Pity the Unhappy Rich Man

There is a saying, “Pity the unhappy rich man for unlike the poor man, he cannot blame his unhappiness on poverty.”  

In a recent film “Ten Questions to Ask the Dalai Lama,” by Rick Ray many wonderful and interesting insights arise.  One of them that the author notes, is the relative happiness of the poor in Calcutta’s ghettos as compared to the richest in the world. 

Many reasons for this are offered in the media.  One, is that the poor have less to lose.  Another is that they realize what is really important in life, personal relationships.  Many philosophers state that they are too ignorant to know of their own unhappiness. 

Regardless of the reason one concludes, many philosophers state that “Dissatisfaction is the mother of all philosophy.”  In other words it is our own discontent which spawns our search for meaning, justice and order.   

In general, when all of our physical needs are met we have the time and wherewithal to investigate the deeper mental, spiritual, and emotional issues.  Images of Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs bubble to the surface here.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 

Yet rather than focus on the individual steps in this psychological model, my philosophy of living involves discovering unifying principles which unite them all.  In other words, why do I bother to breath, eat, or make love? 

Yes a starving person initially needs no reason, but what about the ascetic monk?  He meets his spiritual needs whilst simultaneously feeding the physical.  For me, this is the goal of life, an integrated perspective. 

For the first time in the current human epoch, we have a chance as leaders to model this type of behavior: The spiritually and physically realized human.  This is my dream and goal and I feel many share it. 

Reference:

Ray, Rick (2006). 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama.  Monterey, CA: Monterey Films. http://www.thedalailamamovie.com/ 

Swami Krishnananda (2007) Introduction to the Philosophy of Yoga. Rishikesh, India: The Divine Life Society.  Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/intro/intro_02.html 

Maslow, Abraham (1943) “A Theory of Human Motivation.” Psychological Review, 50, 370-96. Retrieved September 27, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow’s_hierarchy_of_needs  

The Law of Attraction Revisited

Imagine that you are the object of the world’s desire.  Rather than chasing material manifestation, how about it chases you? 

Lewis is an average working stiff at a machinist’s shop.  Every pay day he takes a significant portion of his earnings and sinks them into “investment opportunities.”  Some of the funds go to his retirement funds, others to his savings, and yet more still to his children, his ultimate legacy. 

The final portion available he spends in speculation.  He invests in stocks and options, and the lottery.  Louie buys Scratchers’, and Powerball tickets.  Much of the wealth is spent chasing dreams.  Imagine if the dreams chased him.  In other words, rather than trying to possess an object, he became the object to be possessed. 

In other words, he sought to become the kind of father that his children sought to have.  Lewis became the type of winner that lottery winnings seek to be spent by.  The former is easy to imagine, be the kind of parent that you might wish to have.  You would need the right mixture of firmness, give, and take; love, intelligence, and discipline. 

But the latter, how would that look?  Most people may dispute that money has any anthropomorphized attitude.  Can inanimate objects truly possess any type of desire?  In esoteric wisdom, or philosophy of consciousness, all objects only exist as reflections of the Self.  The center of all beings and so called reality is You. 

Hence, these objects are only aspects of your internal self which you have not internalized yet.  So the question becomes, not, “how do I get,” rather, it is, “how do I become?”  Technically, it is truly, “How am I <blank>?,” though this is really only another definition of the same.  Once a person knows the internal nature, life becomes about expressing that in all things. 

Which leaves us again at the point of “how do I manifest what I am such that what I want, wants me?” 

Since your reality only mirrors your unrealized characteristics, you ask yourself, “how do I see that which I want, and how do I become what it wants.”  An example may help to illustrate this difficult and reflexive process.  For me the universe seeks endless variety in creation and entropy.  It abhors restrictions and will break all boundaries at one point as much as it will create them at another. 

Because I seek infinite abundance in all things, I would have to become the type of entity that spreads wealth around in a way that leads to growth rather than stagnation.  Thus I choose to think, feel and see the world as a wonderous opportunity for dynamic creation and transformation.  Now wealth comes toward me, as my idea of it behaves in this manner. 

One naturally wonders, “Does this actually work?”    

