Positive thinking is not a new concept, but in recent decades it has been

increasingly gaining currency among the global populace. There is almost a

consensus on the value of consciously cultivating positive thinking for
individual health, happiness and success

A friend is undergoing surgery as I write this, but she chose not to let any of us know
about it. When the news inadvertently reached a mutual friend who called her to
commiserate, she was not enthusiastic. She agreed to disclose it only on the
condition that we do not call her. She wanted some peace and quiet, she said. This
might seem an attempt to bury her head in the sand. But I know my friend's quiet
courage and self-awareness too much to suspect this to be the motive. I figure that
she wants to spare herself the concern, anxiety and false bonhomie all of us are
bound to express. No matter how well meaning, such gestures are invariably fuelled
by fear and dread, emotions that she could well do without.

It made me think of the negativity we load our lives with and how counter-productive
it is. Take the US-Taliban confrontation. Whether we feel anger at the Americans or
at Osama bin Laden, or sorrow at the meaningless deaths, first of the Americans and
now of the helpless Afghans, we flood the situation with negativity. What is needed
instead is a dispassionate acceptance of the situation and a single-minded intention
to resolve it. The single-mindedness is the key. So one-pointed should our attention
be that negativity simply has no place in the scheme of things.

This state of positivity without an opposite is potent. Free of negating doubts or

fears, one's attention focuses unwaveringly on the subject of our intention, knowing
fully well that what we intend will happen. In my friend's case, for instance, where I
would once be consumed by fear and call out to God in my helplessness, this state of
positivity would indicate a steadfast intention for her healing. It may be accompanied
by a prayer, but importantly, no longer in helplessness but with the calm self-
possession of love. God shifts into the role of a helper and beloved friend rather than
the omnipotent power He was earlier.

Surely this is the ground of all creation? The Upanishads reiterate that the Realized
One can manifest anything he desires, simply by intending it. They also assert that
this power of instant manifestation can only arise in one who has learnt to control his
senses, overcome desire, fear and anger.

What is it like, this state of positivity? What kind of life would we lead when
immersed in it? I think it is a state of concentrated energy, for we will be freed of all
the negative thoughts that steal away our energy and dissipate our focus. It will be a
quiet and still state of mind, with no conflict, for the latter is the direct result of
negative thoughts. It would be a peaceful and happy state of mind, regardless of
circumstances. Most of all, it would be a highly effective state of the mind, for it
would zero in on what needs to be done and do it. It would also be a tremendous
force for good.

No matter how hopeless or terrible the situation, the positive spirit will prevail,
seeing the opportunities inherent in the situation and providing a beacon of hope for
others around it. Serenely oblivious to the negative, it does not occur to him/her to
falter or doubt, forging ahead regardless, confident in the ultimate good of things.

The corollary is that the positive individual is also a black hole for the negativity
around him. In his presence, the negativity dissolves and dissipates, never to appear
again.

How is it that negativity simply cannot touch such an individual? One could say that
his energy is at a higher frequency than that of negativity, thereby shielding him
from its influence. At the level of deconditioning, s/he would have bored through all
that came between him and his blissful inner core. In other words, she would have
transcended desire and freed herself of fear and anger.

What is the relationship such an individual has between her intention and surrender
to God's will? What if God does not want the peaceful resolution of the Afghan
situation? I can only hazard a guess. The positivist operates from the stand that man
proposes, God disposes. We never stop thinking positive, but we leave the outcome
strictly in the hand of God, retaining with ourselves only the ability to see the
positive in any outcome.

No belief is right or wrong. It is either empowering or limiting

Ever heard the story of the four-minute mile? For years people
believed that it is impossible for a human being to run a mile in
less than four minutes until Roger Banister proved it wrong in
1954. Within one year, 37 runners broke the belief barrier. And the
year after that, 300 other runners did the same thing.

What happens if you put an animal in a pond? Any animal, big or

small, will swim its way through. What happens when someone,
who does not know how to swim, falls in deep waters? You drown.
If an animal who has not learned swimming could escape by
swimming, why not you? Because you believe you will drown while
the animal does not.

You have used a computer keyboard or a typewriter. Ever wondered why the
alphabets are organized in a particular order in your keyboard? You might have
thought it is to increase the typing speed. Most people never question it. But the fact
is that this system was developed to reduce the typing speed at a time when
typewriter parts would jam if the operator typed too fast.

These three cases show the power of our beliefs. There is no other more powerful
directing force in human behavior than belief. Your beliefs have the power to create
and to destroy. A belief delivers a direct command to your nervous system.

Have you heard about the placebo effect? People who are told a drug will have a
certain effect will many times experience that effect even when given a pill without
those properties.

I use a snake in my workshops for children to show them how unrealistic some of
their beliefs are. Students of a school in New Delhi, India, said snakes are slippery,
slimy and poisonous. After doing an exercise for changing beliefs, they handled my
snake and found it to be dry and clean. They also remembered that only three types
of poisonous snakes exist in India.

Have you ever scanned the 'to-let' advertisements in newspapers? Many say 'South
Indians preferred'. Why? Many house owners told me that it is easier to get South
Indians to vacate. The belief was that South Indians do not have the guts to fight.
Now you figure out the impact of LTTE supremo Prabhakaran and Southern
sandalwood smuggler Veerappan in changing this belief!

It is also our belief that determines how much of our potential we will be able to tap.
So you better examine some of your beliefs minutely. For example, do you believe
that you can excel in whatever you do? Do you believe you are bad in mathematics?
Do you believe that other people don't like you? Do you believe life is full of
problems? What are your beliefs about people?

No belief is right or wrong. It is either empowering or limiting. A belief is nothing but

the generalization of a past incident. As a kid if a dog bit you, you believed all dogs
to be dangerous. To change a particular behavior pattern, identify the beliefs
associated with it. Change those beliefs and a new pattern is automatically created.

I read this incident in a New York newspaper. "She met him in a singles' bar and they
talked for a while. He offered her a drink and she enjoyed his company. Then he
offered to drop her back home. While driving back, she realized that they were
moving through narrow and strange roads. 'Oh God where is he taking me?' she
thought but did not have the guts to ask. She cursed her decision to get into his car.
All of a sudden she saw him taking a turn back into the highway just near her house.
Smiling, he said: 'I took a short cut'."

Did this story end the way you thought? Review your beliefs now and find out which
ones are empowering and which ones you need to change.

If you want to live longer, be happy, healthy and successful, all you have to
do is tell yourself that you can do it by tapping the healing forces within

There is no greater joy than a healthy, positive life. You feel exhilarated, energetic,
happy and on top of the world. A sense of total well being permeates your mind. The
future looks bright. You feel good to be alive.

Great, but how do we get out of our innumerable worries, tensions and fears that the
increasingly competitive life burdens us with? Simple! Tell yourself that you are good,
healthy and capable. That is the power of positive affirmations.

Such affirmations are also called self-suggestions. It is a powerful tool for

transforming your inner self into an amazing health generating, self-healing entity.
You can record these affirmations on a tape synchronized with pleasant instrumental
music and replay them often to make them more effective and permanent.

SELF-INDOCTRINATION
Psychology says that our mind controls our body. So, taking charge of your mind
becomes a vital factor in keeping your body healthy. You can do this through
affirmations that establish the power of your mind. Try: "With the power of positive
thinking I now take charge of my body to maintain perfect health, strength and
happiness unconditionally, now and always, so be it." When you repeat this, the
misleading programs of your mind will be erased.

It is said that we are never given a wish without the power to fulfill it. Each person is
capable of programming his own mind to achieve what he desires. You can tap this
capability by following a few simple steps. But before you begin, make yourself
totally relaxed and be consciously willing to adopt the method.

Attuning yourself with nature guarantees an overall healthy life. To modify this
statement into an affirmation, say: "I attune myself with nature to stay healthy now
and forever."

You can have the right kind of food by affirming: "I can attract healthy food to keep
myself fit, healthy and strong, everyday."

You can develop the habit of exercising your body and mind by affirming: "I can
easily get up early in the morning everyday to exercise and keep fit and cheerful."

In case you are an insomniac, all you have to do is repeat: "I can relax into sound
sleep now and wake up revitalized, alert, bright and cheerful early in the morning. It
is done. So be it."

Sometimes, social influences play their part in either inducing or encouraging

negative thinking. This is the stage where most doctors give up the case as
incurable. So, to find the right doctor, suggest mentally to yourself: "I will locate the
right doctor who can cure me completely in a simple, easy and positive way, now and
always."

Your health problems can be dissolved by affirming: "I can now dissolve all my health
problems, worries and fears easily, quickly and successfully in simple, easy and
positive ways. So be it."

MAGNETIC RELAXATION
Unlike sleeping, magnetic relaxation requires you to be physically at rest but
subconsciously alert. When your conscious mind is relaxed, the positive suggestions
seep into your subconscious. To achieve maximum benefit from relaxation:

• Sit in a comfortable chair or lie down on a bed.

