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How to Awaken Your True Potential

How to Awaken Your True Potential

The Wisdom of Yogananda
by Paramahansa Yogananda 2016 168 pages
4.63
72 ratings
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Key Takeaways

1. Awaken Your Divine Birthright: You Are Infinite.

You are all gods, if you only knew it.

Beyond Limitation. Come out of the closed chamber of limitation and breathe in vital thoughts, exhaling discouragement and hopelessness. Never suggest human limitations to your mind, but constantly remind yourself, "I am the Infinite, which has become the body." Take long mental walks on the path of self-confidence and feast unstintingly on creative thinking.

Inner Reservoir. Cultivate the habit of meditation, which is the inner switch to connect with the Infinite. By holding onto the peaceful after-effects of meditation, feeling immortality in the body, and sensing God’s bliss beneath life’s experiences, the soul finds perpetual rejuvenation. You will discover yourself to be a reservoir of power in body, mind, and soul.

Claim Your Truth. Look within, for behind the wave of your consciousness is the sea of God’s presence. Claim your Divine Birthright and awaken to behold the glory of God. This vision of your true self frees you from limiting thoughts and behaviors, leading to inner freedom and bliss.

2. Master Your Destiny by Controlling Habits.

It is lamentable to be compelled to do evil against one’s will because of the strength of an evil habit, and then to have to suffer for one’s evil actions.

Self-Imposed Prison. Whatever you have made yourself in the past, that is what you are now, controlled by the invisible traces of your own past actions. You have ordered your own punishments or rewards through the law of cause and effect, but now is the time to parole yourself from the prison of undesirable habits. If you are ready to liberate yourself, no jail of suffering, poverty, or ignorance can hold you.

Willpower vs. "Won't" Power. Habit is an automatic mental mechanism, making actions easier, but wrongly used, it becomes an archenemy, attracting evil and misery. If you lack willpower, develop "won't" power by firmly refusing temptations and immediately removing yourself from tempting situations. Remember, you must be the boss of yourself, not a victim of wrong habits.

Burning Out Grooves. Failures should act as stimulants, not poisons; persevere one minute more, no matter how many times you have failed. In meditation, the mind withdraws life force from muscles and nerves, concentrating it in brain cells where evil mental habits are grooved. This concentrated life energy burns out those grooves, making meditation the only way to all-round freedom and lasting success by consciously contacting God.

3. Conquer Negativity: Fear, Worry, and Self-Pity.

Fear is a mental poison, unless it is used as an antidote—a stimulus to spur a person on to calm caution.

Poisonous Thoughts. Oversensitivity and self-pity are addictions that eat into the fibers of your peace, disconnecting you from divine harmony. Fear intensifies physical pain and mental agonies a hundredfold, destroying courage, judgment, and will power, and drawing to itself the very objects of fear. Materialism, too, brings only temporary pleasure followed by sorrow, obscuring the soul's golden luster.

Active Resistance. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, affirm, "There are no obstacles. There are only opportunities!" When threatened, use fear as a goad for calm, cautious activity to find practical solutions, rather than letting it throttle your creative powers. Divert your mind from haunting fears by turning attention to absorbing books or harmless amusements, then root out the causes of failure and ill health.

Worry Fasting & Calmness. To overcome worry, go on a "worry fast" by refusing to feed your mind with fresh worries and drinking copiously from the fresh waters of peace. Cultivate peace, calmness, and cheerfulness, for these dispel nervousness and allow you to realize your oneness with God. Remember, you are not this flesh but the Spirit behind the flesh, safe behind God's eternal safety.

4. Cultivate Good Habits with Focused Attention.

It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas but your everyday habits that control your life.

Strategic Replacement. If a bad habit bothers you, avoid its stimuli without concentrating on it, then furiously engage your mind in cultivating a good habit until it becomes a part of yourself. Good habits are your greatest friends, while bad habits are your mortal enemies, compelling you to do things that hurt you. Starve bad habits by refusing them the food of bad actions.

Attention's Power. Perform every action, whether insignificant or important, with quick, alert attention, remembering that attention is the needle that cuts grooves in your memory cells. Deep, alert attention with feeling is crucial for forming strong, persistent mental habits of health, prosperity, and wisdom. Guard the gate of your mind, allowing only noble and uplifting experiences into your memory's reservoir.

Spiritualizing Life. Cultivate the habit of contacting superior soul joy immediately upon awakening, then enjoy harmless pleasures without attachment, spiritualizing all material enjoyments. The purpose of self-control is a spiritual business proposition designed to bring the greatest happiness, allowing the latent, everlasting joy of Spirit within you to germinate and flourish. True freedom lies in acting from right judgment, not from the compulsion of habits.

5. Harness the Creative Power of Your Mind.

Mind is the source of all your troubles and all your happiness.

Mind's Supremacy. You are stronger than all your tests, possessing unlimited power that you must cultivate. Never allow your mind to entertain thoughts of illness or limitation, for mind is the power creating your body, and a weak mind leads to a weak body. Strengthen your mind to be absolutely free from bodily pains and sorrow.

Affirmations & Cosmic Power. Use constructively the power you already have, tuning yourself with Cosmic Power to possess the creative power of Spirit. Words saturated with sincerity, conviction, faith, and intuition are like highly explosive vibration bombs that can explode difficulties. Repeat sincere affirmations understandingly, feelingly, and willingly to move the omnipresent Cosmic Vibratory Force, appealing with infinite confidence and casting out all doubt.

