equally clear that this was not enough. Without working on personal development and character, this would lead nowhere, as there would be no integration of the physical, mental and spiritual bodies of the human being. Spiritual transformation is an internal transformation of the vibrational field of consciousness, whereas personality transformation is equally important for the process to be complete.As a result, his first book, Commentary on the Ten Maxims of Sahaj Marg, is a practical guide for both—how to live our lives in harmony on a daily basis. The maxims follow the 24-hour daily cycle, starting with waking in the morning, and finishing with going to sleep at night, guiding us in all areas of living. For that reason, this series is called “Heartful Living.”It &nbsp;may surprise you to know that at the time Babuji wrote his book on the Ten maxims in the 1940s, there were just a handful of books published in the area of self-help, including the hugely popular Self-Help by Samuel Smiles, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Babuji was the first author in this era to give us a comprehensive guide to living by incorporating the five key elements of self-development: an effective practice, essential values, regulative behavior, leadership, and continuous improvement (see diagram 1). Within those five elements there are also ten principles. Even today, only a handful of books offer such a rich and all-encompassing road map to a fulfilling life.<h4>The five elements and ten principles of self-development</h4>The ten principles for living follow a daily cycle and inherent sequence, which unfolds like a flowering. At the center of this unfolding is the practice. It is the practice that triggers the flowering of consciousness. And it is the first thing that we do in the morning, preparing us for the day, setting the tone, and centering us for what is to happen. As consciousness expands, and purity and simplicity emerge, we are able to peek into our essential nature and start relaxing into our inner being. Our thoughts and actions are then guided by the essential values of the heart.The next segment of &nbsp;the unfoldment is behavior. When we are established in the state of being, our behavior resonates with that state. As being and doing reinforce each other, our consciousness evolves naturally to a level where we want to help others. Hence the capacities and qualities of leadership unfold naturally. The last segment of the unfoldment is continuous improvement which consists of daily review and corrective action before sleeping at night. This framework is dynamic and fluid. All the segments are co-emergent and seamless. It is holistic, a complete system, a living guidance. As we grow, our work itself becomes our teacher.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/introduction7_d15486016e.webp" alt="introduction7.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_introduction7_d15486016e.webp 161w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_introduction7_d15486016e.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_introduction7_d15486016e.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/introduction8_1e07863a37.webp" alt="introduction8.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_introduction8_1e07863a37.webp 125w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_introduction8_1e07863a37.webp 402w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_introduction8_1e07863a37.webp 603w," sizes="100vw"></figure>

dec24-introduction.webp

Heartful Living

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">MELISSA CONNELLY is an author and therapist. Her recent novel, What Was Lost, explores trauma and redemption, risk taking and self-care, shame and acceptance. Here she shares her experience as a new writer and the importance of sharing story.</h4>&nbsp;My novel, What Was Lost, concerns two traumatic events in the main protagonist's life: Marti is disfigured by an accident when she’s seven years old, and at age fourteen her art teacher grooms and sexually abuses her, leading to a pregnancy. It’s a dark, disturbing journey for Marti as she confronts her history.I’ve worked as a child therapist, but I’m no expert on trauma, any more than anyone else is. As Marti says, “Everyone has their own trauma.” No one gets through life unscarred. Of course, there are degrees; some people suffer and survive inconceivable tragedies and heartbreaks repeatedly throughout their lives. Others seem beaten down by the smallest of occurrences. We sometimes call these people complainers. But there’s no reason to judge someone’s inability to get back up. Even if what’s upsetting them seems minor to us, it’s their reality; they feel what they feel. Some crumble whereas others rise. It could be because of a history of neglect, abuse, or early childhood trauma. Or it could be their chemical makeup. People can be blessed with resiliency, and others not so much. Feel lucky if you have grit; it's a kind of hell without it.One thing my own experiences have taught me is that just like we’re doomed to repeat history if we don’t learn from it, we’re doomed to live in trauma if we don’t confront it. It can be too much to deal with initially, and sometimes we’re given the grace of shock for a while. But eventually it needs to be faced or it will linger in some deep, musty corner of your core and come out and smack you when you least expect it.Marti tries to lessen her trauma’s impact by replicating the experience through dangerous choices she makes. This is common among sexual abuse victims: “It’s okay. Didn’t affect me. See? I did it again!” She also tries to stay with her abuser. She does this because her shame is so great that she feels safe only with him. As contrary as this seems, it’s common among victims. It’s why sexual and physical abusers are often let off the hook. She stayed with him, so it couldn't be that bad.I’ve lived through traumatic events in my life and one of the ways I coped was to talk about the experience. The more I shared every single, perhaps hard-to-hear, little detail, the more my hurt dissipated. But Marti doesn’t have that luxury. She feels complicit in her abuse. Shame births the secret, and that secret shame is how perpetrators get away with their actions.Someone said to me, “Your memoir is coming out?” I corrected them, “No it's a novel.” They responded, “It’s autobiographical though, right? Aren’t all first novels?” I've received many comments like that, and have felt a strong urge to correct them. There are some parallels in my life to Marti’s—I left home and high school very young, just as Marti does. But her story isn’t mine; I wasn’t sexually abused by a teacher at fourteen.I wanted to correct this impression because I felt Marti’s shame. This realization made me sad and a little disappointed in myself. After all, I wrote the story to show there’s no shame in it. My discomfort gives me a small taste of what it’s like to walk in her shoes and now I feel a greater need to defend Marti.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Writing is cathartic even when it isn’t your story,&nbsp; because in some ways it always is.&nbsp; It's the human story.</h4><hr>My defense is both arrogant and unnecessary; Marti defends herself just fine. After burying her experiences for thirty long years, she faces them. She grows from victim to survivor. And now that Marti is launched in the world, I need to go on my own journey of acceptance, by allowing people to assume it’s my story. I wrote it and so I own it.&nbsp;I’m growing alongside Marti into a new understanding of the issues I wrote about—and of myself—as I advocate for the troubling, unsettling book I’ve written. Writing is cathartic even when it isn’t your story, because in some ways it always is. It's the human story.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:25%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/writer_transference2_51e2a259a4.jpg" alt="writer-transference2.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_writer_transference2_51e2a259a4.jpg 101w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_writer_transference2_51e2a259a4.jpg 323w," sizes="100vw"></figure>