• Let go of all the tension by repeating to yourself: "I can now relax
comfortably. I can now relax my body. I can now relax my mind. Easily,
quickly and positively. Now I can enjoy the state of alert relaxation
peacefully."
• Let a feeling of soothing comfort take over.
• Let go of yourself totally. Feel a universal healing energy surrounding you and
getting absorbed into your body and mind.
• Feel a cool breeze around your body. Visualize a white sparkling light pouring
through your head down your body and seeping deep within you.
 • Think that soothing and healing forces are vibrating within and radiating from
you.
• Maintain a positive and peaceful state of mind during the session. Also, take
precautions that you are not disturbed.
• Mentally repeat to yourself: "Day by day in every way I'm getting better and
better and better."

This is a general formula that will heal you of all sickness. Emile Coue, a French
doctor, recommended it for physical, mental and emotional well-being. It can be
mentally repeated as many times as possible.

MAGNETIC ABSORPTION
The subconscious has the knowledge, power, wisdom and understanding to heal and
maintain perfect health. It is the interference of negative suggestions that causes ill
health and weakness. So, whenever you feel that something is not right, use
affirmations to get back on the right track. Here is a simple one that can be absorbed
into your subconscious to keep your body fit: "Attuned with universal healing powers
and the source of life, all my body organs are now becoming normal and fit, and they
will function perfectly to maintain excellent health, strength and vitality up to a great
age."

USING THE SUBCONSCIOUS

The subconscious mind is perfectly programmed with a survival package in the form
of universal instincts that can be synchronized with conscious programs to live in
harmony. Accepting your subconscious instincts relieves you of half of your health
problems.

The subconscious is always receptive to suggestions that transpire from your

conscious mind. So keep your conscious mind filled with creative, positive, pleasant,
peaceful and productive thoughts. When you repeat an affirmation in a relaxed state
of mind, it works wonders. To retain these suggestions, repeat them often, till you
feel confident that they have become a permanent habit.

The subconscious mind is an all-powerful, omnipresent and omniscient gift. Peace

will prevail in your life when these conditions are maintained. So, affirm often: "I
most willingly accept healthy, happy and self-healing success programs of my
subconscious mind consciously for total fitness, now and always."

It is easy to program your subconscious to integrate your inner healing power into a
self-healing force. All that you aspire for will come to pass. New friends, new
relationships, new ideas, new thoughts and new plans can motivate you to become a
powerful optimist. So affirm: "Today I am a new, dynamic, and optimistic futurist
flooded with positive thoughts of successful self-healing."

VITAL LIFE ENERGY

Magnetic energy plays a vital role in self-healing. The more energy you generate
through eating, breathing and exercising, the longer you will live with health and
happiness. It is said that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that
comes out of his mouth. When we speak to ourselves in positive terms, we tend
towards self-healing. We can build up positive statements like:

• I am healing myself positively.

• Positive energy is keeping me healthy.
• Healing myself and others is easy for me.
• I have the positive habit of deep breathing.
• Today I am feeling better than ever before.

• Tomorrow I am going to be perfectly all right.

FEEL YOUNG, LIVE LONGER
Age is an attitude of the mind. When you think youthful, you feel youthful. Energy
can also be enhanced by being active, alert and awake most of the time.

In my experimentation with autosuggestion, I feel that new frontiers can be explored

in the process of evolution. Some of them are:

• Assert firmly to reverse aging. Take it as a challenge.

• Use the countdown method to feel young and energetic after 50. Subtract the
number of years that you are over 50 from 50 and affirm that age constantly.
For example, if you are 55, all that you have to do is to count downwards the
years of your age by subtracting five from 50 and imagine that you are 45.
Now build up positive magnetic statement like: "Today I am 45 years young."

The second phase is to regain the natural color and abundance of youthful hair on
your head. But consistent practice coupled with firm determination is required on
your part. You can begin the practice right now by affirming: "I am determined to
regain all the hair on my head with its natural youthful color as soon as possible."
Mentally repeat it 21 times just before you go to sleep at night.
SELF-HEALING IN SEVEN DAYS
The magnetic self-healing schedule that follows is an invincible method that can take
you to the height of perfect health, strength and happiness. After practicing it for a
period of seven days you will find that all your past health problems automatically
disappear. The watchword here is consistency. All that you have to do is read the
affirmations as soon as you get up in the morning and before going to sleep. It has
cured me. It can do the same for you. Now read the following:

• I'm relaxed, my body is relaxed.

• My mind is relaxed, my emotions are relaxed.
• I am now totally relaxed.
• I am getting better, stronger and happier forever.

Now make yourself comfortable. Read the affirmation given below focusing your eyes
in a half-closed manner as if you are reading it half asleep.

Hold your breath comfortably and read each statement twice. Relax after reading it.
Don't hurry. Don't worry. You will see the difference from the very first day. After you
practice the magnetic affirmations for seven days, let go of it. You can always come
back to the seven-day program whenever you feel the need. You can mentally repeat
each affirmation for the whole day but remember to hold your breath while doing so.
Now repeat:

• My body and mind are clean and energetic. I love my body.

• Today I am becoming strong, powerful, dynamic, happy-go-lucky and
attractive.
• Today I can choose to take total interest in regaining perfect health
successfully.
• Today I assert, affirm and relax with total freedom to heal myself with the
power of thought.
• Today I am on the way to recovery easily, quickly and successfully to become
healthy, happy and free.
• Today I have regained normalcy with the power of positive thought
successfully.
• Today health and energy are vibrating and radiating from me.

Do it for seven days at a stretch and discover the new, optimistic you who can take
anything in his stride. It only takes a little belief and a little determination to change
your life.

WAYS TO REPLACE YOUR NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

Have you ever thought about the fact that there is never a moment when
you are not thinking—that whatever happens in this world begins with a
thought? Here are five simple steps to help you manage your thoughts and
achieve success and happiness in life

BE AWARE OF YOUR THOUGHTS

Start watching your thoughts, without identifying with them. Watch them as a
detached observer.

You may even get carried away by your thoughts. Never mind. It is natural—
especially for a beginner. What you need to do, whenever you detect this, is to take
yourself out of your thoughts immediately and get back to the process of thought-
watching once again as a detached observer.

Do not get perturbed by your thoughts. Don't condemn or justify them. Don't try to
control them. Just watch them. After some time, you will come to know what your
negative thoughts are about. Now concentrate on all the positive thoughts that you
can replace these thoughts with, in order to switch over to a more positive attitude
towards them. Our attempt should be to cut down the quantity of unnecessary
thoughts and to improve the quality of the necessary ones. Keep yourself busy.
Simple food, deep breathing and relaxation exercises also help manage your
thoughts easily. Expect less from others.

IDENTIFY NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

Keep a logbook. Jot down your thoughts. Write down happenings of the day. Were
they positive, appropriate and adequate or were they confused, superfluous and
negative? Could you notice the interval between the happening and your response? If
yes, could your foresee your negative thoughts? If not, what can, you do to notice
this interval? Was there any discrepancy between words and thoughts? If yes, was it
justified—could you find a better way of harmonizing your words and thoughts? Was
the verbal response necessary, appropriate and adequate?

Sometimes we talk to others, or simply to ourselves, or think about something just

like that. Ask yourself what provoked you to take the initiative to start a
conversation. Was it essential? What was the purpose? Did it serve the purpose? If
no, then why not? Did it use any unnecessary and emotionally charged negative
words? Were the words used in thinking, inner dialogue or in talking to the other
person, precise, appropriate, adequate and positive? Did you feel happy or satisfied
after the interaction with the other person or with your inner self? Can you find ways
of improving your performance as a thinker or a speaker?

Keep in mind that logbooks are meant to get you started and make you aware of
your negative thoughts. It is far more important, however, to be aware of these
thoughts when they are just taking birth, rather than leave them for later analysis.

Be conscious of the interval that separates the event from thoughts with which you
respond to the event.

NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
Imagine a strong sun radiating a powerful light. Use this mental sunshine to kill your
negative, undesirable thoughts, emotions and images as and when these are
detected. Take this sun as a mighty weapon which is always on the alert and which
automatically chases any negative thought and kills it with a flash and then
withdraws. Don't forget to imagine that this sun is your faithful friend and is
extremely kind to you.

Keep a note of how many times you need to call the sun
for its services. There will be a gradual increase, followed
by a drastic fall. This is so because initially the number
of times you call on your mental sunshine increases
gradually as your awareness of your thoughts grows.

The drastic fall is because what we do not use (the

negative thoughts, in this case), we tend to lose.

