Joseph Cornell, author, founder, Sharing Nature Foundation
"... masterfully tells how to attune to emerging spiritual trends and bring forth, more easily, the Divine Consciousness into this world. A thrilling and enlightening book"

East West Bookshop Reviews
"... A fascinating guide for living a spiritually meaningful life in today-and tomorrow's world. Updates Yogananda's teachings and applies them to the coming century."

Joseph Cornell, author, founder, Sharing Nature Foundation
"... masterfully tells how to attune to emerging spiritual trends and bring forth more easily the Divine Consciousness into this world. A thrilling and enlightening book."

East West Bookshop Reviews
"... A fascinating guide for living a spiritually meaningful life in tomorrow's world. Updates Yogananda's teachings and applies them to the coming century."

Book Description
We are now at a major turning point in our personal and planetary development. Our values are changing dramatically: many of us are moving away from our previous emphasis on mere worldly gain, toward a new embrace of our own inner spiritual development. "The Light of Superconsciousness - How to Benefit from Emerging Spiritual Trends" explains the emerging techniques and attitudes that will help ease the transition to a more spiritually nurturing society and teach us to awaken the seeds of intuition, freedom, and joy that lie dormant within each of us. This is the first book that applies the teachings of the great sage Paramhansa Yogananda (1893-1952, author of "Autobiography of a Yogi) to the 21st Century.

About the Author
J. Donald Walters is one of a few direct disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda still living. Yogananda instructed Walters to write and lecture, which he has done-spending the last 50 years sharing and developing the teachings of his guru. Walters is author of more than 70 books on spirituality, yoga and meditation and is an internationally recognized writer, lecturer, composer and authority on yoga and Eastern spirituality.

Excerpted from The Light of Superconsciousness : How to Benefit from Emerging Spiritual Trends by Devi Novak, J. Donald Walters, Swami Kriyananda. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Introduction/Paramhansa Yogananda was one of the first great Indian masters of yoga to make his home in the west. From his arrival in America in 1920 until his death in 1952, he was constantly active and creative in making the teachings of the great seers of the past millennia relevant and practical for modern Westerners. His teachings cover a broad range of topics, but there are two aspects that hold particular importance for us now: his techniques for achieving superconsciousness, or Self-Realization, and his insights into the future of the human race. What Is Superconsciousness? Paramhansa Yogananda used the term "superconsciousness" to refer to that level of awareness that is achieved when the individual merges with Infinite consciousness. From this state we feel unity with all creation; we're able to grasp the subtlest truths of the universe; and we can tap into an unlimited stream of energy and creative solutions in our life. Yogananda describes his first experience of this state of superconsciousness in his "Autobiography of a Yogi." "An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light. A swelling glory within me began to envelop towns, continents, the earth, solar and stellar systems, tenuous nebulae, and floating universes. The entire cosmos, gently luminous, like a city seen afar at night, glimmered within the infinitude of my being." This superconsciousness level of perception is something attainable by anyone. Through the practical techniques of yoga and meditation that Yogananda brought to the West, he has made high states of spiritual development accessible to all who sincerely seek them. Why are These Teachings So Important Now? Although most of us are aware that profound changes are happening around us today, it's hard to fit them together into a meaningful picture. We can see many outward manifestations - the advances in communication and in storing information, the breakthroughs in science and physics, the popularity of alternative healing, and a renewed interest in spirituality of all kinds. It's like a new building going up - we can see that something is being created, but we can't tell what it will look like when it is finished. As we move into a new millennium, we need to turn to those who have brought this light of superconsciousness into the world. Their mission is to usher in a new dawn of spiritual awareness for our planet. Yogananda offers us deep insight into why the "new age" is happening and what it will loop like. He foresaw neither the end of the world, as some doomsday prophets expound, or a golden age, as other self-styled psychics promise. Rather he drew from ancient yogic traditions and explained that we are moving into an "Age of Energy." This will be a time of the breaking down of old religious, social, and political forms, of accelerated personal growth, and increased global unity. How to Live in the Age of Energy? The themes in this book show us how to live in this new age of energy and how to benefit from the trends that will be emerging in it. The new expressions of religion will be non-dogmatic and non-sectarian. They will lead to a uniting of science and religion as people realize that there are practical tools and techniques for spiritual growth. The divisions between men and women will be broken down as people realize the importance of feminine energy in both religion and daily life. Devotion and the energy of the heart will be understood as essential for human happiness. The need for spiritual training and discipleship will be understood, and the guru-disciple relationship will find true appreciation. Social patterns will change from people living in huge urban cities to small rural cooperative communities where new ideas and creative expression can flourish. We will begin to understand how to break old patterns of action and thought, how to free ourselves from the limitations of karmic compulsions, and to realize that as beings of energy - not matter - we do have free will. And we will realize our own potential to draw energy from the world around us. Thus energy is unlimited, and we can use it for greater mental clarity and accomplishment, and ultimately for realization of our oneness with God. This is what "The Light of Superconsciousnes" is all about. It is the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda as presented by his direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda. Sometimes Kriyananda refers to his guru as "Yogananda," sometimes as "Master," which alludes to his state of complete self-mastery. Through the power of his unity with God, Yogananda was able to show a new vision of reality to all who are seeking. This book offers us a blueprint for the future which is so essential in the present time of transition. Our civilization has a tremendous potential to see the world in a new way - not as form and matter, but as energy and light, not as divisions and separate political states, but as a unified world family, Technology is paving the way for us, but without a change in our consciousness, the incredible potential for human growth that lies before us will not be achieved. For those who recognize what this challenge means, we need to dedicate ourselves to supporting the emerging spiritual trends and to making this new dawn of superconscious a reality on our planet.

SYNOPSIS

As we shift from an outward information gathering society to a society that values one's inner development more, spirituality will become more important to Americans. The Light of Superconsciousness is all about new techniques and attitudes that will help all spiritual seekers understand the vast social and spiritual restructuring that will be needed to support a spiritually nurturing society. This is the first book that presents the great yogi Paramahansa Yogananda's teachings in terms of how they can be lived in the new millenium.

FROM THE CRITICS

Joseph Cornell - Joseph Cornell, author, founder, Sharing Nature Foundation

... masterfully tells how to attune toemerging spiritual trends and bring forth, more easily, the Divine Consciousness into this world. A thrilling and enlightening book.

Bookshop East West