My first response, is watch and see.  A more elaborate one is that seeing the world as a “wealth of opportunity” directs your intelligence toward creating and expanding wealth anyway.  So, in short, it works on a strictly material level.  On a spiritual level, that is a separate question for the philosopher within you as well as a deeper realization.   

What I can tell you without doubt, that it works in my life.  Through a process of self-realization, concentration, and contemplation, all of my desires reach fulfillment and manifestation.  A difficult situation with my son reaches resolution, deep meaningful companionship with my dream woman has developed, career and destiny align. 

All of these things appeared to take some time.  And although I never floundered, sometimes it seemed as if I did.  If I were to suggest this method to readers, I would ask that they concentrate on why they want a given object and determine what they can do for that object that would make it feel fulfilled.  It is easiest to use this method with a person first, as their desires are clearer.  Eventually though an adept can utilize this process for anything.

The Secret and Blaming the Victim

Health professionals often complain that the current slew of “create your own reality” folks encourage a “blame the victim” mentality.  For, if you created your reality, isn’t it you that is to blame for your current plight?  Although this may seem the case, it is an underdeveloped and oversimplified version of the deeper physical and nonphysical reality, that your perspective informs all of your feelings about your situation.  In other words, your feelings come from you. 

Hence the power of the deeper idea, is that your feelings inspire your actions.  How we feel changes our entire worlds.  As I say elsewhere, tell a man he is building a wall and you will get average work.  Tell him he is building a memorial and you get good work.  Tell him that he is building a monument commemorating all that is great in the human spirit, and you will get great work. 

What has changed, the physical structure of the wall?  Certainly not.  What has changed, is his feelings about his work.  Our actions are always governed by the same rules of balance and justice everywhere in the material universe.  Furthermore, in the infinite loop of eternity, everything balances.  Thus all that matters is how we feel about our experiences.  This is the key to living your perfect life, though it may not sound so glamorous. 

As an example, you may be fighting a losing battle, but why you fight is not governed by whether you win or lose.  You fight because of moral principle.  As an example, in 1939 you joined the Nazi party because they were winning.  How do you feel when they lose several years later?  Do you change sides again to be a winner?  Can you even do so? 

Choosing sides based upon results will often place you in straits which you cannot morally conscience.  This will make you feel terrible in the long-term.  Winners and losers change constantly, only the righteous remain as such.  So, it is upon us to decide our moral code and stick to it.  This does not mean that we are rigid.  Even the code itself must be based upon principles rather than results. 

Results are short-term and constantly shuffle, while principles last forever.

First Change within, then the World Changes without.

 The video above is from a 1992 UN Conference in Rio de Janeiro.  It powerfully conveys the inspiration of my childhood.

 Although I was born and raised in the USA, I lived with my grandparents in India when I was a toddler.  Grandpa was as traditional as it gets.  He taught me to read and write and would shake the heck out of me when I made a mistake.  Yet he also loved me very much and would teach me many things. 

My brother and I would sit and watch the gigantic ants many an afternoon.  Ants present an incredible show.  They model the power of persistence, tenacity, and teamwork for all of us.  In fact, my first biology professor told his students that ants make up something like 90% of the biomass of all insects living.  Regardless of the actual number, they are everywhere. 

One thing about India shocked me when I first arrived there: the abject poverty of masses of people.  I had never seen such things in the US.  What made their plight so poignant though, was that they looked just like me!  These were thousands and thousands of little Gouthum’s wandering the streets and begging.  It hurt me immensely. 

So I asked everyone, “Why are they so poor, why doesn’t anyone fix it?”  I was told not to worry about it, because no one could.  It was just that way.  Naturally, this answer rung unacceptable to me; I promised never to forget.  I felt in my heart that adults say thing like that all the time because they have not tried.  Nothing was impossible. 

This made for quite an interesting childhood.  Unbeknownst to me, many of these memories lead to depression and hopelessness.  For, it seemed that everywhere I went I saw pain and suffering.  I know now that this was due to my perspective rather than the world.  By very definition, there are more good people than bad, and less poverty and starvation than sustenance. 

But that still leaves the little Gou’s starving in India doesn’t it?  What is one to do?  What should one do?  Does one need to do anything?  These are the questions that haunt us all somewhere within our psyche.  Children just hold these concerns nearer the top of their awareness because they have no mortgage or kids of their own to worry about.  Yet we still harbor the conundrums. 