REPLACE WlTH POSITIVE THOUGHTS

A vital step in this process is the immediate replacement
of all negative thoughts by the positive ones. The shorter
the interval between the disinfecting and the replacing
stage, the better it is. Longer intervals between these
two events weaken the impact of the positive thoughts. Our success and happiness
depend on identifying our goals precisely and chasing them effectively, both of
which, in turn, depend on how well we manage our thoughts. The quality of our
thoughts decides the quality of the outcomes we land up with. Thoughts have the
power to materialize themselves because they are instrumental in channeling energy
towards the physical or mental condition they are about.
External situations and the remarks of others can harm us through our thoughts—
but only to the extent our thoughts allow them to. So think positive. Talk positive.
Read positive quotable quotes of great people. Surround yourself with posters and
cards bearing positive messages. Keep them on your table. Hang them on the walls.
Paste them near the bathroom mirror and on the doors. Stick them on your
watchstrap. Keep them on the refrigerator. Have them on the dashboard of the car.
Slip them under the glass of the table in front of you. Slide them in the inner side of
the briefcase you carry. Find other suitable places where you are bound to look at
them every day.

Remember that these messages will stale with prolonged use. So keep changing their
position and contents. Do not let the momentum of these thoughts get weaker.

Use them appropriately in response to specific negative thoughts. The replacing

thought must be positive in every sense. Apart from being inspiring and assuring, it
should also be suggestive. For example, if you confront a negative thought, "I can
never succeed", it will not suffice if you replace it with "Sun! Attack! I can succeed".
This kind of replacement may not be effective, for it sounds like wishful thinking and
lacks assurance, depth and penetrating certainty. It is better to break your replacing
thought down into more definite and specific steps or instructions.

The replacing thought in this case may be: "I can succeed. By earlier failures I have
become rich in experience and have come to know specific areas that require special
attention. I will jot them down and systematically think of the ways in which I can
improve. I shall plan. And then stick to it. There is absolutely no reason why I should
not succeed. I will assess, plan, execute, monitor, modify and carryon with the plan,
and finally succeed. In fact, I think that success has already been achieved and only
time separates my thought of success and its transformation into reality. I am
committing myself to all that is required to achieve success. I am a river that knows
no obstacles. I shall find my way anyhow—and if there is none I shall make one."

REINFORCE
Thoughts like these can be further reinforced with emotions and images. All this may
take longer than one single replacing thought, but these are far more effective since
they allow you to divide the desired target into workable units. Focus on a pleasant
event that took place in the past. This way your thoughts will turn positive and your
emotions and images will reinforce each other, resulting in an overall positive
attitude.

THE VALUE OF BALANCE FOR HAPPINESS

Will owning a new Mercedes Benz, or taking a vacation in Switzerland make you a lot
happier? Will breaking up with a loved one or faring poorly in an examination add to
your misery? Not necessarily, according to a research conducted by Harvard professor
Daniel Gilbert, psychologist Tim Wilson of the University of Virginia, economist George
Loewenstein and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman.

Human beings tend to predict the outcome of an unforeseen venture or event both
qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of negativity and positivity—and in most cases
they are wrong. Try and reminisce on your own life experiences. How long have you
really held on to the grief of the death of a loved one? Tears can’t fall forever. On getting
a job promotion and a fatter pay cheque, how long have you rejoiced? You could not have
gone on throwing parties week after week to celebrate the event.

Yet, if we introspect, most of us will find that we had magnified the intensity of emotions
associated with these happenings when they were yet to occur. According to this research,
affective forecasting is immature and often misleading.

This is not to say that an unpleasant event like a theft of a large sum of money won’t
make us sad, but it does not mean that we’ll be devastated forever. Similarly, adding
material pleasures may make life more exciting for a while but will never make
everything perfect for us. Has the binge shopping ever helped beyond a few moments?

A survey conducted for the research proves statistically that the test participants made
multiple errors while anticipating the intensity of the emotional response to future
circumstances. Later they confessed that the bad events seemed less tragic and were
usually short lived than predicted. Good events, on the other hand, proved rather
ephemeral. This only proves the value of being ever-present in the here and the now, and
the spiritual value of retaining equanimity and inner balance under all circumstances—
good or bad.

The happiest country!

We have tired of explaining ourselves that money doesn’t buy happiness. If we believe in
figures rather than feelings, here is the proof. In a new study of more than 65 countries
published in UK’s New Scientist magazine, it has been found that the happiest people in
the world live in Nigeria. Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Puerto Rico top the
happiness list while Russia, Armenia and Romania are the least happy countries. People
in Latin America, Western Europe and North America were said to be happier than people
in Eastern Europe and Russia.

It is important to note here that the factors that make people happy may vary from one
country to another. While personal success and self-expression were seen as the most
important in the US, in Japan, happiness is about fulfilling the expectations of family and
society.

The survey is a worldwide investigation of socio-cultural and political change conducted

about every four years by an international network of social scientists. It includes
questions about how happy people are and how satisfied they are with their lives. New
Scientist mentions that although such surveys are not new, they are being increasingly
taken into account by policy makers.

A happiness checklist once again:

- Have happy relationships
- Value good friendships
- Desire less
- Do someone a good turn
- Keep faith (religious or not)
- Stop comparing your looks with others
- Grow old gracefully
- Don’t worry if you’re not a genius

Travelling Light: The Therapy of Self-Transcendence

What is the role of psychotherapy in the seeker’s journey toward wholeness? There may
not be any single answer to the question, for it probably depends on the seeker. There are
many who feel that the spiritual path, especially a graduated one like yoga or Buddhism,
is enough to integrate the body, mind and spirit in full and any other discipline is simply
gilding the lily.

On the other hand, some feel that the work of the therapist and the guru go hand-in-hand
and both are required to guide the aspirant along the perilous path of self-knowledge and
self-transcendence.

What no one can deny, though, is the need for psychological stability and maturity in the
business. Spirituality is certainly not for wimps. There is simply no task more difficult
than to face and accept what the therapist would call one’s Shadow—all the qualities and
aspects of ourselves that we shy away from. Seekers would call it going through the dark
night of the soul.

The ability to face our less attractive and, indeed, positively sinister, qualities is gruelling
because it is extremely hard for us to be uncomfortable with ourselves. This is why most
of us would prefer to blame everybody and everything for our travails rather than
ourselves. To think that we are the villains in our own drama is such an unpalatable truth
that we need an extremely sound ego to bolster the shock.

A sound ego is the result of sound self-esteem. Self-esteem is the composite of two
things. One is self-efficacy or the ability to trust one’s effectiveness and competence in
coping with life. The other is self-worth or the knowledge that one is worthy of life, love
and all the good things of life. Most of us have had dents and fissures dealt on our ego in
the process of living. It is this that makes us so insecure and unsure of ourselves.

Among the characteristics of a sound ego would be the ability to draw boundaries
between ourselves and others so no one can dominate or control us, to be open to life, to
take risks, to be assertive, to take the failures and disappointments of life without losing
faith in oneself or life, to be self-motivated, etc.

Spirituality is effective in dealing with these issues, especially if one were to operate from
the premise that we are part of the Immortal Creator. Such a concept is so positive and
elevating that it is bound to manifest in a sound ego. But the journey from frail and faulty
human to Godstuff is a very long one. I believe that therapy can help to bridge the gap
and help us become more self-aware and self-accepting while we struggle for
enlightenment.

The advantages of therapy over spirituality in generating self-awareness come from the
fact that one has access to a skilled facilitator who can help us look at ourselves in a more
objective and accepting way. Most gurus do not have the time or often even the
psychological sophistication to spend time with individual shishyas. One must struggle as
best as one can, based on the guru’s discourses and talks. A therapist, though, is tuned to
your particular problem—the place you are in right now—and can help to tussle with it
until clarity is won.

Jack Kornfield, the well-known Buddhist teacher and author, talked of having returned
home to the US after spending years doing meditation in a monastery. Considering
himself equal to any challenges life would throw at him, he was shocked to find that he
was still as inept with relationships as he had been earlier. It took him extensive therapy
to gain a certain amount of skill in this area.

Deam Ornish, the doctor who popularised the concept of reversal of heart disease through
a regimen of low-fat vegetarian food, group therapy and meditation, himself underwent
therapy to help him overcome his fear of intimacy that stopped him from developing
satisfying emotional connections. Dr Ornish found that his poorly developed sense of self
was behind his problem and after resolving it, went on to finding and wedding the love of
his life.

I happen to interact with my meditation group as well as the group that meets for therapy
under the facilitation of a psychiatrist. The difference between the two is that the latter
group is far more self-aware. When interacting with the therapy group, I find myself
listening and responding to them in a special way, attempting to ask the questions that
may throw light into their predicament. The conversation happens at a more conscious
and deliberate level, which also enhances the relationship. The therapy group is
committed to integrity vis-a-vis themselves and the relationship, which makes it easier to
take risks within it, to throw light on to less than flattering truths.

Perhaps some people are more psychologically-minded than others. For them the
mechanics of the mind and its translation into behaviour and attitude is fascinating.
Perhaps therapy works best for them.

