"The Science Of Religion" By
Paramahansa Yogananda

In this sense, positive thinking is also a way to attain bliss and avoid pain, and for some people it builds into their religion (in fact, Norman Vincent Peale talked about positive thinking and Christianity already in the 1950s).

Into the book

"The science of religion" is a lecture given by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920, which was published later. It's a quick-read book and the message is easy to understand.

The central idea of "The science of religion" is that "[...] Religion necessarily consists in the permanent removal of pain and the realization of Bliss, or God."

Yogananda outlines four fundamental religious methods to attain bliss. As he explains:

The four methods are: intellectual, devotional, meditational and the scientific method or yoga, which the author practised (he refers specifically to Kriya Yoga).

The author also explains three instruments of knowledge: perception, inference and intuition. He discusses the appropriateness of these instruments to attain bliss and know Reality, or God.

"The science of religion" and the Law of Attraction

One of the 'branches' of positive thinking is the Law of Attraction and how to use it to our convenience to attain what we want.

While this approach works, Yogananda's book offers a different perspective on wants:

Thus Yogananda explains:

However, we may fall into the want of not wanting - still a want.

More ideas

Other ideas that you will find in "The science of religion" include:

• on our roles in life: "As appointed by the Great Stage Manager, we should play our parts on the stage of the world with the whole mind, intellect, and body, but remain inwardly as unaffected or unruffled by pleasure and pain consciousness as are the players on an ordinary stage".

• on bliss: "There is a positive and a negative aspect in Bliss-consciousness. The negative aspect is the absence of pleasure-pain consciousness; the positive one is the transcendental state of a superior calm [...]."

• on our existence: "How do we know that we exist? [...] It is only by intuition that we can know this. Such knowing is one form of intuition. It is beyond sense and thought - they are made possible by it."

All in all, this spiritual book is quick to read, and adds a different perspective over the objective of religion and our wants. While it may not change your life, this book makes an interesting reading.

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