Each of us has special gifts, some more prevalent than others.  Life is about choosing what we want to use them for.  Neither is more right than the other.  Some have discipline and strength of character and go to the Peace Corps, other to religion, some to the military.  These are all choices.   

I choose to help others through writing, treatment, and consulting.  By helping people with philosophy and modeling my example, I assist the kids in India.  My son may ask, “How Daddy?”  And I will share, that there is direct action and indirect action, as well as teaching and training, and funding.  Each supports our dreams in different ways. 

We could directly open a soup kitchen in Bombay.  Or we could hand out birth control.  Others in the USA help indirectly by working for aid institutions in support roles such as phone or technical support.  Others teach about nonprofits and some finance their operations. 

Then again, we all help in one way or another: he project manager building huge dams or infrastructure projects, a school teacher teaching literacy.  Statesmen bring people together to compromise.  Even my Internet friends bring information to the masses.  For me, my study of philosophy has shown me the balance of the world, and I hope that I can share that with others.   

It has become cliché to dream of world peace, however noble the goal.  I seek to help people find peace from the inside out.  Only philosophy can do this.  No external changes brought me the comfort that I needed.  First change within, then the world changes without.

Subject and Object Part IV: Subdividing the Infinite

A man goes on a walk through the forest, he is smelling the cedar, the mist and the ferns as he wanders through the wood.  Then suddenly, HE SLIPS!  “Ahhhhhhh!” he screams while sliding down an ever steepening undergrowth.  Then, as suddenly as the ride started, it stops.  He sighs, “Ahhhhhh,” relief. 

 

After an interminable pause, he notices the pleasant whoosh of air past his ears and through his somewhat grimy hair.  “Mmmmmm,” he feels.  Then he realizes that he is falling in open air!  “Ahhhhhhh!” he screams again.  Until he falls into a pool of water. 

 

“Phew!” he thinks as he starts to tread water.  “Thank God this pool of water was here.”  Then his limbs start to chill and he is unable to see the sides of the body through the mist.  Panic sets in.  He starts to pant and sputter.  “Blth. Blth. Hack.” 

 

After what seems an eternity, he reaches a side and crawls onto a rock.  “Thank God!!!”  he exclaims until the shivers start in.  “Great,” he imagines, “I will freeze to death on my beautiful walk.”  Yet the sun comes out and warms his body.  He lazily drifts to sleep until he awakens warmed and refreshed. 

 

Afterwards he worries, “How am I going to find my way home?”  Once he begins to walk his way further inland, he sees picnic benches and amenities.  He is actually at the bottom of the trail he was supposed to be tracing through the forest!  He screams “Whooo hooo!,” and dances for joy. 

 

Naturally the families here watched much of his ordeal and smilingly offer him some of their sandwiches.  While his shoes are laid out to dry in the son, he reflects.  Here he shines his character through the experience. 

 

How does he divide the journey in his memory? 

 

1.     What is it a terrifying nightmare through woods and near death?

2.     Was it a wild adventure that got him to his destination anyway?

3.     Did he miss his wonderful trail for a backbreaking fall?

4.     Was it freezing?

5.     Was it warm?

6.     Did he have to beg sandwiches off of people?

7.     etc.  

You see, this individual could subdivide the experience into any number of time slices to experience what he wanted.  At each point of the story he experiences many different sensations and has the liberty to choose which feeling he wants and what normative value to assign. 

 

In this same way, life is really one unbroken journey.  Our minds subdivide this indivisible experience into what we want to feel.  Even at the deepest points of despair in my own existence, I have the choice of seeing their framing differently. 

 

When I was depressed as a youth I could see how lucky I was to have such rich feelings.  When I crashed my motorcycle at 70 MPH and had to sleep out in a subfreezing field, I could feel grateful that I survived.  This does not mean that things do not “hurt,” but how I feel about them is up to me. 

 

Do these moments truly exist?  I leave that up to you.

The Secret and the Cream of the Crap

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

 

-W. Clement Stone

Years ago when preparing for Law School, I had  o take the Law School Aptitude Test (LSAT).  This relatively straightforward exam had five parts: two argumentative reasoning sections, two logic games sections, and an essay.  Although I scored near prefect on the arguments, what a surprise, I did only above average on the logic games. 

