From the Asheville Kriya Yoga Bulletin

Our intention is the vehicle for our life experiences. It carries us to the circumstances we want to have. Good intentions are not enough if a person does not have the fuel to power the process. This is why so many people wander through life from one haphazard experience to another. They have dreams, but don’t stay focused on taking the time to feed the fires that would make those dreams a reality. To bring our intentions into manifestation, what is required is the ability to hold the vision through to completion, while taking the necessary and practical steps to achieve our goals.

This is why meditation is so important. It trains us to concentrate, so we can avoid distractions. To be truly effective, meditation is practiced daily. This creates the necessary discipline to continue on our path in life, even if results are not immediately forth coming. Meditation takes us away from our “immediate gratification” mentality and shows us that by persistence and enthusiasm (sometimes self created) we can be who we set out to be, and live the life we want.

When we are new to harnessing the power of intention, it is common to think that there is a special magical power in the universe that will fulfill all our wishes, if only we could ask in the right way for what we want. As we mature, we discover that, really, everything is magical if anything is magical, and that the real secret to our success or failure in life are the thoughts we habitually think, the people we socialize with, and the actions we consistently make.

You can say that “God made such and such happen.” But when it comes right down to it, since there is no separation between you and God, and everything is interconnected, it was really you who made such and such happen. So take responsibility for it, which ever way it goes. If you claim the bad things that happen in your life as your fault, you might as well claim the good too!

Or you may say you have a particular set of lessons to learn before you can be successful. The only lessons you have to learn are the steps it takes for you to get where you want to be. The other “karmic” lessons are just part of the story you have about who you think you are. The more energy you give the story, the more real it will become. Make up some new positive lessons to learn, such as “I need to learn the lesson of accepting my good fortune, or that I really am a capable individual, and that I will be a positive impact on the world with my new found health. I can be wealthy and helpful in the world by donating my time or resources to those who need it.” Those are the best kinds of lessons.

Decide what you want. See the end result in your mind. Take the necessary and practical steps. Remember, it has nothing to do with deserving, it has to do with accepting that it can be your reality and then living it until it becomes as natural as the reality you currently have.