Secrets of Meditation and Inner Peace

In Secrets of Meditation and Inner Peace, Swami Kriyananda brilliantly encapsulates essential keys of meditation with seed thoughts for each day. Each affirmation is presented in a straightforward manner that allows you to repeat and remember it-ideal inspirations to carry you deep into meditation, or to help you bring the peace of meditation into your daily activities.

It has been said that we are what we eat. It would be truer to say, "We are what we think." For our minds express, and also influence, the reality of what we are far more than our bodies do. Secrets of Meditation and Inner Peace is a potent guide to meditation, and points the way to the deeper levels of inner peace we so earnestly seek. An excellent book for your bedside table or to keep on hand beside your meditation seat.

"Swami Kriyananda is a man of wisdom and com-passion in action, truly one of the leading lights in the spiritual world today."

-Lama Surya Das, Dzogchen Center, author of Awakening the Buddha Within

Swami Kriyananda (1926-2013) was a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda (author of the classic, Autobiography of a Yogi). Kriyananda was trained by the great Indian yoga master to spread the life-trans-forming teachings of Kriya Yoga around the globe. He is widely considered one of the foremost experts on meditation, yoga, and spiritual practice, having authored more than 140 books on these subjects.

Kriyananda was the founder of Ananda, an international organization committed to the dissemination of Yogananda's teachings. In 1968 he founded Ananda Cooperative Village in Nevada City, California, the first spiritual community based on Yogananda's vision of "world brotherhood colonies." Today Ananda includes eight communities in the U.S., Europe, and India, and more than 140 meditation centers and groups worldwide.

The contents of this book consist of three sections.

The first two sections-Secrets of Meditation, and Secrets of Inner Peace-are seed thoughts for meditation. They are listed as daily readings, and it may be useful to follow along with one reading from each section for each listed day of the month. Alternatively, you may prefer to pick a reading at random. Either approach can be effective.

We recommend absorbing a selection from Secrets of Meditation just before meditation-these seed thoughts are ideal for deepening meditation-and a selection from Secrets of Inner Peace at the end of your meditation-these affirmations are geared toward extending the peaceful aftereffects of meditation into your daily life.

In addition, the following pages offer guidelines for the optimum use of the readings for both of these sections.

The last section of this book, "Be Still and Know," is an article by Swami Kriyananda on the importance of meditation and the best attitude for success in going within. It ends with brief meditation instructions. We hope that this book will bring you ever-deeper insights and inspiration. And we wish you profound success in your meditations.