Regardless of my actual score on the exam which was better than most, though not as good as some, I learned much from preparing and practicing.  I used the Kaplan books, help from an Attorney and a special book which is out of print.  This last book has a catchy phrase that this article introduces today. 

“The Cream of the Crap.” 

What this prepatory book taught in this section was how to “pre-phrase” an answer to a question.  This process involved reading a question, envisioning the perfect answer, and only then looking at the available choices.  The student then chooses the best of the available options, “The Cream of the Crap.” 

Ironically, life can be thought of as very similar.  If we always focus on what we want and how to get it, our minds become conditioned to see only the things which lead to our successes.  Then again, continually focusing on failure leads us to recognize only the stimuli that create that result. 

It is this idea that fuels methodologies such as “The Secret,” and “The Law of Attraction.”  Are we really using energy to attract what we want, or are we just choosing the Cream of the Crap?  It does not matter which.  It only matters that focusing on means of success prepares us to get what we want in a fulfilling way. 

Furthermore, the methods above do not require us to focus on material objects.  We can also concentrate our attentions on emotional or spiritual fulfillment.  So the next time someone asks if you believe in “The Law of Attraction,” you can say no, “but I always get the cream of the crap.”  

Reference: 

Stone, Clement W. (1902-2002).  Retrieved May 14,2007, from http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/whatever_the_mind_of_man_can_conceive_and_believe/252965.html

As You Remain the Same, the World Changes

Several posts ago in “The Perfect Paradox Method of Manifestation,” we discussed seven steps to receive fulfillment in your present life.  Here they are again reprinted:

 

  1. Know
  2. Think
  3. Believe
  4. Now
  5. Feel
  6. See
  7. Receive

 

We outlined that one must renounce one’s believed attachments to discern true character, motives, and desires.  Once one knows what that he is, the subject must change thinking to align with that.  Then he must accept, or believe the results found.  This is Phase I.  During Phase II, the individual must feel what they want for themselves, see it in their lives and receive it when it arrives.

 

Since I outlined this process in a previous post, I will not restate the whole thing here.  What I will add are some nuances and clarifications.  This process does not proceed at the same rate for everyone.  Some already know what they are and utilize clear logic to think about it.  While others, they believe and feel it, but take rather than receive.  Not all steps follow a set path.

 

Furthermore, many of us lose sight of one or the other steps during our travels in this world.  Many distractions occur.  We get hurt, or lose something we imagine vital to our existence.  As a result we experience pain or confusion which clouds our reason and perception.  We must engage in the process of personal perfection in an ongoing fashion to ensure fulfillment and peace.  Let us use an example.

 

Let us imagine that I divorced many years ago.  During that time, I rendered my thoughts down to some core aspects.  I know that I am part of the giant universal whole.  I have proved it using logic and case study for a significant period of time.  My thinking no longer describes things in terms of separateness and possession.  What is mine is always mine, or it never was.  So there is no need for such delineation.

 

My beliefs support these facts; I am steady and experience few agitations.  I feel this calmness and see its results in the relationships which develop around me.  Whatever is offered to me, I receive gratefully as it supports what I am.  Harmony infuses my charmed life, the Now is eternal.  But life appears to change.

 

As I grow in steadiness, the world which was once calm becomes more agitated.  The universe always remains in balance.  If one part grows steadier, the other often becomes agitated.  I enter a custody battle for my son; finances grow slim.  My life seems to be empty around me.  Thus I need to engage in the process more.

 

I begin to reason out what this feeling that I have, is.  In the past, I might describe it as fear or anger.  Yet upon examination, I see that it is something else.  It is not loneliness per se, but a desire for sharing of a more solid basis, a more permanent relationship.  Now that I am steady I seek to share my balanced soul with another balanced soul.  In the past we were two unbalanced halves trying to make a balanced whole.  Two unbalanced persons together make an unbalanced couple.

 

This time though, it is two balanced entities.  Relations with my son fulfill part of this need, while I see that the universe is sending me another.  The way I know this is that I have surrendered all attachments to results and I know what I feel in the absence of all stimuli.  When I feel something I can quickly trace where the sensation came from, and what it means to me.  Each person feels things differently.

