Secrets, Anyone?

When I was 13, I bought a booklet worth Php22 from a shop in Landmark that sells religious books and items (right beside gift gate, back then). I kept it all these years.

The booklet is called Secrets, Anyone? by J. Donald Walters. It was a compilation of the Secrets of Better Living Series originally published by Crystal Clarity, Publishers USA. It was published here by St. Paul Publications.

Even back then, I loved this little book containing "seeds of thought...offered for every day of the month" I've read and re-read this long before yoga entered my life, not knowing its roots.
I went over the text again recently and found them to very, very familiar -- very, very yogic!  And so I googled J. Donald Walters. To my surprise (or non-surprise), I learned that J. Donald Walters is Swami Kriyananda, a disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda. This little booklet is a compilation of 7 books.

Here's 31 days of the Secret of Inner Peace. Om Shanti to you.

The secret of inner peace is -

Day 1 - self-control; not scattering your energies, but holding them in check and directing them usefully.
Day 2 - giving full interested attention to everything you do.
Day 3 - to live fully in the moment, releasing past and future into the cycles of eternity
Day 4 - inner relaxation - physically, emotionally, mentally, then spiritually
Day 5 - non-attachment; being everconscious that nothing and no one truly belongs to you
Day 6 - contentment; consciously holding happy thoughts
Day 7 - desirelessness; realizing that happiness is within you, not in outward things or circumstances
Day 8 - accepting things as they are, and then, if necessary, acting calmly and cheerfully to improve them
Day 9 - realizing that you cannot change the world, but you can change yourself
Day 10 - cultivating harmonious friendships, and shunning the company of peaceless persons
Day 11 - projecting peace outward into your environment
Day 12 - a simple life; reducing your definition of "necessities"
Day 13 - a healthy life: exercising regularly, eating properly, breathing deeply
Day 14 - a clear conscience; remaining true to your highest ideals
Day 15 - acting in freedom, from your inner center and not in bondage to the world's demands.
Day 16 - accepting truth, in all circumstances as your guide
Day 17 - not coveting what others have, but knowing that what is yours by right will find its way to you
Day 18 - never complaining but acknowledging that what life gives you depends on what you give, first, of yourself
Day 19 - accepting responsibility for your failures, and realizing that only you can turn them into successes
Day 20 - found in self-conquest, not in the mere cessation of hostilities
Day 21 - practicing willingess, even though your mental habits urge you to cry "NO!"
Day 22 - smiling in your heart, even when others scowl
Day 23 - giving joy, rather than demanding joy of others
Day 24 - including others' well-being in your own
Day 25 - harmlessness; never deliberately hurting anyone
Day 26 - working with others, never against them
Day 27 - meditation, and tapping the wellsprings of soul-peace
Day 28 - raising your consciousness: directing energy to the brain, then centering it at the seat of higher awareness between the eyebrows
Day 29 - self-acceptance: not blinding yourself to your faults nor hating yourself for them, but claiming your higher reality in infinite Light
Day 30 - loving God, and striving to be worthy of His love for you
Day 31 - loving others impartially, without selfish motive


Sad dramas and secrets also enveloped the life of Swami Kriyananda. Still, this little treasure booklet is a keeper. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Kriyananda