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How to Use This Book
ing and maintaining your health, and the ninth chapter combines the centers in a single meditation.
It is suggested that the student take one energy center per week for his or her meditation practice. The student will find that the technique in this book has two aspects: visualization and the use of a mantra. A specific mantra and visual symbol are suggested for each energy center. Occasionally the student may have a choice of visual symbols. In these cases, he or she is free to experiment and to choose the symbol that feels most natural.
The use of a mantra is an integral part of these meditations. It will be helpful to think of each mantra as a key which opens a particular door, unlocks a particular aspect of energy. Some students, however, may prefer to use only one mantra. For these students, there is the master key, sohum. This mantra is capable of opening all doors.
Focusing on one center per week, students may use this mantra in their meditation. Sohum, which means "I am That," is not a substitute for the suggested mantras, but an alternative to them. Through sohum ("I am That"), we gradually perceive what "That" is: The Self, the Real, the Permanent, our True Nature, Love. As we come to know our real nature, we begin to enjoy the sense of an enduring security at the first center. At the second energy center, our feelings of inadequacy give way to a new surge of creative vitality. Then we experience the power of natural expression and communion with those around us through the third center.
Sohum, the mantra for the fourth center at the heart, ignites in us the spark of love for all our fellow beings. As
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