But the long road to enlightenment can only be won when we can embrace all of
ourselves—the good, the bad, the dark, the light, whole-heartedly and unreservedly.
Psychological mastery must happen. That’s the important point, however we get there.
Vibrate with Vigour

Five meditations to help you be fit and happy everyday

The first truth: You have a great talent

Everybody deserves to be fit, to be happy everyday. EVERYBODY! To be fit and happy
is to experience a complete sense of joyous well-being. Everything in you feels good.
Everything around you glows. Everything about you feels vibrantly right.

Being fit and happy is spiritual. You feel at peace with yourself. You feel in sync with
your surroundings, your people, your profession, your studies, your circumstances.
There's a lovely assurance in you that life won't let you down. That things will always
turn out right. That miracles will happen. A great feeling of the quiet power of the
universe co-operating with your needs, your deeds, your existence, stays with you.

Being fit and happy is physical. You don't feel your body as a burden since it is so supple,
so relaxed, so effortless in its movements. You sit down naturally, simply. Every joint in
your knee, in your hip, in your back bends smoothly with sweet obedience to your will to
sit. Your stomach does not get in the way, does not feel ungainly or pressed. It is as deep,
as flat into the chair as you are. You stand up fluidly, your body-language limber, loose,
e-a-s-y.

Being fit and happy is mental. Your mind is light, throbbingly alive to the beautiful
possibilities of your day-like a musician about to compose the best, the sweetest, the most
divine music anybody has ever heard and will ever hear.

And this, sweet one, brings us joyously to the first truth ringing in all of us: just as the
musician has a great talent to compose music, so do you have a great talent to compose
fitness and happiness in your being.

What is talent? It is a divine ability to express great love. A musician listens to the wind
as it blows through the trees and feels a beautiful stirring of love inside. Then, he
expresses that love through music. The whoosh of the wind is composed by love into
music. The rumble of thunder is composed by love into music. The patter of rain is
composed by love into music.

So, when you feel this stir to lose weight, to get fit, to get healthier, to be better in every
and any way, know that it is your love yearning to express itself. Know that it is your
talent wanting to compose harmonious notes of fitness and happiness in your body, your
mind, your spirit. Know these stirrings as those of your inborn talent coursing through
you and open your heart to them willingly, joyously. Expose yourself to these stirrings.
Give in to these stirrings. Act on these stirrings. And miracles will happen!

The second truth: This talent is forever

And here is the beautiful thing about talent. You can compose fitness and happiness in
normal times when you are healthy. And you can compose fitness and happiness in bad
times when you are unhealthy. Your talent to compose fitness and happiness is exactly
like the talent to compose music, to write, to paint, to sculpt, to teach, to cook, to play
sport… A talent never fades, never dies. It remains forever-the hallmark of your
greatness. It beckons and brings you back again and again to your greatness all your life.
That's why Beethoven composed music though he was deaf. His deafness did not kill his
talent to compose music. So will your talent drive you to compose fitness and happiness.
You cannot ignore it because it never ignores you. You cannot forget it because it never
forgoes you. It tugs until you allow yourself to be pulled into composing. As Beethoven
was born to create music, so were you born to create fitness and happiness. It's a talent
that resides in you all your life. It can never stale, never wane, never vanish. This talent,
this ability to express love, to compose fitness and happiness remains as a steady
murmur, ready to be stoked into flowing music. This is the second truth.

The third truth: Nothing is a drag

Being fit and happy is a personal thing. You commit yourself to your well-being. You pay
attention to your well-being by exercising, eating right, thinking lovingly every day. Only
you can decide to reach your highest personal harmony in body, mind, spirit. You don't
compete with others, you complete yourself day after day. That's why we say being fit
and happy is a personal thing.

The secret lies in not thinking, "Exercising is a drag." The musician never thinks,
"Composing music is a drag." The teacher never thinks, "Teaching is a drag." The artist
never thinks, "Painting is a drag." A talent never drags you down, your negative attitude,
your negative thoughts, your negative language drag you down.

The talent to be fit, to be happy keeps you charged, keeps you going because this talent
gives you the divine power to create more stamina, more strength, more enthusiasm, a
leaner body, a keener mind, an uplifted spirit. Why demean this inborn talent that gives
you the divine means, the divine power to create a wealth of health and happiness for
yourself and others?

To demean, to depreciate your talent is to negate yourself and think in self-deprecating,

self-defeating ways. No, no, no, that's no way to live. You deserve something much
better. You deserve love. To this end, learn to love your talent. Appreciate your talent.
Decide to make the most of this divine ability to express love. Do not doubt it, love it.
Doubt scatters your mind. Your attention gets fragmented by many shrapnels of scurrying
thoughts. You feel incoherent, restless, unsure, unhappy, weak. Instead, choose to love.
Love pulls your thoughts together. Your attention gets sweetly focused by loving
thoughts. You feel coherent, restful, happy, confident, strong. So, never doubt your power
to create fitness and happiness. A loving smile from you kindles a fellowship in another.
A kind word from you creates happiness in another. An encouraging word from you
inspires courage in another. A sweet act from you creates comfort in another. Can you
then doubt your ability to create with love? Can you doubt your identity as loving
creator?

Let the realisation "I am creator" sweep through you. Let the realisation "I can create"
imprint itself in your brain's neurological pathways. Now, feel the difference between
yesterday and today, between being created and being creator.

You begin to think like a creator. You live up to your calling, your self-commitment to
create by cheerfully, lovingly, consistently, persistently nurturing your talent to be fit and
happy. Not in starts and stops, but every day for the rest of your life. A creator never stops
creating. A creator never retires, he tirelessly re-fires. A creator's consistent commitment
to his talent seals a healing live-and-help-live friendship with life.

As this friendship strengthens and grows, beautiful things begin to happen. All energy
directed towards sickness gets re-directed towards health. All energy emptied in
negativeness gets continually replenished in this loving urge to create. Some effort in the
beginning leads to pure effortlessness over the days. The harmony between mind and
muscle grows and grows… The rhythm between body and spirit vibrates more and
more…There is no stop, no finishing-line to this creation. It is endless, it is infinite in its
joyous reverberations. The more consistently you create, the more you experience the
richness of being fit and happy. The more consistently you create, the more you
experience the abundance of your being. Nothing feels like a drag to one who creates.
This is the third truth.

The fourth truth: You can re-create yourself

Realise this: negative thoughts undo, 'un-create' all possibilities. When you see no
possibilities, you see no meaning to your life, only meaningless drudgery. It makes you
feel heavy, tired, sick. Loving thoughts create all kinds of possibilities. You think
lovingly, "This is what I can do. This is what I can create." It's pleasing, it's meaningful.It
fills you with a childlike expectancy. While creating fitness, happiness, health in your
being, you are a child with building blocks-intensely focused, intensely absorbed. In
creating, you come soaringly alive as do your instruments-body, mind, spirit.

When you exercise, you strum your sinews to strengthen and tauten them until all off-key
notes re-compose…re-compose…re-compose into beautiful, effortless, pure motions.
Off-key crookednesses straighten. Off-key bulges smoothen. Off-key hormones balance
harmoniously. Off-key organs rhythmise. Off-key aches ease out. The aah of release at
being physically aligned, the aah of relief at being in your natural painless state are your
compositions. The aah experience is the joyous vibration of the successful creator.

When the body is as balanced as you can make it, you will find it much easier to be
loving. Lovingness is the ultimate creation of the creator. Lovingness is the food of the
spirit. When the spirit swirls in loving spirals of energy, beautiful inspirational powers
arise that help you reverse sickness to wellness or keep you as fit, serene and charged as
possible even amidst setbacks, shocks and disorders.

When lovingness is continually expressed by loving thoughts, your mind widens. Loving
thoughts overcome all negative declarations such as "I am broke"; sad declarations such
as "I am lonely"; destructive declarations such as "I want to die." Loving thoughts affirm
the life-generating, life-enhancing "I have everything I need" attitude and strongly,
unthreateningly encourage you to create better circumstances. Lovingness offers
unlimited scope for the highest, most healing thoughts, the most beautiful, empathetic
ways of viewing people and situations; for new concepts and fresh ideas about yourself
that you'd never dreamt of earlier. Lovingness is godliness. It has the combined texture of
balming, cleansing spring water and the fresh fragrance of mountain air. As lovingness
grows, gradually, a pleasing fullness enters the widening mind. This is happiness, joy,
contentment-all compositions created by you. And this is the fourth truth: when you
create with love, you re-create yourself.

The fifth truth: Each day is your day

As you grow into your identity and role as creator, you feel a distinct change in you.
Slowly, unobtrusively, outside stimulants cease to tyrannise your senses and control your
actions. You don't need to go to a movie everyday to be entertained because your dancing
senses are already entranced. You don't need a chocolate pastry daily to satisfy your
craving because your mind is already sweetly, lovingly full. Ah yes, a craving is purely
from the mind. Craving arises when the mind feels empty, deprived, hollow, hopeless,
jittery or fearful. It yearns for food to attain the fullness it craves. It becomes implosive-
trying to draw in and suck in as much as possible.

