The Four Sacred Secrets: For Love and Prosperity, a Guide to Living in a Beautiful State

In their enticing debut, husband and wife team Krishnaji and Preethaji, founders of the O&O Academy for enlightenment, offer advice on transforming consciousness to reject a self-centered world view and recognize oneness with all humanity. “The root cause of all suffering is obsessive self-centric thinking,” the authors write in their introduction, before mining personal experiences, fables, and meditation guides to help readers increase creativity, connect with others, and heal relationships. Four key practices are crucial to achieving this state: living with a “spiritual vision” (which they define as “to live fully, to connect deeply, to love totally”); discovering one’s inner truth through nonjudgmental self-awareness; connecting to the “universal intelligence” that surrounds everyone; and dissolving inner conflict in order to help others. While some of the key points are vague, the authors’ personal anecdotes and portraits of historical figures—particularly the chapter detailing Mahatma Gandhi’s spiritual transformation—provide the best examples of their teachings and make for the liveliest reading. In each section, the authors also offer mental exercises and writing prompts. Readers interested in meditation will find these lessons for uncluttering one’s mind useful. (Aug.)