by Dr. Marcel Hernandez, ND
Does it make good practical common sense to think about a possible spiritual dimension of health and healing?
Can prayer, meditation, and an inner awareness of expansive spiritual qualities such as harmony, light, love, wisdom, and kindness increase our power to expand our health and heal from disease?
Naturally, we must treat health symptoms on the physical and mental/emotional planes, using all of the tools we can muster. For these aspects of our being, too, have their own reality, at their own level.
But for the sake of investigation, let us assume that our nature is a single, continuous whole that includes not only the physical, mental, and emotion, but also subtler spiritual elements.
The saints and sages of all religions tell us that this is, indeed, the true picture of creation – that, as one sage put it, we are in reality tiny individual specks of God’s vast consciousness.
To learn to enlist the higher, spiritual aspects of our being to help us heal and remain healthy, it may be wise to listen to the counsel of those who have merged their consciousness with their true nature in Spirit, and whose counsel has proven infallible over time.
In our writings, we often refer to a great Indian saint, Paramhansa Yogananda, and the particular ray of his world mission known as the Ananda Sangha branch of the path of Self-Realization.
We were initially drawn to Yogananda’s teachings, in large part because they seemed so beautifully appropriate for this present, dawning age of energy-awareness, and of faith in the power of scientific inquiry to reveal truth.
Yogananda taught that, at this particular moment in the evolution of the general consciousness of our planet, we can most effectively improve our awareness of our own spiritual nature with methods that make use of energy.
He said, amazingly, “At the inner end of the human nervous system, the mind, interiorized, communes with God.”
Thus, his teachings are based on methods that can help us gradually calm and interiorize the energy of our body, mind, and emotions. Because, as he said, our consciousness tends to go wherever our energy is. He promised that if we can learn to calm the restless energy bouncing through our body, mind, and emotions, we will discover a wonderful inner world of peace and harmony and communion with the blissful source and sustainer of our being.
He also taught – in great detail – naturopathic methods for removing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual obstacles that keep our energy and consciousness bound in matter and disease.
Always, he referred his teachings and their associated techniques back to their source in Spirit – in the cosmic plan which, he said, contains all of the wisdom and power we need to help us heal ourselves and to enjoy true, all-round health of body, heart, will, mind, and soul.
The first step to true healing and to deep inner peace and happiness, he said, requires that we choose a true path (of which there are many), and that we invest our sincere engagement, perseverance, and diligence in whatever path we choose.
The paths to truth are many, but the goal is one. All true paths urge us to deepen our awareness of and our loving devotion to our Source, and that we do our best to live by our highest vision. For, in doing so, we find ourselves gaining access to an all-knowing higher consciousness that is always eager to help us achieve the best health outcomes, and that can lighten every medical prognosis. Above all, he said, we must come to understand that our life’s experiences are given to us to help us move forward on the path to ultimate inner freedom and joy.
Paramhansa Yogananda described his own being poetically as “By Thy breath born. By Thy love grown.”
May the Light and Peace of Spirit be always with you.
Drs. Connie and Marcel Hernandez
DrConnie@DrsHernandez.com
DrMarcel@DrsHernandez.com
650-602-8972 (voice and text)