Since Nov 21, 2008, I’ve been trying to accomplish a set of about 3 goals. [I wrote this during the last week of November; I had originally planned a two week project into accomplishing these goals, but I feel ill for the entire second week; the following is a summary, though perhaps not complete, of that one week I did spend on these goals. I should probably underline that the following is not a complete summary of the discoveries I made, there are issues that pertain to the constitution of humans, both physical and spiritual, that I have not included, but have kept in a journal in the form of many scribbles and a few diagrams -- the understanding of the physico-spiritual constitution of the human, however, is far from complete.]
1. To fully understand how to manifest things, i.e. to fully understand the process of accomplishing things.
Regarding this goal, I have discovered that, basically the system of 7 chakras provides a nice framework for the different steps necessary to accomplish any goal, namely,
The capacity to think because all manifestation begins as a thought,
The capacity to imagine, because imagination fills out and adds specificity to the thought
The capacity to communicate, both to oneself and to others about what you want to manifest, this capacity helps to root the goal in one’s life, and involves three essential elements, first, the statement of the goal itself, then the addition of a time element (e.g. a deadline) and lastly, the establishment of a measure of success (how do you know when the goal is accomplished?). I’ll speak more about these issues below.
The capacity to cultivate relationships and resources that are necessary to accomplish the goal. This capacity is generally the ability to relate to all things outside of oneself in order to manifest the goal, and that includes both relationships with people (the labor), and with resources (the ability to gather them).
The capacity to exercise the will. Nothing is truly manifested but through the exercise of the will, it is the most important capacity we possess to accomplish any goal!
The capacity to feel – which allows us to get truly involved in the accomplishment of the goal and also to help us to make the right decisions, choices necessary to succeed. The latter assertion would imply that most decisions, including the right ones!, are based on feelings rather than thoughts. This may sound counterintuitive, but the ability to get in touch with our own feelings is truly the essential ingredient in sound decision making.
Lastly, the capacity to have, to enjoy the fruits of our own labor!
Some Further Explanations
The capacity to communicate, both to oneself and to others about what you want to manifest – this includes, I believe adding a time element to your goal – when you want it done by – and adding a “measure of success” element, that is, how do you know when your goal will be accomplished – this is part of communicating to yourself or others about the goal. Other than the goal itself, the time element and the measure of success are the two most important elements of defining the goal, and if they’re not established, then it may be said that no goal has been set!
The time element and the measure of success are, I believe, very key to accomplishing anything. The trickiest of these is the measure of success and it’s a big reason why it’s so difficult to be a self made person in this world, we’re so encouraged to work for somebody else rather than set up our own standards of success. This process of standard setting involves a potentially long process of soul searching to discover one’s ultimate
value, goal, mission, purpose, motivation, and meaning. Truly knowing one’s ultimate goal, for example, is no mean feat! It is a worthy goal in and of itself, and I believe in order for it to be truly accomplished one must be fully initiated into the workings of oneself and all of nature and the universe – this is precisely what initiation offers, and finding one’s ultimate purpose is, I believe, a key part of the discipline of “Transformational Psychology” – that is the application of transcendental philosophy/the fruits of initiation to practical life. What I’m saying is that one must be a Buddha, a Christ, a Pythagoras, in order to truly know one’s ultimate value, goal, mission, i.e., one must have all the facts, all the knowledge, all the information in order to make a truly informed decision about what one’s ultimate purpose is – any attempt at knowing this purpose before gathering all the facts is simply groping in the dark (welcome to my life!).
Nevertheless, today (Nov 26) I spent some time reflecting on what may be my ultimate purpose, and something causes me to reject the simple answer “to be happy”. Besides, I believe happiness is a byproduct of fulfilling your goal, purpose, etc. It’s how we know we’re doing things right! Therefore, I don’t buy the notion that it is worthy of pursuit in and of itself. The “pursuit of happiness” is better left to those who believe that life, and more specifically human life, has no ultimate purpose. Similarly, “success” is the result of obeying the principles of right doing and right living, and not something worthy of pursuit in and of itself. It has been a sad cause of retardation of my own personal development that I believed the opinion of others that happiness and success are more than simply shadows or reflections of finding and living one’s true purpose. Happiness is the pursuit of those who work for a living, not for those who perform, instead, their life’s work!
After some reflection today, I’ve come up with a few tentative answers, as follows.
Basically, there are three elements as to what I believe is my ultimate purpose (I use the other terms, mission, goal, etc. as semi-synonyms). These three are, MASTERY, UNDERSTANDING, and WHOLENESS.
Now, as regards to the ultimate purpose of my life, I believe it is no different than the ultimate purpose of the species to which I belong, i.e. humanity. I borrow from Genesis Chapter 1, where men and women were created on the sixth day to be the shepherds of the earth, to be lords of the earth, everything on it, and everything in it, to tend to this “garden.” That purpose I equate with MASTERY, to lord over, to shepherd, to sustain, to tend, etc. We are like “the keepers” on this physical plane of existence; just like Christ is the keeper of the soul (of Christians) we are supposed to be the keepers of the earth. We’re like physical angels, tending over the physical realm. Of course we’re not doing a very good job at the moment.