 

For this reason, when we apply the process to another, it is vital that they grow to understand and see themselves clearly.  Sure, we can give a very clear read as to what is likely coming into their awareness.  But as they become more subtle in their development, it serves them best to enable them to do their own processing.  Another person may experience the same feeling and draw a different conclusion and be equally right.

 

So in summary, the process does not always occur in the same order and its results mean different things.  And as one experiences life he or she must apply different steps at different times.  Finally, because your body changes, your perception of the world around you changes and the process needs to be reapplied as you grow.  Another example may help.

 

When you come into this world, your parents take care of your helpless body.  As you grow, your relationship to them ought to change to maintain the same balance.  You grow stronger, hence they must grow weaker relative to you!  At some stage in your development, you are peers.  And finally, you help them on the way out of this life as they helped you on the way in.

 

Ironically, many adults refuse to recognize their children’s development.  As a result much dysfunction and abuse occurs of both children and the elderly.  These parents always want their children to look to them for advice.  Even when at 80, their advice is generally 40-60 years out of date!  At a certain point, the child must become the leader in the relationship.

 

When viewing the world, you can see this lack of evolution affect us all.  Imagine that a certain group of people were expected to die twenty years ago.  But due to the advances of modern medicine, they lived much longer than expected.  A world with no war was developing.  The Cold War was done, and as the UN reports, we have fewer conflicts on the globe than we have ever had since reports were instituted.

 

Furthermore, mortality rates are lower than they have ever been; the same with malnutrition.  Yet these leaders could not live without war, it was all they had ever known.  So, they start new ones.  They could only function by defining themselves by their opposite.  Remember George W. Bush without Bin Laden.  He was only a sincere man out on the ranch chopping wood.  Then Bin Laden “came” and he became “The War President,” and “The Decider.”

 

To make one thing perfectly clear, I am not advocating any specific political position with respect to a specific policy choice.  What I am advocating is raising children who surpass us in wisdom and patience.  If my son does not surpass me, I have failed miserably.  This is not just in a material sense.  This includes evolution of thought and awareness.  I advocate this without apology.  My way is the foundation for him to develop his own.  Develop your own.

 

Perfect Paradox Method of Manifestation

Well, it is about time.  We have spoken of and danced around the idea of manifestation and reality.  Everyone is talking about a so-called Secret and how to change your perspective.  Now we show how we do it here.

 

Our method aims at releasing all of your old attachments and becoming what you were born as.  Think of it as abandoning all of your old useless or vestigial genetic traits for only those that apply to modern life.

 

Sannyasi is the act of renouncing everything and walking on faith.  Although I have done this and it is the fastest path to realizing your personal potential, it is also the hardest and most brutal.  It is not recommended for everyone and it may not even be necessary.

 

When I first returned from my path of renunciation, I encouraged all to wander its lonely and deep waters.  Yet this did not take well.  People feel deeply addicted to the physical reality and refuse to release its enticements.  This feeling comes naturally.

 

Think of the child who feels no attachment to clothes, food, or anything.  Then, we as parents convince them of the value of these things.  Once the years of indoctrination succeed, the youth becomes an adherent to the materialist argument too.

 

A rare few never really accept the idea that the physical world is all that exists, that only what can be measured through external scientific instruments exists.  These humans have extreme difficulty getting along in life.  Many people consider them mentally ill resulting in hospitalization and medication.

 

Yet we have a paradoxical road that we can walk between the two schools of thought.  This challenge is the human condition, how to balance the intuitive and logical.  Scholars devote study to creativity and methods of creation.  They find both logical and intuitive methods work together.

 

We are hybrid beings of both spirit and matter.  The ancient symbol of the cross, far older than any single religion symbolizes this concept.  The vertical line is that of spirit or intuition connected to source energy such as the sun or even the galactic core of the Milky Way.  The horizontal line signifies the linear path of physical existence.

 

We meet at the center, where the two lines intersect.

 

What we know, we know from within and above.  This is our perspective which we search the material reality for.  Our scientific instruments are discovering that thoughts precede stimuli in the senses.  Furthermore a nerve loop exists between any of the senses and the brain.