But the mind of the creator is different. It is full of ideas, possibilities and the eagerness
to create. It is explosive-it wants to give out, like a bud opening every petal of possibility
to feel itself as a flower.

In this mental vibrancy arises strongly your Do-It-Yourself spirit. A compelling need to
take charge, to create that feeling of fitness, happiness, alertness. It's a strong urge. It's an
overwhelming urge. It has the force of a tough uncoiling spring. It is the urge to move, to
act, to exercise. Follow this urge. Walk, run, cycle, swim. Do not mistake this sense of
urgency for impatience. The two are poles apart. Urgency is for the process of creating
fitness, freshness, happiness. Impatience is for the results-weight-loss, becoming slim,
attaining a better skin, looking muscular.

Do not waste your energy in impatience. Impatience causes frustration, restlessness.

Remember, the creator enjoys the process of creating and is not particularly concerned
about the results. Impatience hinders the easy flow of action. Impatience curbs
enthusiasm. Impatience makes your attention wander to the future and robs you of the
delight of the present. The creator revels in creative exercising, in the aah of the stretched
and fresh feeling NOW. The creator is grateful he can express his ability to love and feel
complete and fulfilled. Bring to each day your quality of lovingness.

Trust your body's positive responses to your efforts. Tend to it by working out everyday
so that you create fitness. Train your mind. Fill it daily with good thoughts, lofty thoughts
so that you feel uplifted and peaceful.

Respect your spirit. Free it from the tethers of wasteful rituals and negative habits each
day to surge and swell with loving resourcefulness so that you feel the grace, the glory,
the grandeur of being alive as yourself-the creator creating…and creating…and
creating… This is how each day becomes creative. Each day becomes a blessing. Each
day is your day. This is the fifth truth.

The everyday workshop of five truths

How do you establish these five truths in yourself? By re-affirming and practising them
every day until they become a living part of you. The secret is to take each day, every day
as a workshop to practise and live out these five truths. It is a worthwhile pursuit, a high
calling. What can be greater than using each day to express love and get increasingly
fitter and happier? So… MAKE THIS YOUR DAY. As you read this, it may be a Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. It does not matter. Set a fit
and happy tone for today. Affirm, "This is my day. And I shall be fit and happy today."
Make this your daily mantra. Repeat it in good or bad situations. When you know it is
your day, you want to do what is right, what it good. Your day has to be a good day, a
great day! Now, decide to spend your day with the best companion in the world-your
highest self, your most loving self.

Who is your highest, most loving self? It is not your mind. It has nothing to do with the
thoughts in your mind. Your highest self is a beautiful loving entity. It is a benign,
godlike, sweet being. It is there, it is always there behind your thoughts. You feel its
loving, comforting presence in you when you strip away your thoughts. For one day,
today, rid your mind of all thoughts-all those teeming thoughts of wanting to do this or
that, wanting food, clothes, equipment, money, seeing a film, paying bills, envying
others, fears, worries, prejudices, memories, speculations, analyses, criticisms, rituals.
Discard them. Forget them. Think of yourself as a free being with nothing to do, nothing
to think about, who has no demands, no responsibilities, no duties.

For one day, today, don't think of the money in your bank account, cupboard, wallet. Be
in the wealth around you-unlimited air, loads of sunshine, the endless sky-space.

For one day, today, smile with your lips and eyes and mind and heart at everybody and
everything around you. For one day, today, spend all your time to cheerfully improve
yourself, create health, fitness and happiness. Don't waste a single moment criticising,
reproaching, blaming, judging. Just be. If somebody wants to quarrel with you, don't
react likewise. Think nothing. Be detached. For one day, today, feel the sweetness of
being alive. Don't sour it with uncharitable, unkind or sad thoughts. Just be in the
sweetness. For one day, today, refrain from all chores and rituals. Sit. Or lie down. Or
walk as if you are floating.

For one day, today, erase all your errors from your memory. Live in peace without guilt,
without self-blame. For one day, today, don't ask for attention from your spouse, parent,
colleague, friend, neighbour. Be attentive to yourself. Be your own spouse, parent,
colleague, friend, neighbour, companion. For one day, today, accept that if you didn't get
what you wanted, it is because you didn't really need it. For one day, today, if some seem
against you, don't feel cornered or isolated. Feel free of their company. Feel free of their
prejudices. Feel free. Feel the freedom of being in the vast universe. See the positive
messages it sends you through a kind smile, words, actions, using good people as its
medium. For one day, today, do not cloud your eyes with tears. Keep your vision clear so
that you may see the brightness that is always around you.

For one day, today, be non-egoistic so that you feel your highest self; be kind so that you
feel your goodness; be humble so that you are in greatness. For one day, today, be calm,
be tolerant, be nonjudgemental. This brings a relaxed, restful, loving silence to your
overworked, restless, critical mind. For one day, today, put all your burdens at the altar.
God has a broad back called the universe that can carry it easily. For one day, today, don't
see anything as an obstacle. See it as a stepping stone to something bigger. For one day,
today, rely on nobody and eliminate all scope for disappointment and disillusionment. For
one day, today, don't change your mood because somebody changes their mind. For one
day, today, don't fear the future. Enjoy every present moment as it exactly is. For one day,
today, exercise your body gently. Stretch it gently. Bend it gently. Do no exercise that
pains it, but frees it. For one day, today, eat only pure food. Some steamed rice, some
low-fat curd, some raw vegetables, some fresh fruit. Feel full, yet light; not heavy and
lethargic. And be assured, on this one day, today, your body will feel a spring in it. Your
mind will shimmer with luminous peace. Your spirit will soar in love. You will feel the
magic and beauty of your highest self. You will feel awakened in a larger, brighter, more
loving way. Now, you know how it is to feel fit and happy. Now, you know how it feels
when you make each day your day. Daily, the mind needs a sense of loving solitude.
Daily, the body needs gentle, loving training. Daily, the spirit needs the freedom of love,
to love. There is no discipline, only the calling of love. There is no imposed self-control,
only the discernment of love. There is no enforced sacrificing of 'pleasures', only the
loving rhythm of healing routine. This one day, today and every other day is your day.
The day of your highest self. The day of miraculous manifestations of your higher
desires. The day all the five truths come together and you realise your wholeness.
The Good Word

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was
God…

Affirmations are powerful declarations that can transform your behaviour, attitude
and nature. affirmations help you to realise your highest potential. they are the easy
path to self-realisation

Even as a youngster reading through the unfathomable mystery of the Bible, these lines
quoted earlier would spring out at me and grip my imagination. Mystical and mysterious
they may have been but I sensed in them a strange power. I repeated them frequently and
wondered what they meant.

But then I am a writer. Words are my stock in trade and since my very childhood they
have fascinated and entranced me. The sound of words, the images they summon up, the
emotions they arouse, the worlds they open up for me have held me in thrall all my life.

How apt then, that my spiritual journey began with the word and has all through been
strengthened and assisted by its potent magic. In the form of affirmations, it has been the
indispensable third part of my path. The first two are awareness and acceptance. While
these two have been deconditioning me, affirmations assist in reconditioning me, or, as I
now recognise, in transforming me.

It is only of late that I have begun recognising the invaluable role of affirmations in my
life. I see it as a tool that can change even the most recalcitrant. It is the common man's
route to transformation.

Swami Sivananda, founder of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh, corroborates this view.
In his fascinating book, Japa Yoga, he writes, "In this Kali yug, japa alone is the easy way
to the realisation of God."

Not all of us can meditate. Not all of us have the discipline to do spiritual practice every
day. Certainly I didn't. But all of us can repeat a few words to ourselves. And from my
own experience, I can testify that it is not even required to concentrate upon the words.
You can mumble them even when your mind is racing like a horse. You can chant them
absentmindedly. Just say them. Of course, the more force and intention you put in them
the quicker they manifest. But the results will come as long as you persist, no matter how
desultory your utterance. JUST DON'T GIVE UP!

While this goes against received wisdom, which insists that affirmations must be said
with intent in order to work, I am supported by the incomparable Swami Sivananda who
stoutly declares: "Even simple mechanical repetition of a mantra has a powerful effect. It
purifies the mind. It serves as a gate-keeper. It gives intimations to you whenever some
worldly thoughts enter the mind."

A Personal Path
My tryst with affirmations and indeed spirituality began several years ago when a
relationship broke up and in parting, I was told that relationships were meant to be
beautiful and ours had not been. I was also told that I had not made the person happy.
Fascinated by the concept of a 'beautiful relationship' and by the idea of happiness, I
vowed that I would make this person happy, come what may. This was by no means easy
to do as I found myself reacting to his behaviour with anger and jealousy. And then I hit
upon the magic mantra, which was my passage to spiritual understanding. It occurred to
me that if I really wanted this person's happiness, whatever he said or did should be okay
by me. I formulated the thought thus: "It's his happiness that matters and not mine". I
found my anger and reactivity receding and in its place a vast reservoir of peace and
goodwill arising. Unbelievingly, I said these words again and again, and each time they
worked like a charm, freeing me of my thoughts and feelings and allowing me to focus
fully on seeing and understanding the other's point of view. In my own way I was
affirming, though I did not know it then.