Balance & Guidance. God gave you will power, concentration, faith, reason, and common sense to help yourself; use them all while seeking divine help, but do not rely solely on your ego. Contact God first, harnessing your will and activity to the right goal, by broadcasting your prayer through a calm mental microphone until you receive His answer through the increased bliss of meditation. This balance between self-effort and divine guidance is key to all-round prosperity.

6. Discover God's Presence Through Deep Meditation.

Meditation means constant thinking of the vastness within and without, so that the soul may forget its attachment to the little body and may remember its vast body as God.

Beyond Body-Consciousness. Because of long concentration on the little body, the soul has forgotten its omnipresent nature, made in God's image. Meditation upon the Infinite, as it deepens, convinces the mind that it is not encased only in the body but is in everything, allowing the spiritual man to feel the woes and pains of other souls and the world as his home. You are a prodigal son who wants to go back to your home of happiness, and the Father is waiting.

The Art of Silence. Practice the art of silence, for the tigers of worries, sickness, and death are running after you, and the only safe place is in silence. The more silent you are, the more happiness you will find, maintaining the wonderful silence learned in meditation even amidst people. God loves silence, and in an inwardly and outwardly still body temple, illuminated by devotion, God may be coaxed to come, awakening real intuition and vision.

Scientific Techniques. Through meditation, you learn to disconnect your energy from the senses and consciously go into the Infinite, experiencing an expansion of consciousness from the body's boundaries to eternity. Techniques like Hong-Sau help free attention from outwardness, calm the breath, and rest the heart, liberating vast Life Current to renew body cells and increase longevity. This marvelous technique is a practical method for rising above body-consciousness and realizing oneself as the Immortal Spirit.

7. Connect with God Through Devotion and Intelligent Prayer.

When ever-new, ever-increasing joy fills your silence, know that you have contacted God, and that He is answering through your soul.

Soul-Calls and Response. Never mind if you cannot at first contact God; you have been hiding in the marsh of the senses, unable to hear His call. Stop, be calm, meditate deeply, and out of the silence will loom forth the Divine Presence. God responds to law, and divine laws are comprehended by concentration, meditation, and intuition, but devotion is necessary to call His attention.

Beyond Begging. Most people's prayers are ineffective because they beg from God, receiving a pittance instead of a son's share. To receive a response, pray intelligently with a bursting soul, mostly mentally, with utmost devotion, feeling God listening. First establish your identity with God, as Jesus did, by realizing "I and my Father are one" in the joy of meditation, then offer your demands for health, prosperity, or wisdom.

The Proof of Joy. The increasing joy after meditation is the proof that God has answered through the devotion-tuned radio of your heart. The longer and more deeply you meditate and affirm, the more you will be conscious of this ever-increasing joy, knowing without doubt that God is ever-existing, ever-conscious, omnipresent, ever-new Joy. Love causes God to surrender Himself to the devotee, so cry unceasingly, throwing away all lures of the material world, until you are absolutely sure of the divine contact.

8. Live Your Potential: Poise, Purpose, and Unending Joy.

Your soul, a separate Part, must find the Whole to be complete.

Emotional Poise & Efficiency. Cultivate emotional poise by determining to do each piece of work without unnecessary fuss, limiting your thoughts to the task at hand. The man of concentration shapes his own life, planning his day and finding himself nearer to God and his goal. Perform interesting duties with your whole heart and uninteresting ones with deep attention, excluding distracting thoughts to achieve super-concentration.

God-Centered Life. Be sure what you want is right, then use all your will power, always keeping your mind on God; then all things will come to you. To align with God’s abundance, eradicate all thought of poverty or lack, creating a consciousness of abundance. Make others happy to gain happiness for yourself, finding your pleasure in their joy, and carry God as the torch in your heart into all pathways of daily life.

Eternal Happiness. Meditate regularly, then sit quietly, feeling a calm peace, which is intuition. Exercise this power daily to solve problems intuitively, asking God to direct your intuition. Your soul, a separate part, must find the Whole to be complete; your satisfaction, knowledge, peace, and joy can only be complete with God. Wake up from dreams of littleness to the vastness within you, drinking the nectar of God-love in all hearts, and enthrone peace and joy in your heart, feeling joy no matter what happens.

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Review Summary

4.63 out of 5
Average of 72 ratings from Goodreads and Amazon.

How to Awaken Your True Potential receives excellent ratings (4.63/5) with readers praising Yogananda's inspiring spiritual teachings. Reviewers appreciate the practical meditation guidance, including the Hong Sau technique, though some note prior spiritual knowledge helps comprehension. Readers value the book's focus on inner development, self-confidence, and connecting with the Divine. One memorable quote encourages readers to "come out of your closed chamber of limitation" and claim their divine birthright. The book includes practical meditation exercises and indexed spiritual techniques, making it particularly useful for those seeking meditation inspiration.

Your rating:
4.82
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About the Author

Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in 1893 in India, was a yogi and guru who brought Eastern spiritual wisdom to Western audiences. As a child, he meditated seven hours daily, demonstrating extraordinary spiritual dedication. At age 27 in 1920, he traveled to the United States to fulfill his perceived sacred mission of introducing meditation and Kriya Yoga teachings to the West. His approach combined spiritual intensity with practical self-development principles, reminiscent of contemporary thought leaders. He became widely known through his seminal work, Autobiography of a Yogi, which introduced countless Westerners to meditation practices and yogic philosophy.

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