 

The eye for example has two loops connecting it to the brain, and one exists before the optic nerve.  This means that we actually perceive something before we actually see it.  Then we return this idea to the eye for processing.  Of course this example is extremely simplified to present the case:  We affect what we see prior to seeing it.  Now, one does not need instruments to know that we see what we want, study hallucinations.  How can one person see something that no one else does?  That person just sees reality differently.

 

In fact, everyone sees reality differently.  Our feelings differ as well.  So, again, the question arises, how to tighten the loop so much so that what we perceive and see and feel all align?  Here we enter our method:

  1. Know
  2. Think
  3. Believe
  4. Now
  5. Feel
  6. See
  7. Receive

What you know you know from within.

What you think is how your mind reasons it out within.

What you believe is what you want to see with your personality from within

 

These are the first three layers.

 

What you feel is what comes in from without.

What you see is what you want to come in from without.

What you receive is what you accept from without.

 

These are the second three layers.

 

Yes we skipped one.  We skipped The Now, or where the two meet.

 

When you align both the inside and the outside, you experience the eternal now, the past, the present, and the future at once.  Historically one had to bear his or her own cross to learn this path.  In this Age we can do it a bit more easily, though not without discomfort.

 

Our method shows one how to renounce while being in the world.  How to smoothly release the old attachments without getting a saffron robe and chanting all day.  Although, one can do this as part of the path if one chooses.

 

As we renounce our mental attachments, we streamline our thinking and learn what we truly believe, in the absence of physical conditioning.  Think of this as the seed of what you are.  The internal work allows one to discover one’s destiny in the absence of societal or familial expectations.

 

Think of the earlier stages of your life as familiarization with the human body, hot and cold, pain and pleasure, or growth and stagnation.  Once these things are learned, the rules of the child must be surrendered to discover one’s chosen destiny.

 

Now that you have determined from within, what it is you want, most people want to see it in the world around them.  Some notes require mentioning here.  Renunciation of the attachments built up over one’s life removes the pressure.  In fact, after proper renouncing, one really needs nothing from without.  That is why the method has so much power.  It allows you to need nothing.  So what you get now matches what you choose.   

 

In phase two, the subject practices feeling what it is that she wants to feel based on the character uncovered within.  Once she feels it in her heart, she starts to see that which supports her dreams around her.  Next she gratefully receives the bounty from the world around her.  An example helps here. 

 

Jennifer always wanted to be a dancer.  Yet her family consisted of farmers.  Whenever she mentioned dancing, they laughed at her and told her to stop daydreaming.  After years of farming and raising livestock, Jennifer has a major illness.  It causes her to reassess her life.  She comes to us to help her discern her fate.  We give her tools to uncover the gem buried under all that rock.  Once she uncovers it we help her to polish and facet it.

 

She has renounced as she has a terminal illness. She knows that nothing without will fulfill her life, that it has to come from within.  This mortality gives her the impetus necessary to streamline her thinking to discover what she believes, what truly matters to her.  Phase I is clear.  The process enters the Perfect Paradox where physical and non-physical meet.

 

We help her to release all of the old thinking patterns using logic and philosophy, and energy work with vibrational healing.  Most importantly we provide her unbiased support for achieving her dreams.  Jen now knows what she believes.  She remembers wanting to dance, feeling that the world was a giant dance of senses, a symphony of motion.

 

When she was a farmer, her mind saw everything in terms of production and delivery of sustenance.  She went to the mall and noted Hillshire Farms, and
Wilson’s Suede and Leather.  Now Jennifer visits the mall and sees the dance studio, and the fitness tights.  Her mind thinks of ways to support her dream only allowing those ideas in support of it into her conscious awareness.  This woman travels on the road to fulfill her dreams.

 

But there is one more vital step in the process:  Receive.  Many ask why this step is so important.  Without equivocation, if you take what you want, you are contradicting all of the work done during renunciation.  You will trap yourself back into a physical driven world of scarcity and consumption.  Using the idea of receiving also allows one to have adventure.

 

For example, after reading the above story, one may assume that Jennifer becomes some sort of dancer.  This is not necessarily her dream.  The concept of receiving puts her in a place of discovering how her life plays out.  Knowing exactly how your life plays out is not much fun, and renders life itself unnecessary.  The little variations make everything.  Our subject has aligned all of the layers of herself.  Now she awakens to her daily adventure where she sees how the physical fulfills her nonphysical dreams.

