Two principles inform the White Eagle way of meditation, which has been presented in books and classes since 1955. One is working from the heart – the heart chakra, rather than the brow – and the other is that the best meditation is effortless. This, the latest White Eagle book – put together and introduced by Anna Hayward – demonstrates both principles, and it will take the beginner into a developed understanding of the benefits of meditation. Yet for the student who already meditates regularly it will deepen and inform their practice. Among meditation books it is almost unique in offering the special ‘heart’ perspective and includes helpful teaching from White Eagle about visualisation, breathing, inner peace, finding ‘heaven’, what the etheric is, how to work with the light, using the senses, the power of the 'Word’, and a whole lot more. It is both a book to dip into and one to read from cover to cover, and it ends with an eight-week programme of exercises to develop our meditation potential. This book is about ways to trust that we are spiritual beings, and as such are guided by our greater self. The greater self is the same as the God within us. We cannot go wrong if we surrender, at all times, to that God within. Become attuned to the gentle spirit of God and love and light. Then your life will become harmonious. The spirit guide of Grace Cooke (1872-1979), whose teachings have inspired readers for ninety years. Grace lost her mother early in childhood and devoted her life to bringing happiness to all who might otherwise live cheerless lives, particularly the bereaved. She migrated from Spiritualism to teach, under White Eagle's guidance, a path based on meditation above all as a route to discovering the world beyond and, ultimately, God. White Eagle, as his name suggests, brings strong connections with the Native American philosophy, but there are in his teaching many hints of all the world religions. Anna Hayward had a long path to the philosophy of White Eagle that took in Buddhism, Taoism, Yoga and many other spiritual practices. A teacher by training, she was active in the Free School Movement for many years. She now lives close to the White Eagle centre at Liss, in Hampshire, England, where she ministers in the newly opened White Eagle temple centre. White Eagle meditation is frequently called Heart Meditation, which means that our focus is on the particular vibrations which are given and received through the heart chakra, and what he refers to as ‘the mind in the heart’. Here is the highest manifestation of divine love or the I AM. At the heart centre we have a link between heaven as a state of consciousness towards which we aspire, and heaven within – the Christ consciousness of which White Eagle speaks. The White Eagle Heart Meditation does not in any way deny the existence and importance of the other chakras (the centres of spiritual receptivity and energy). White Eagle explains in this way: ‘The pivot of all these centres … is the heart, which is like the sun of your universe. The heart centre in a person is the sun of their universe. The heart chakra breathes in and it breathes out. It absorbs, it takes in sunlight. ‘This is the white light and can be absorbed through all these sensitive or power centres, but chiefly through the centre most harmonious to the Christ love – the heart. ‘Now when the spiritual forces are flowing into the heart centre (you will here see the importance of love in all communications – love and harmony and truth) when the love or the spiritual force is flowing into the heart centre at times of great spiritual ecstasy and prayer, that force flows on into the other chakras and they light up.’ ‘In the method of meditation that we are unfolding we are imparting a way by which you can bring into operation the true spiritual life which is within. A healer can impart to a patient and a teacher to a pupil a degree of help, but the patient or the pupil must work for themselves. Meditation is a path that must be faithfully pursued by the meditator. It may take years, a whole lifetime, or indeed a number of lifetimes in the body for the pupil to reach the goal. You cannot hurry this process. It is necessary to keep on keeping on patiently, but a great deal of time can be wasted when you are not conversant with the true purpose for which you work.’ As we can see, White Eagle’s Heart Meditation is inherently spiritual. This means that it cannot be totally understood by the mind of earth, but it is felt in the heart. When we experience the process it ‘feels’ true, but that feeling may not be quantifiable or expressible in words. The process of meditation relies, primarily, on the inner core, which is trust not in the mind, but in the Christ light within us as our guide.