The Enchanted Garden

By Sandra Roslyne Munro

p>In 1989 Sandra Munro was diagnosed with Leukaemia. The disease was not only fast-moving but life-threatening, yet despite a prediction of only a few weeks to live and through the deep exploration of what was thought of at the time as alternate therapy, she experienced a phenomenon explained by the medical profession as ‘a spontaneous remission’.

Once recovered her search for the meaning of life began in earnest and as her journey unfolded she began to develop a philosophy that by taking a series of simple steps, it was not only possible to change the direction of your life, but empower yourself to embrace whatever comes your way in a spirit of joy and adventure.

Having worked in many fields including the law, television, theatre, the corporate world, interior design, retailing, real estate and property development, Sandra has spent the last twenty-five years teaching young children and although she has gained much wisdom in the process insists that she is just a messenger and her role is to inspire others to embrace their own mastery.

Sandra has been married to her beautiful husband Robert for more than forty-seven years and has two grown daughters and six grandchildren. She currently lives on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia where she finds much inspiration for her spiritual journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Dec 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781452505503

Sandra Roslyne Munro

In 1989 Sandra Munro was diagnosed with Leukaemia. The disease was not only fast-moving but life-threatening, yet despite a prediction of only a few weeks to live and through the deep exploration of what was thought of at the time as alternate therapy, she experienced a phenomenon explained by the medical profession as ‘a spontaneous remission’. Once recovered her search for the meaning of life began in earnest and as her journey unfolded she began to develop a philosophy that by taking a series of simple steps, it was not only possible to change the direction of your life, but empower yourself to embrace whatever comes your way in a spirit of joy and adventure. Having worked in many fields including the law, television, theatre, the corporate world, interior design, retailing, real estate and property development, Sandra has spent the last twenty-five years teaching young children and although she has gained much wisdom in the process insists that she is just a messenger and her role is to inspire others to embrace their own mastery. Sandra has been married to her beautiful husband Robert for more than forty-seven years and has two grown daughters and six grandchildren. She currently lives on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia where she finds much inspiration for her spiritual journey.

Book preview

THE ENCHANTED GARDEN

1. Perfection

2. Can Thinking Make it So?

3. The Water of Life

4. Quantam Leaps

5. Patience

6. Discernment

7. Abundance

8. It’s All About Love

9. Faith

10. Blessings

11. Happiness

12. Joy

13. Hope

14. Somewhere Over the Rainbow

15. Everyday Miracles

16. Forgiveness

17. Prayer

18. The Enchanted Garden

19. Secret of Life

20. Thoughts are Things

21. Duality

22. Oneness

23. Creation

PROLOGUE

This book is about my personal journey. It began when I was challenged with a fast-moving form of Leukaemia and found myself enmeshed in a world in which I totally believed the odds were stacked against me.

From this dark place I was shown a chink of light, a way out of my predicament, and I knew that if I decided to follow this path, incredibly and perhaps miraculously, it would lead me to its source and I could step up and claim the light as my own.

The title Enchanted Garden reflects the wondrous garden of the mind which creates our world.

PERFECTION

Perhaps the crescent moon smiles in doubt at being told that it is a fragment awaiting perfection.

Rabindranath Tagore

When we are children, it is natural to believe that we are ‘fragments awaiting perfection’. We are still bundles of love and acceptance, living joyfully in the moment and knowing, without reservation that anything we need will be provided for us.

Not every childhood provides such reassurance. Mine was one of those and whilst childhood experiences can sustain or even erode feelings of trust and love by adulthood, the ability to trust has, to a certain degree evaporated as we search outside ourselves for answers.

For the most part however, we believe that the solution to our problems lies ‘out there somewhere’ or at the very least, in the hands of those more able than ourselves to provide solutions and we worry all the time about how things will turn out.

It takes a lot of energy to worry, to sustain a problem over a long period of time, to go over and over it in your head, trying to solve it with the resources that may or may not have worked in the past. Sometimes however, tried and true methods fail us and we need fresh input but where do we find such a resource in the moment? What would you say if I suggested that the solution was as simple as closing our eyes. One of the great spiritual Masters taught that to find this space of trust we simply need to be still and ‘know’. Whether or not you can come to grips with this advice, being still and going within is certainly a step in the right direction. One of the easiest ways of ‘going within’ is achieved through meditation.

