Healing Body, Mind and Soul

In his mortal aspect man is a triune being. He longs for freedom from all varieties of suffering. His needs are:

1. Healing of bodily diseases.

2. Healing of mental or psychological diseases such as fear, anger, bad habits, failure consciousness, lack of initiative and confidence, and so on.

3. Healing of spiritual diseases such as indifference, lack of purpose, intellectual pride and dogmatism, skepticism, contentment with the material side of existence, and ignorance of the laws of life and of man's own divinity.

It is of paramount importance that equal emphasis be given to the prevention and cure of all three kinds of disease. ...

To Prevent Physical Disease

Obedience to God's physical laws is the method for avoiding bodily ills.

Do not overeat. Most persons die as a result of greediness and of ignorance of right dietary habits.

Obey God's laws of hygiene. The hygiene of keeping the mind pure is superior to physical hygiene, but the latter is important and should not be neglected. Do not, however, live by such rigid rules that the least deviation from your wonted habits upsets you.

Prevent decay in the body by knowledge of the conservation of physical energy and of supplying the body with an inexhaustible amount of life current by Self-Realization Fellowship exercises.

Prevent hardening of the arteries by proper diet.

Save the heart from overwork; fear and anger overtax it. Give rest to the heart by the Self-Realization method, and cultivate a peaceful attitude of mind. ...

To Prevent Mental Disease

Cultivate peace, and faith in God. Free the mind from all disturbing thoughts and fill it with love and joy. Realize the superiority of mental healing over physical healing. Banish bad habits, which make life miserable. ...

To Prevent Spiritual Disease

Various methods of concentration and meditation are taught, but the Self-Realization methods are the most effective. Apply in your daily life the experiences of peace and poise you receive during concentration and meditation. Maintain your equilibrium amidst trying circumstances. Do not abandon yourself to violent emotions; stand unshaken by adverse turns of events.

Life Energy

Disease is generally considered a result of external material causes. Few people realize that it comes through the inaction of the life force within. When the cell or tissue vehicle of the life energy is seriously damaged, the life energy withdraws from that place and trouble consequently starts. Medicine, massage, and electricity merely help to stimulate the cells in such a way that the life energy is induced to return and resume its work of maintenance and repair.

We should not be extremists in any way but should adopt whatever methods of healing are suitable, according to individual conviction. Medicines and food have a definite chemical action upon blood and tissues. So long as one eats food, why should one deny that medicines and other material aids also have an effect on the body? They are useful so long as the material consciousness in man is uppermost.

They have their limitations, however, because they are applied from outside. The best methods are those that help the life energy to resume its internal healing activities. ...

God's Laws as Applied to Matter

By fasting, massage, osteopathic treatment, chiropractic adjustment of the vertebrae, yoga postures, and so on, we may help to remove or relieve congestion in the nerves or vertebrae and permit the free flow of life energy.

Acquiring Power Over Life Energy

On the other hand, mental cure is superior to all methods of physical cure because will, imagination, faith, and reason are states of consciousness that actually and directly act from within. They furnish the motive power that stimulates and directs the life energy to accomplish any definite task.

Autosuggestion and various affirmations are useful in stimulating the life energy; but because a practitioner often employs such purely mental methods without consciously working with the life energy, thus failing to establish any physiological connection, they are not invariably efficacious. A cure is certain if psychophysical techniques are combined with the power of will, faith, and reason to direct the life energy and to reach the superconscious mind. In that blissful state of Reality one comprehends the inseparable unity of matter and Spirit and solves all problems of inharmony.

Self-Realization teachings give the modus operand! for harnessing the will to direct the movement of actually vibrating life energy to any body part. By this method one feels in a definite way the inner flow of cosmic vibratory force.

Excerpts from SCIENTIFIC HEALING AFFIRMATIONS
by Paramahansa Yogananda

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