The words propelled me right out of my ego and into a state that I called 'absolute
happiness'. For a full year, they retained their magic for me. I used to accompany their
recitation by pressing my thumb and my middle finger hard. I later discovered that NLP
called this anchoring, and recommended it as a way of recalling an experience
intentionally. Alas, all good things come to an end and my year of grace faded away.
However, it left me firmly entrenched on the spiritual path.

Why did this mantra wield such power over me during that time? Why not before and
why not after? Such things are cloaked in mystery and it is hard to say why. Grace for
me, is a good explanation for the first question. As for the second, I think of it as a trigger
that launched me on the journey. That job done, it left me so that I could embark upon the
hard and long task of dissolving all that stood between me and that state of absolute
happiness…

Explaining Affirmations
So what are affirmations? They are positive declarations of intent. They are word seeds
that germinate within us and recreate us. They encapsulate the power of thought which
makes us who we are. Affirmations can be simple declarations like the 19th century
French psychotherapist, Emile Coeu's sweeping assertion, "Every day, in every way, I am
getting better and better." They can be New Age statements that invoke everything from
health, love, money, jobs, houses and other material and non-material visitations.
Affirmations such as, "I am abundance and I attract everything I need," are typical of this
genre. They can be power words that resound through our scriptures such as the great
mahavakya, Aham Brahmasmi, the sufi saying, Al Haq, or mantras like Om Namaha
Shivaye. They can be the prayers that we repeat ceaselessly such as the Gayatri mantra,
the Mahamrityunjaya mantra, the Lord's Prayer or the Hail Mary. All good words and
thoughts that we repeat continuously are affirmations in action. Whether we call it japa
yoga or affirmations, we are invoking the power of the word to create us, regenerate us
and transform us.

All spiritual traditions everywhere have intuited the awful majesty and power of the
word. Whether it is the karadjeru of Australia, the Dogon and Igbo communities of
Africa, the Mayan community of Mexico, the Sumerians, or the Buddhist, Christian,
Islamic or Judaic traditions, there is a clear understanding that language, or the word, is a
manifestation of God. Many of them, including the vedic tradition of India, maintain that
sound is the building block of the manifested world. For the Dogon, words uttered during
religious ceremonies contain nyama (life-force), which is conveyed by the breath and
flows through the mouth of the holy person.

Even in the Christian tradition, God is said to have created the universe simply by
uttering a command-surely an early example of affirmation in action? "And God said, Let
there be light: and there was light." (Genesis 1: 3)

The Power of Sound

In India, the power of the word has long been recognised and used for spiritual
transformation and for the ultimate understanding of life. Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, head
of the Himalayan Institute, USA, writes in his book, The Power of Mantra and the
Mystery of Initiation, "According to tantric and Vedic sources, the world manifests from
the Word, exists in the Word, and at the time of annihilation returns to the Word. They tell
us that for those who are unaware of the power of the Word and its binding and releasing
force, this world is the source of pain and misery. Yet, according to the Shiva Sutra, this
same world is a wave of joy to those who have penetrated the mystery of the Word."

According to Wayne Dyer, author of the book, Manifest Your Destiny, the sound aaah is
common to almost all the names of God, ranging from Brahma, to Allah to Yahweh and
Ahura Mazda. This is no coincidence, he believes, but is rather proof that it is the sound
of creation. Therefore when we chant God's name we are invoking the power of creation.
Many ancients would attribute the mantra om, with this power, but, says Dyer, "Whereas
aaah is the sound of creation, om is the sound of that which is already created. Om
expresses gratitude for all that has manifested." According to tantric adepts, the word is
considered to be the Shabda-brahman, the Creative Source (Ashabda-brahman) embodied
as sound.

Scientists today confirm that the universe is actually composed of vibrational energies.
Writes Wayne Dyer: "Every sound is a vibration made of waves oscillating at a particular
frequency. The frequency range of the human ear is approximately 16,000 - 40,000
vibrations per second. It is theorised that thoughts and the unknown etheric and spiritual
dimensions are in the realm of increased vibrations beyond anything that is calculable at
this point of time." He adds, "Sound is the intermediary between the abstract idea and the
concrete form of the material world. Sounds literally mould the abstract world of
thoughts and spirit into shapes."

Swami Sivananda confirms this by writing about the experiments conducted by an

Englishwoman called Mrs Watts Hughes, who sang into an instrument called the
eidophone. The sound travelled through a tube and was received on a flexible membrane
holding tiny seeds. The seeds formed entrancing geometric patterns depending on the
notes she used. He says, "Once when Mrs Hughes was singing a note, a daisy appeared
and disappeared…now she knows that precise inflections of the particular note that is a
daisy and it is made constant and definite by a strange method of coaxing an alternation
of crescendo and diminuendo." Mrs Hughes apparently was able to summon up sea-
monsters, forms of trees, and even landscapes of trees with a foreground of rocks, and the
sea behind.

Santosh Sachdeva, whose family owns the website indiayogi.com, affirms that when they
conducted a yagna on behalf of one of their clients, the fire threw up images of om and
the swastika, when invoked by the pundit.

Why Affirmations Work

Affirmations work because they embody the power of sound. Not just when you choose
to utter them aloud, but even when expressed through thought, they create specific
vibrations within. These vibrations have the power to write over the grooves of our
subconscious mind. It is the thoughts that we feed into our subconscious mind that
produces our habitual behavioural patterns and attitudes. Our unconscious thoughts have
created our present persona. In order to recreate ourselves, we need to counter them with
conscious positive thoughts.

This is the central truth behind most spiritual philosophies. For instance, the opening
verse of the Dhammapada, the core Buddhist scripture, states implacably, "We are what
we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind and trouble will follow you as the wheel follows the ox
that draws the cart."

In order to rewrite the mind we need to understand its composition. The mind is
composed of three parts, the conscious, the subconscious and the superconscious. The
conscious mind is the part we are aware of - the part that does the thinking, worrying,
planning and creating. It is a tiny part of the structure; it is the subconscious that is the
looming bulwark, a massive entity with incredible powers and potentials. Its unique
characteristic is that it can create anything that we command it to create, by virtue of the
thoughts we think.

Writes Dada Vaswani, head of the Pune-based Sadhu Vaswani Mission, "If you believe
that you cannot achieve something, if you believe that you cannot have something, the
subconscious will create conditions, so that your beliefs are proved. To transform your
life, it is very important that you seek the help of the subconscious."

Thus the negative thoughts that create our negative conditioning can be overthrown by
affirming their opposite. The belief that we are lazy can be overwritten by the affirmation
that we are hard working and industrious.

Writes Dada Vaswani, " To transform your life you must have a picture of yourself as you
wish to be… The picture that we paint of ourselves is assimilated by our subconscious.
The subconscious is there to obey you. It is a very obedient servant who takes orders
from his master. Its decisions are to be made by you."

Awareness of the incredible power of the subconscious, conveyed by writers such as

Joseph Murphy, author of The Power of the Subconscious Mind, is behind the New Age
deployment of affirmations to change oneself. Affirmations in this light cover the whole
gamut of life, employed literally as a magic genie to create money, abundance, love,
friendship, and even the acquisition of material objects such as a house, a car, etc.

Louise L. Hay, author of You can Heal Your Life, one of the first books to shine a light on
the spiritual and psychological causes of illness, uses affirmations extensively as a tool
for creating better health.

She writes in her website, www. Louisehay.com, "Our thoughts are creative. This is the
most important law of nature that we need to know…thoughts are like drops of water-
they accumulate. As we continue to rethink the same thoughts over a period of time, they
become puddles, ponds, lakes or oceans. If they're positive, we can float on the oceans of
life."

My nature, I discovered, was whole, perfect and complete. I didn't have to be anyone
or anything or get anywhere to become that

Affirmations have helped Usha Miglani, who lives alone, cope with fears of getting a
stroke in the middle of the night. Says she, "I practise the nine positives taught by
Brahma Vidya and they make me calm and peaceful. The affirmations that I am healthy, I
am young, I am powerful, have stuck to me."

Roxanne Marker, a psychic and seeker, makes use of words like love and peace for
affirmatory practice.

She says, "I am more at peace. The tendency to assert myself is decreasing. I will not try
to prove a point at the expense of making someone else feel bad. I no longer want to be
always right. What a boring individual that would make me. In fact these days I say when
I falter, "Yippee dippee, I am wrong!"