Why meditate you might wonder? It has been said that everything you perceive in the outside world also exists in your inner world and that during meditation you have the capacity to travel to this internal world and tap into a part of yourself that is inaccessible in any other way. This inner world is a vast storehouse of knowledge which can be reached through meditation at the speed of thought, ironically by going beyond your own thoughts. Of course for those who find this truth a little too fantastic, there are always the practical benefits of meditation which have been documented, such as the reduction of stress, lowering of blood pressure, gentle slowing of the heartbeat, boosting of energy and the same impact on the body as a deep refreshing sleep.

If meditation is so beneficial, why isn’t everyone doing it? In my own case, I had not even heard of meditation until I was in my forties, when its benefits were put forward as an adjunct to the medical treatment for cancer. Of course today, the daily papers and magazines proclaim the benefits of practicing quiet reflection and more and more people are exploring this gentle alternative to quiet the incessant noise of the mind.

Not only are the physical benefits quickly apparent after even a short period of time, but there are emotional advantages which are more subtle. When practicing meditation regularly for even five to ten minutes a day, you will notice that your day flows more smoothly; upsets and obstacles seem to have lost their rough edges and you cope more easily; even discovering solutions you may not have drawn upon in the past.

A calm centre begins to develop within and as you find yourself dipping into this centre more and more, behaviours which formerly irritated you will be more easily eliminated.

Whilst the rejuvenation and relaxation benefits of meditation become more apparent the more you practice, the true ‘jewel’ of meditation goes much deeper. It is the pathway which takes us to the Source we have spoken about; the part of us where we are not just a ‘fragment of perfection’ but ‘perfection’ itself.

When we meditate, we look inside and find our deepest selves perfectly reflected as love, light and joy. Our challenge is to try to remember that the perfection that we find within when we meditate is, in reality who we truly are in every moment of our lives.

To claim perfection is a blasphemy in some religious traditions as the notion that we are perfect suggests that we are equal to, or of the same essence as the Creator itself. The idea that we are perfect also goes against the concept of our limited sense of selves which we have been taught to believe in since birth.

This defined and limiting self-concept, sometimes described as the ego, can be an obstacle to the understanding of who you truly are and whilst deep meditation can take us within and show us that our essence is in fact perfection, this assertion is in direct contrast with the ego, the limited sense of self that comes from our own thoughts.

By using meditation to take us to our true Source, we can then step back from those thoughts which are limiting and see how those same thoughts are shaping and moulding our everyday life.

We have been created in the image of our maker, with the same abilities to fashion our world, sculpturing a reality which suits our needs and fulfils all our desires.

Every day we have simple desires which are fulfilled and yet we take this for granted, as though it is commonplace. The truth is, we create our reality through our thought processes and this is what we were designed to do. However this is not the way the world appears to most of us.

CAN THINKING MAKE IT SO?

The world is composed of thinking substance.

Wallace D. Wattles

Our thoughts uplift and betray us every day. Who has not wanted something very badly but felt as though they did not ‘deserve’ it or ‘there was no way that could happen’ or ‘there is no money’ or ‘time’ or whatever your reason is that it could not come to pass.

Perhaps you are feeling that I am ignoring the practical aspects of life. After all, people really do not appear to have enough money, time and resources to bring about their desires. But what if I were to tell you that the reason they do not have these things is simply because their thoughts say they cannot? Similarly, many times we experience that when we desire something, if our intention is firm and confident it will appear as if by magic.

Thoughts have great power and that is the secret to happiness or misery. Harnessing your thoughts, whether they be positive or negative and focusing them on your goal consistently and persistently, is the way we create our individual reality.

Whilst I had known of the connection between people’s thoughts and how they can influence a person’s life before, it was not until I was diagnosed with cancer for the third time that I was forced to take this idea seriously. I had already survived two bouts of cancer and had endured the necessary surgical treatments to ensure recovery. This time, I had been told there was no surgery, only the option of chemotherapy and certainly an early death from Leukemia, a cancer of the blood.

I decided that I was not going to approach this cancer the same way I had the others. I was going to explore ‘alternative’ healing methods. I started researching books that made the startling connection between illness and the mind. Whilst these books were aimed at using meditation and mental affirmations to assist with healing and illness, the most important teaching they gave me was that a person’s life is a product of their own thought processes.

The concept that thoughts are creating our reality at every moment is a powerful and challenging idea. If thoughts shape our realty, then it would seem that the only way to have a happy life would be to change every negative thought into a positive one at every moment. Whilst this can certainly be done with great intention and practice, we can use meditation to assist this process by learning to fine-tune our intention.

When you are experiencing