Now, though my understanding might be a little muddy here, I believe mastery is the natural result of a combination of UNDERSTANDING and WHOLENESS. Understanding is something involved in the process of growth, and involves a “breaking” of the original WHOLENESS that most of us are born with into its component parts. WHOLENESS is the true meaning of the word HEALING, and implies BALANCE, but not just BALANCE but a full possession on the part of the individual (and on a broader scale the species) of all of his capacities and potentialities. So we’re born whole, full of creative expression, spirituality (children are much more in touch with their spiritual nature than adults), vitality, energy, curiosity, capacity to learn, all of our capacities are obvious in children. But, there is a process of GROWTH that involves a breaking up of that wholeness into its component parts, which if properly performed, involves the UNDERSTANDING of the exact constitution of that original WHOLENESS. At the age of adulthood, 18, or 21, we should, then, re-attain the WHOLENESS we were born with, but this time with full UNDERSTANDING. It is the combination of WHOLENESS and UNDERSTANDING that leads to our true purpose, MASTERY.
The fifth element in the accomplishment of any goals is the exercise of the will. I’ve come to believe that exerting effort and force is antithetical to the true exercise of the will. The will is a capacity, a function that we cannot turn off, it’s the function of our 3rd chakra to will, just like it’s the function of our liver to purify, store energy, etc. and the function of our mind is to think, we cannot turn off our wills, and yet we don’t feel every second of every day that we’re forcing or making an effort. Now, I believe that the will properly defined is “the capacity of the individual to effect consciously controlled change”. And its effective use can come only from the development of the quality known as SELF-ESTEEM. SELF-ESTEEM is a tricky notion not properly defined in mainstream culture or perhaps even mainstream psychology. It is not “self-image” or “one’s regard for oneself”, but rather, one’s capacity to say “I am capable,” “I can”, it is the belief the individual has in his or her capacity to DO and to ACCOMPLISH. It is a belief, i.e., little more than a thought pattern, a discipline or habit of mind.
To properly direct our will towards the accomplishment of any task we desire to accomplish, we must have the following thought pattern sufficiently ingrained in our subconscious thinking: “I have the capacity to [statement of goal, e.g. find a romantic partner, get a better job]” The exercise of the will therefore in the accomplishment of any goal involves the cultivation of a discipline of mind (some people, the high achievers, are already blessed with this discipline of mind), a sufficient possession/control of one’s own mind, or more specifically, one’s thoughts. The cultivation of the skill of thought-control is key therefore to exercising one’s will. The third goal, see below, speaks to the issue of how exactly one can go about controlling one’s own thoughts in order to effect change in one’s life.
Incidentally, SELF ESTEEM is contrasted with the notion of SELF-VALUE or SELF-WORTH. The latter two, I equate with each other, and I believe they signify one’s believe in one’s RIGHT TO HAVE. This relates to self-respect. People with self-value/self-worth believe they deserve a certain basic degree of respect and will not be found abusing themselves (with drugs for example) or tolerating abuse from others. People with high self-value/worth do not tolerate getting their rights trampled on.
It is instructive to compare the personalities of those who are missing, alternately, the traits of self-esteem or self-value. For example, a child that is very spoiled, that gets everything he or she asks for, may grow up with high self-worth – a strong sense of entitlement. Nothing wrong with that, but if everything is done for him or her, he or she may find one day that he or she has no belief in his or her capacity to DO anything, make money, take out the trash, cook dinner. Here we find high self-value (having), low self-esteem (doing).
[N.B. I had originally a paragraph here regarding an example of someone with low self-value and high self-esteem. It appears to be missing! Basically, the ultimate example of low self-value, high self-esteem is a slave -- someone who may be able to perform tasks, various and wonderful, but does not believe in his or her ability to own the fruits of their own labor, i.e. to have.]
2. To develop the ability, skill of actually accomplishing things, of manifesting my desires and my thoughts.
As far as my progress with this goal, I’ve found that the ability to accomplish goals does not stem from writing them down, imagining them accomplished, communicating them, or acquiring relationships or resources – that is to say, the most important step in the accomplishment of any goal is the 5TH step, the exercise of the will. Also, the “exercise” of the will is a bit misleading – remember, I said above that the will wills, every minute of everyday, and no one can stop their will from willing, what is required to develop the ability to accomplish goals is to acquire the capacity to direct the will to the accomplishment of whatever task you have set. Again, to direct one’s will does not entail forcing or making an effort, these things work against the will and are a sign that you have not properly directed your will the goal you have set. So, we’ve established that the most important ability when it comes to developing the skill of accomplishing things is the ability to direct your will to the accomplishment of your goal. The question then is, how is the will directed? I’ve already said that it’s not through force or effort, so, what is it? The will is properly directed towards your goal in proportion to only one variable, namely, your degree of belief in your capacity to carry out that goal. It is your fundamental belief or conviction in your own ability to actually accomplish the goal that determines, ultimately, whether or not you will accomplish it. It follows logically from this that once you have sufficient belief or conviction in your capacity to accomplish the goal, all other stages in the process of goal accomplishment, from imagination, to gathering resources, from emotional involvement to communication of the goal to yourself or others, all these tend to fall into place quite naturally.