How to Affirm
Dada Vaswani reveals that the subconscious is physically located at the back, where the
base of the skull and the spine meet. He suggests that the best way to harmonise the
conscious, subconscious, and superconscious (the divine potential) is to combine
affirmation with meditation. He writes, "The peace of meditation filters not only into the
conscious but also into the subconscious and the superconscious self." There can be little
doubt that when affirmations are made in meditative stillness, they are more effective.
Deepak Chopra, for instance, suggests that we release all intentions into the gap between
thoughts, which is arrived at through meditation.

Swami Sivananda, however, points out that dhyana is inherent in japa, "Name and the
object signified by the Name are inseparable…Whenever you think of the name of your
son, his figure stands before your mental eye, and vice versa. Even so when you do japa
of Rama or Krishna the picture of Rama or Krishna will come before your mind.
Therefore japa and dhyana go together. They are inseparable."

There are however, several guidelines to help us affirm more effectively, because the
subconscious does not discriminate and takes what we say literally:
o Construct your sentences positively. Choose 'I am slim' to 'I am not fat'. The
subconscious does not recognise negatives and would translate the latter sentence as 'I am
fat'.
o Use the present tense. 'I am love, joy and compassion' is preferable to 'I will be…' or 'I
want to be…' The subconscious lives in the moment and does not recognise future tense.
The phrase 'I want' reflects powerlessness and all you will get is the state of 'want' and
not the actual state.
o Believe in what you say. Know that it will manifest for sure.
o Put as much intensity as you can in your affirmations. Says Dada Vaswani, "You must
develop the will to speak to it with magnetic determination."
o Dada Vaswani also suggests repeating an affirmation loudly three times, softly three
times and in a whisper four times.
o The times before you go to sleep or immediately on waking up are when the
subconscious is most receptive to commands.
o If you can meditate, do so. When your conscious mind is peaceful and still, seeding the
subconscious is a cinch.

Raising Self-Esteem
Affirmations are particularly effective in repairing and enhancing poor self-esteem. The
website called Tools for Personal Growth has a detailed piece on the negative self-scripts
that we operate under. These are caused by the beliefs we have of ourselves, the negative
feedback we may have got from family, teachers, peers, spouse and colleagues and that
we have internalised. These in turn create over-dependence on the approval of others,
make it difficult for us to take risks in life, drown us in self-pity, cynicism and pessimism,
and cause us to don a protective armour in our interaction with others.

I should know about the pain imposed by negative self-scripts. When I launched into an
inquiry on how to make this state of absolute happiness a permanent one, I realised that
the chief impediment was a compulsive obsession with myself. And behind the obsession,
I found, was an almost total lack of self-esteem. I didn't like myself at all. I was sure I
would fail miserably in everything I did. There was, I discovered, a tyrant established in
my head who watched me like a hawk. This personage viciously abused me each time I
messed up, which I did all too often. Consumed by the unceasing internal warfare, there
was just no mind space for others or indeed, for living.

It was a disconcerting discovery. Help came when, for a moment, I got in touch with my
true nature. That nature, I discovered, was whole, perfect and complete. I didn't have to
be anyone or anything or get anywhere to be that. I already was that. The rest was
conditioning.

I said these words again and again, and each time they worked like a charm, freeing
me of my thoughts and feelings and allowing me to focus fully on seeing and
understanding the other's point of view.

However, unlike the earlier revelation that had an almost instantaneous effect on me, this
one was not impacting the negative self-script running compulsively in my head. In the
serendipitous way that life flows, an article came my way which explained about the
power of the subconscious mind and why it is that we think the way we do. It gave
suggestions on how to seed the mind afresh. Voila, I had discovered affirmations!
Although my mind was a fevered rush of thoughts, I persisted in repeating the words, "I
am whole, perfect and complete" to myself wherever and whenever I could. Within four
months a shift happened. I can describe it best as an almost physical feeling near my
heart region, where I felt as if a foundation had been laid, sealing off for keeps the
dreadful pits of depression I would fall into. I understood that I had been given the ability
to withstand whatever and however I manifested. I could, as Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, the
talented writer of Women Who Run with the Wolves perceptively says, "stand to see what
I had to see."

Ever since then, the task has been to face and repair through awareness and acceptance,
the ravages to my mind caused by years of depression. I could never have withstood the
pain of this prolonged surgery had it not been for the comforting use of the affirmation
that I was whole and perfect, even when I seemed entirely imperfect.

Throughout the journey, I developed the habit of converting insights into affirmations,
which I would repeat to myself. I had to. My mind was far too chaotic to attempt
meditation or any form of spiritual practice. These affirmations would trigger changes
which then would set off fresh insights. Among the most significant of these was the
discovery that I was fully responsible for my states of mind and that the outside world
had nothing to do with it.

The sound vibrations of affirmations, even as thoughts, have the power to write over
the grooves of our subconscious mind.

Affirming this took me deep within myself and I could sense that I was withdrawing the
power I had invested in the external world. Taking my reactions within unleashed an
enormous love of the self, for the self, and I found myself embarking on a fevered love
affair with myself. I love myself, I would affirm passionately and in various different
ways. I discovered that I did not need external support, endorsement and approval. I
discovered that all the qualities I longed for were within me. I would warble out these
affirmations through the day, particularly while travelling up and down the city in local
trains!

Right now I am in the throes of another insight, which is that I do not need to be anything
other than who I am. As I affirm this to myself, the tottering stockpile of expectations that
high ideals and low self-esteem have stacked on me is sliding away and I am finally
learning to live with myself. I am learning to love myself. That feeling is a wonder only
someone who has never experienced it before can truly appreciate. The internal warfare is
waning. Ceasefire has been declared and amnesty papers are being drawn up. A lot more
learning and a lot more affirmations await me still, I feel sure, and I cannot wait to
discover what lies next. For my goal is enlightenment and I have not the slightest doubt
that affirmations have the power to get me there.

Japa Yoga
Santosh Sachdeva, author of two books on Kundalini, including Kundalini Diary, was
first exposed to the power of the word at age 13 when her guru gave her the Shiva
mantra, Om Namaha Shivaye, to chant. By the time she was married she was chanting it
diligently for half an hour every day. This steady practice for close to 40 years stood her
in good stead when she decided to do a course in Brahma Vidya in 1995. The course is a
combination of breathing exercises, affirmations and meditation. When Santosh began to
repeat the affirmations, to her surprise she saw images of all that she affirmed vividly
appear in her mind's eye. "Now I imagine a great light over my head," she would say and
she would see a wing-like manifestation of light above her head.

For Santosh too, affirmations, coupled with the other Brahma Vidya exercises, have had a
transformatory effect. She says: "I have become more confident. I no longer worry about
the future or regret the past. I live in the moment. I feel happy, which is a feeling whose
meaning I didn't know earlier. Complaining and expectations have disappeared and there
is no judgement left."

She says: "The fact that I could see my thoughts in the form of images has proven to me
the power of thoughts. It tells me that the parental advice to be good and to think good
thoughts is based on sound reasoning."

Kamala Jain, a designer in her 40s, was inducted into chanting the Shiva mantra by her
father in order to moderate her strongly emotional temperament when she was around 12.
She followed the advice sporadically and although she cannot quite figure which, if any,
of the changes she has experienced within herself can be attributed to the practice, she
admits that she is remarkably detached today. A serious seeker, she also finds herself
powerfully drawn to the personage of Shiva.

Japa yoga has a tried and tested place in the Indian tradition. Innumerable saints have
danced their way to Godhead singing the name of God. Tukaram of Deo, Valmiki,
Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Ramdas of the Anand ashram
are among those who have surrendered to the intoxication of God's name. While
affirmations are frequently used for inner healing and self-development, japa yoga is
employed for one reason and one alone: to awaken one's inner divinity and unite with the
Absolute.

Swami Sivananda says ardently: "Japa ultimately results in samadhi or communion with
the Lord." He adds, "The chanting of His name is but serving Him. You must have the
same flow of love and respect in your heart at the time of thinking or remembering His
Name as that you naturally may have in your heart at the time when you really see Him."

According to the swami, japa purifies and cleanses one of lust, anger, greed and other
defilements. He says firmly, "The repetition of a mantra destroys your sins and brings
everlasting peace, infinite bliss, prosperity and immortality. There is not the least doubt
about this."

Mahatma Gandhi was an ardent practitioner of Ram Naam. At the time of his death, such
faith came to his rescue for he died with the name of the Lord in his mouth, having
uttered 'Hai Ram', when the assassin's bullet ripped through his spare frame. Considering
that it is our state of mind on death that guarantees our future progress one assumes that
the Mahatma has rightly attained the highest heavenly honours.

Swami Ramdas, whose mantra Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram is the central spiritual
practice advocated by the ashram, was so imbued with faith in the power of Ram, that he
left his home and wandered into the wide world, surrendering entirely to the protection of
his beloved Ram. Convinced that everyone and everything was a manifestation of God
and that every event that befell him was the Lord's will, he accepted hunger, destitution,
insults and rejection with utter faith. His account of the journey, In Quest of God, is an
inspiring account of the spiritual strength that japa can inspire.