 

She begins to read about dancing and the mechanics and kinesiology of movement.  Then a man approaches her about renting space on her farm for horses.  Because she is thinking about dancing she asks what the horses are for.  He says that he boards professional horses for a variety of clients.  Naturally she asks if any of them perform.  He says “yes,” in fact.

 

One can easily imagine where the story is going; especially as we framed the vision in terms of her dreams, desires and goals.  She works with horse performers.  Imagine doing this with your own dreams and we can help you make it so.  Please, do not wait until the material world makes you ill because you are living a lie.

Principles before Physicality

As human beings in a transient existence, we perceive things inconsistently.  Sometimes we know something, and do not believe it.  Other times, we believe something and do not know it.  We may feel something but not know it or believe it.  These internal contradictions underlie much of our pain and confusion in this life.

 

Many methods for removing these logical inconsistencies exist.  Most of the methods find themselves scattered throughout the many educational disciplines.  Part of a method may be in psychoanalysis where we work on “unconscious desires.”  Other ones hide in spirituality, such as believing, faith and receiving.

 

The new movie “The Secret,” attempts to packaged a method of creating one’s perfect life.  Fortunately, the method is not really a Secret.  Unfortunately the method in the film is somewhat incomplete.  It states:

 

  1. Ask
  2. Believe
  3. Receive

 

Now, this method works mighty well for most people.  Think about a child, this girl wants a pony.  She asks the universe for it.  Her mind is now training itself to only see options that lead to success.  Then she believes that it will come.  This releases her fear while keeping her motivated and focused.  Finally, receiving keeps her from becoming a tyrant and just going and taking something.

 

Yet for an adult, this process involves many other aspects.  For example, one has to feed and care for that pony.  A spiritual adult or adolescent has far more concerns that must be allayed before the process can work.  These adults may frustrate their own powers of acquisition.  Thus their will is divided internally and externally.

 

Furthermore, the process of manifestation is not truly for acquisition.  ALL MATERIAL OBJECTS ARE FINITE.  This means that anything loved in this physical existence will decay and die.  Absolutely everything.  To experience lasting peace, one must fix one’s mind, or awareness, on a principle.  While the actors fulfilling the principle may die or change, the principle NEVER EVEN FADES.

 

This means that while one may love a great judge as a lover of truth, the judge will someday die.  But truth will never die.  As long as one is fixed on this principle, he or she will never taste the disappointment that plagues one who puts faith in physical objects.  No pastor, prophet, or savior will ever fulfill an infinite need.  It is the IDEA that the person represents that provides the fulfillment.

 

So the question lies, how does one do this?

 

One learns to focus the mind through a variety of means.   In Vedanta we call this “single-pointedness.”  All spiritual exercises, such as those of the founder of the Jesuits, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, are designed with this goal in mind:  Reduce the mental agitations, and focus the will.  This is what mediation is for.  This is what service is for.  This is what a host of regimens teach.  They train the individual to focus the mind and body on one thing alone. 

 

Once the Seeker gains the ability to focus, contemplation must begin.  Now the individual removes all internal and external inconsistencies.  The process of intellectual refinement follows the physical refinement for most.  Though, some go the other direction.  Examples include the Brahmacharya who surrenders all physicality and goes mental-no pun intended, and, the Yogicharya who goes completely sensual.

 

Each uses a method to focus and eliminate external agitations.  Most of these agitations come from incomplete thoughts or attachments.  Regardless of the method, the Seekers must then focus the mind and will on removing any other logical inconsistencies.  The most common one is that the world or universe is unfair or unjust.  In the long run, all accounts balance.

 

By very definition what “is,” is what “should be.”  For what “is” dictates what is REAL, while what you imagine is the artificial construction.  Thus, the world is perfect, while our perception is imperfect.  Another way of presenting this concept, is to say that the world is infinite, while we are finite.  Our minds take a dependent snapshot of a moment of time of a process.  It is easy to look at a process and pick the incomplete part which justifies what we want to believe or feel.

 

Look at child rearing.  There are times as a parent where one must allow the child to cry in its crib.  If you caress the child every time he or she cries, the child is being taught, “crying is the appropriate way to get comfort and communicate.”  This child usually grows to be spoiled.  It cries whenever it wants something or experiences minute frustration, rather than learning to use the discomfort as motivation to change circumstances.

