The fundamental aim of spiritual study is to get facts and principles into
Heart’s fertile ground. Ideas must get through habitual and familiar filters; otherwise, information is diverted from having its full power. It’s not how much you read or hear that counts, but how much you take in and make your own. How can you receive knowledge deep in your core so principles work for you in far higher ways? Here are eight proven methods that work wonders:
1. Write your own book of development. Gather pearls of wisdom as you read, listen to audio programs or attend talks. More importantly, when YOU have an insight, get it down! You’ll find as years go by that notebook you’ve created is filled with wisdom that has special resonance for YOU. 2. Contemplate. Picture yourself flying a glider. The tow plane lifts you. Now it’s your time to soar. You pull connection and you’re on your own. The winds lift you higher and higher.
The glider is a perfect parallel to art of contemplation. Focus on a single word, sentence, illustration or experience that matters to you. Put spotlight of your attention on it. What’s in this idea that isn’t presently seen? What does experience REALLY mean?
Then, let go of thought. Soar in silence. It is silence following focus that reveals core. The silence takes you beyond what you already understand. Transcend word, concept or experience and move from theory to revelation. Soar to a higher level of deep and rich understanding.
3. Read aloud. Read enthusiastically and with conviction. You may even wish to stand and gesture freely. You can imagine that you are addressing a large and attentive audience, like your own thoughts that now wish to change. Reading silently exercises your intellect, while reading aloud combines both your intellect and your power of speech.
4. Read with repetition. Take four or five pages from a good book, and read these same pages every day for a week before going on to next four or five pages. Read them more than once, if you have time, but at least once a day. Just before going to sleep at night is an ideal time. Something marvelous happens when you do this. Information seeps through old patterns.
I first learned of this method from Og Mandino in his classic book, “The Greatest Salesman in World. ”The benefits are enormous.
5. Be a metaphor hunter. This is wonderful fun. Simply be alert to daily life experiences, historical examples or encounters with nature that have a resemblance or connection to a spiritual principle. For example, let’s say you’re on a hike. You observe an old tree that has fallen into a stream. The tree is lodged but flowing water gradually breaks it away and takes it downstream. You think with delight how flow of Truth clears away old thinking that no longer serves your Heart.
