Holistic Healing Tools: Gaining Self-Knowledge Through Self-Inquiry

Once the mind becomes quiet and still in meditation, spontaneous insights and images may arise bringing information that till then had been unconscious. The temptation will be to analyze these images and information, or to somehow interact with them, but if you do you will break the mind's silence and the link to the hitherto unconscious information. It is better to just observe the image or insight, without trying to modify it or work out what it means. Understanding may come later, perhaps when a number of insights combine to provide new meaning to a situation.

If there is a particular issue you wish to explore through accessing your inner wisdom, then the time when the mind is quiet at the end of meditation may be good time to do so. Ask yourself a question about the issue. For example, if you are ill you could ask your illness why it is here, or what you can do to heal. It is important to be open to hearing the answer, and again not to go into analysis mode, but to hold the intention that the answer will come, and to simply observe or listen to it it when it does.

Another method of gaining self-knowledge is to silence your mind and then ask to contact your inner healer. An image will likely arise, and you should check that it is your inner healer by asking the image directly. If it is, then ask if he or she will be willing to give you some information - if the answer is 'no' then leave it for that time, and try again following another meditation session. If your inner healer is willing to give information, ask your question and sit awaiting the answer. Don't force it, just hold the question in your mind. The answer may come as an image, a thought or feeling, or from an inner voice. Once you have the answer, you can continue to ask your inner healer for information as long as he or she is willing.

A quiet mind combined with self-inquiry can lead to a fuller understanding of a situation than is possible through thinking about it. Inner silence gives space for inner wisdom to come forth. The result is a deeper understanding of an issue, which may lead to self-healing physically, emotionally and spiritually.