 

In the finite, the parent who allows the child to cry seems extremely cruel and unkind.  Ruthless and unforgiving.  This is not the case at all.  It may very well be more loving to allow the child a little frustration now rather than ENDLESS frustration in the eternities.  Focus on the principles of appropriate conduct, and one always has a goal and reward.  Living your own righteous principles can never truly be taken away, and requires NOTHING PHYSICAL.

How to Manifest What You Want N+1

Imagine that the universe is your own chef.  It will make whatever you want when you ask for it.  Then imagine that you cannot make up your mind.  So you make orders like, “I would like an omelette, but will be okay with crab cakes.”

 

What would the chef do?  First off, it only makes what you ask for, so when you do not ask for one thing clearly, it possesses no way to make it.  When we are told to settle for what is provided, we are truly being taught to eat what we previously ordered.

 

Yet that is not the lesson that people learn.  They learn that they ought to accept any old thing.  But this will never make one happy.  Getting what you do not want will not fulfill you.  The actual fact, is that people either do not know what they want, or are afraid to ask.

 

Usually, when we are young, we know exactly what we want.  “I want ice cream.”  “I want a new bicycle.”  When we get it, we are happy, when we do not, several things may happen.  We might be told to want something else, because what we want is “Too unrealistic.”

 

Or, we may be told to figure out a way to get it.  And better still, we may be helped in learning how to get what we want out of what is available.  Each response teaches us something different.  The unrealistic one teaches us to suppress our dreams.

 

The “figure out a way to get it,” may teach self-reliance, and it may teach us that we are a failure.  Helping us to get what we want shows one of the most useful responses.  It allows us to learn that together we can work everything out.  We are a team.

 

Regardless of which situation we felt like we experienced as youngsters.  There are several things we must learn to do when we are older if we are to find lasting happiness.  First and foremost, we have to learn how to discover what we want.

 

Deep inside us there are desires that shape our characters.  Many say that they want true love, others that they want to be rich.  Each has its merits, each is object oriented.  The more spiritually inclined may ask for world peace, or internal peace.

 

Once we decide what we think we want, we can determine whether this fulfills something deep inside or whether this is an external want learned from our environment.  Some women may have wanted to become astronauts, but were told that “love” was what they really wanted.

 

Thus, they spend their search seeking that which will never fulfill them.  Then again, you have the ones who are taught that all human being want the same thing, and that it is some dogmatic truth.  This will not fulfill them, as each person has their own ways of experiencing this truth.

 

Some experience spiritual wholeness through giving, others through growing, or even fighting others in combat.  Each can determine what they want and how to get it.  Before they are sure they can renounce.  This involves letting go of everything that you think you want.  Then you wait a period of time for the dust to settle.

 

I took the dramatic route and surrendered everything, a family, material success, all of my heirlooms, you name it.  Then I deliberately denied myself everything but tools which forced me to look at my internal reality.  This dramatic and comprehensive method is not recommended for all.

 

In fact, because I walked this path and gained its insight, I now help people to renounce without having to figuratively or literally burn all of their connections to reality.  For example, one client obsesses on his children.  All he can think of is how he is a father.

 

As a result, his children toy with his emotions, either deliberately or unconsciously.  He is a leaf in the wind blown hither and thither by their whims.  He will never experience wholeness of fullness as long as his esteem is determined by external actors and objects.

 

So we guide him to diminish his personal identification with the external.  Some ways might be by minimizing his contact to the essentials as his children are now in junior high and high school.  It may involve getting assistance to support his progeny as he redefines his identity.

 

Most importantly, we support him and his family as he renounces identification with the external goal that may or may not be his own dream.  As things start to settle, it becomes clearer to him what he truly wants or dreams of.  In fact, we do other work to read his desires and help him anchor them into his awareness.

 

All of these things lead to a more balanced and fulfilled life for him at a rapid rate.  The method of total renunciation that I used leads to discovering your wants and self more quickly, but the emotions still take time to cascade when you are on your own.

 

For my clients I help them to move all of their pieces simultaneously while minimizing the extremes.  This way, they can learn what they want while experiencing and feeling it.  Rather than discovering their highest purpose and waiting for everything to catch up!