3. a) To develop the power and ability to control my thoughts, to control my mind, to control my subconscious thoughts, including my subconscious thoughts.
Thought has no value whatsoever if it is not in line with truth. What value is an erroneous thought? It is the very purpose of thought to mend the error of our ways. Therefore, I believe that the only way to truly control our thinking is to make sure that our thoughts are in line with truth. We must fervently guard against error, especially error in thinking.
Regarding my progress with this goal, I’ve decided that in order to take control and possession of one’s own thoughts, one must make certain, to the degree that one can, that one’s thoughts are in line with TRUTH. It is truth’s function to amend error, and to correct our poor patterns (discipline) of thought and behavior. The foundation of our lives must be truth, and our thoughts must be in line with truth. All suffering, pain, and misery may be a result of the negation of truth, be that believing in lies or trusting in error. Therefore, all happiness, health, wealth, etc., is the result of the affirmation of truth.
One way to make sure our thoughts are in line with truth is to seek out truth, i.e. to never accept authority for truth, but only accept truth as the authority. It is only the greatest of all historical figures that have done so, and many have bravely given up their lives simply because those around them were not ready to mend their own erroneous thinking.
The second, and only other way I know of, to make sure our thoughts are in line with truth, is to AFFIRM TRUTH! The true power of affirmations is granted to those whose affirmations are rooted in truth.
Incidentally, it is transformational psychology that is the only form of psychology that seeks to apply truth to daily living, its goal is an error free life, a life built upon rock and not sand, a life built with a secure foundation, namely truth – the absence of error and belief in falsehood. The ultimate value of science, also incidentally, is truth – this much is obvious from Karl Popper’s famous assertion that no scientific thesis can be deemed worthy of the name unless it is falsifiable! That is, unless its veracity can be checked! Truth is the foundational value of science.
[I realize I have repeated myself quite a bit in this section, and the following is also somewhat of a repetition. I should also state that I found out quite early on in the week-long foray into these goals that there is a link between affirmation of truth and the proper direction of the will towards the accomplishment of any goal -- and it pertains precisely to the subconscious pattern of thinking involved in directing the will mentioned in section 1 above, namely "I have the capacity to [insert goal here].] Science arose from a rebellion against false doctrine. The scientific revolution was precisely that, a revolution of rebels against false doctrine, false belief. It arose from the work of men whose conviction was that truth existed apart from human beliefs, desires, and wishes, and that a life lived in error was truly not a life worth living.
[Digression] The ultimate value of religion is absolute truth (though not mass religion, who’s ultimate value is deception and therefore enslavement of the unthinking). Science may be said to share the same ultimate value, which is why science and religion were never separate entities among the learned of antiquity. The ultimate value of modern science is relative truth – that is to say, assertions whose veracity can be checked (K. Popper) through a) the senses that we have all agreed that we share with each other (those that claim to have senses beyond the 5 ‘consensus senses’ are relegated to research beyond the scientific, called the ‘paranormal’ – even though these people may share the same ultimate value of modern science – relative truth), and b) through the comparison of that assertion with other verified assertions in a manner pleasing to our rational nature. This two-fold aspect of attaining to the ultimate value of modern science – relative truth – is summarized in the two words that encapsulate what is known as “the scientific method”, namely, “inductive logic” – which perhaps could also be called “empirical reason.” Is it not strange that modern science says, therefore, that “as it is on earth, so it is in heaven,” (inductive logic) whereas the theologian says, and has always said “as it is in heaven, so it is on earth.” (the Lord's Prayer). The fact is that if either of these statements is correct, then they both are. And, the fact that they’re both correct is precisely the reason why ancient wisdom never allowed these two complementary currents of thought to be separated in the first place.
3. b) to understand what role thought plays in manifestation.
Regarding this goal I have come to believe that thought plays a secondary role in the process of manifestation when compared to the will. The exercise of the will is the most important of the requirements in the manifestation of any goal. Of course, one cannot have a goal without being able to think, but thought does not make things happen, only the will makes things happen – in that sense the will is almost synonymous with manifestation itself. Such is what I’ve come to believe. Having said that, I’ve come to believe that the will is properly directed and exercised not through conscious effort or forcing oneself to accomplish the goal, but rather the will is unleashed when one has cultivated the thought pattern “I have the capacity to [insert goal here].” Without the thought pattern, the will cannot unleash its power towards the accomplishment of that goal. The key to accomplishing anything is to awaken the will.
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