How to do Japa
While one can technically do japa anytime and anywhere, its efficacy is considerably
heightened if we imbue it with a sacred presence.
o Swami Sivananda suggests that it is best done facing the east or north, during dawn and
twilight, that magical period betwixt light and darkness.
o Sit in a steady pose; padmasana is highly recommended but sukhasana will also do.
o Choose the mantra that you most resonate with or think of your ishta devta- the deity
you give allegiance to.
o Invoke the presence of the Lord with as much intensity as you can utter- though you
can take comfort in the awareness that even mechanical repetition has its merit.
o Repeat the japa steadily at a measured pace.
o You can either repeat it aloud or mentally. The latter is considered to be more powerful.
o You can do it with a mala or without. The advantage of the former is that it enables you
to keep count and ensures that your attention is buttressed to something concrete.

Desiree Punwani, housewife and Buddhist practitioner, swears by the practice of metta
bhavna, or the state of loving kindness. The metta prayer goes thus: May all beings be
well, peaceful and happy. Says she, "When I first started affirming it, I didn't know if I
believed to what extent it would work. But whatever you give out you get, and I find that
health and peace and happiness are coming my way". She also uses it to de-escalate
contentious relationships. " I very rarely use the direct confrontation method these days, "
she reveals. An example is the strained relationship she had with a family member that
has taken a dramatic shift for the better ever since she began showering the person with
metta. "We can discuss even sensitive issues with goodwill."

The Zoroastrians say it all in a nutshell: "Good thoughts, good words and good deeds." It
all begins with the thought, so be aware of what you put in there. Even better, choose to
avail of the magic power of affirmations to pull out the weeds and sow fresh seeds of
goodness, strength, love and joy, and total transformation. There is nothing you cannot
think yourself into being, so aim for the Absolute.
Conquer your Fear

what is the cause of fear? and how do we vanquish it when it crowds around us with
its insidious what-ifs, stoking caution,
paranoia and doubt? here, an exploration into the nature of fear and prescriptions
on how to cope with it

Vanquish your Fears

In his book, Conquest of Fear, Swami Sivananda explains the ways to overcome fear:
o Victory over fear (Pratipaksha Bhavana method): As you think, so you become. As you
think, so you develop. As
More >>

Freedom from Fear

Dada Vaswani in his book Dada Answers gives us a few practical tips on overcoming
fears:
o Convince yourself that nothing that you fear is as bad as the fear itself. To be afraid is
the worst
More >>

There's no better time to write about fear than a month when one has endured days of
grief in hospital vigils. An average day's routine included the rise of anxiety, a dread in
the pit of the stomach, perhaps a sinking of the spirit, and soon, emotional seesaws
became a familiar experience. I recently had to watch a parental figure in an impersonal
hospital bed, growing frailer by the day, multiple organ failures weakening the physical
body, even though, on a good day, the spirit rose with optimism and moments of
surprising cheer. I learned to look at my own fear at close quarters in the humid corridors,
in the faces of impassive professionals who had to temper cold facts with kindness.
Within a week, the sum of it all contributed to the unmaking of presumptions of eternal
health and happiness, and took me on a journey to unchartered internal crossroads - one
to the truth of mortality, the other to acceptance.

The Buddha said there is no family untouched by disease, death or old age. The essence
of this one can grasp, but to apply it to circumstance is another task altogether. The
Instinct asks, "Can't you postpone this by a few years? The time is not of my choosing."
But Time answers that these moments are never born of mindful choice, but of the soul-
need. It is not so difficult to distance oneself from an abstract notion (under which term
you might like to slot the reality of death and disease), keep it out in the cold and view it
with fleeting interest. But any experience which requires understanding or resolution can
first give rise to anxious fretfulness, furious denial and charge the atmosphere with
negativity. Then, wisdom appears as a flickering light at the end of a deep, deep tunnel.

Origin of Fears
Where do fears come from? Why do they arise? Spiritual masters assert that the root
cause of fear is our separation from the Source. It follows that only submergence in the
Source through enlightenment brings about the final dissolution of fear. Says Swami
Sivananda, founder of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh: "A sage beholds only the
Immortal Self everywhere so there is no fear in him. There is fear only when there is
duality, when there is a perception of an object or a person other than oneself."

Adds the venerable Francis of Assissi: "What do you have to fear? Nothing. Whom do
you have to fear? No one. Why? Because whoever has joined forces with God obtains
three great privileges: omnipotence without power, intoxication without wine, and life
without death…"

Because fear embodies separation and love unity, sages affirm that there are only two
primary emotions, fear and love. Both are mutually exclusive. Where there is fear there is
no love and where there is love there is no fear. A quick test of your spiritual quotient is
the level of fear within you. The less there is, the closer to God you are. Indeed, the
spiritual journey could well be said to be the movement from fear to love. Writes thinker
Gerald Jampolsky: "Fear and love can never be experienced at the same time. It is always
our choice as to which of these emotions we want…"

Jampolsky may use the word choice and in the ultimate sense he is right, but to get to the
stage where we can have mastery over our fears enough to be able to choose having them
or not, is not easy. Only deep and rigorous self-knowledge can help us reach this stage,
but that finally is the road each traveller must go if he wishes to outpace fear.

Types of Fear
Within the blanket insecurity caused by detachment from the Self, there are other broad
categories of fear. Chief among these is the fear of the unknown, of which the primary
one is the fear of death. Says the Peace Pilgrim, who walked through the length and
breadth of the US to create awareness of peace: "Almost all fear is fear of the unknown.
Therefore, what's the remedy? To become acquainted with the thing you fear."

This is wisdom and is easily the best way to dissolve individual fears that come in the
way of effective living. Says an animator and film-maker: "I always feared having and
bringing up children, because I feared it would make me lose my individuality, but
ultimately I overcame this fear, through love for my children."

Equally crucial is the role of desire in stoking fear. As long as man is in the grip of desire,
he will never escape fear for he either fears his inability to obtain the object of desire or
having obtained it, his ability to retain it. The wily goddess Maya's gossamer veil is
chiefly constituted of these two components. Says J. Krishnamurti: "Fear is not to be put
away by appeasement and candles; it ends with the cessation of the desire to become."

Both these categories are finally rooted in lack of faith in oneself and in God. The more
faith we develop in ourselves to cope with life and triumph over its manifold terrors, the
less we fear the unknown. The more confident we are of our ability to withstand
temptation, the more feeble is the hold of desire.

And as our faith and trust in God increases, it pervades the dank and dingy places of fear
with its genial sunshine and causes it to disappear.

The annals of saints and sages all over the world are rife with wondrous tales of courage
and valour, endured out of sheer love of God. Here, for instance, is the tale of one
anonymous martyr persecuted as a Huguenot under Louis XIV, quoted by William James
in The Varieties of Religious Experience. A group of six women undressed her and rained
blows upon her with a "bunch of willow rods as thick as the hand could hold, and a yard
long." In vain the women cried, "We must double our blows; she does not feel them, for
she neither speaks nor cries. " This was the worthy woman's response to her torture: "And
how should I have cried, since I was swooning with happiness within?"

Perfect faith gives perfect security. The knowledge that all that happens is for the best
can put to rout all fears of the unknown.

Perfect faith gives perfect security. The knowledge that all that happens is for the best can
put to rout all fears of the unknown. It is this surrender that supported the great prophets
of the world even in the face of death. Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and others were led
to perform their mighty acts despite the threat of death because they were secure in their
surrender.

For us lesser mortals, it may not be quite so easy to sashay straight off into surrender, but
a belief in God is the beginning of faith and faith is the final frontier. A strong philosophy
that works for all seasons is a great shield against the onslaught of fear.

Says Ashish Virmani, assistant editor at Mansworld magazine, "The most important thing
to combat fear is to have a sound philosophy in life - a philosophy for life and for death. I
think in many ways Buddhism has helped me overcome many of my fears. For example,
I used to fear, as a teenager, that people would laugh at me or talk about me behind my
back. Now I realise that it doesn't really matter what people say or think because it is
their privilege to think what they are thinking, and it is my privilege to carry on with my
life regardless and achieve my goals."

Go Beyond the Comfort Zone

There's much to be said in praise of tribulation, although the realisation will come only in
hindsight. Take a moment to survey the soul-journey and the physical stop-over, which
has been scheduled only to study unlearned lessons. So then why fear anything? "Fear is
illusory; it cannot live. Courage is eternal, it will not die," said Swami Sivananda,
founder of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh. So why do we let the temporary moment
shadow the glory of the divine self? It requires a conscious effort to move beyond the
circumstance and watch our own actions and words with a level of detachment. We are
here to learn. Every situation of strife that you encounter is a karmic lesson and your own
previous deeds have created today's situation. Fears are largely the results of experience
over many incarnations. When they haunt you, they are not to be seen as retribution or a
calamity, but an opportunity to build soul-muscle. The other participants in the moment
may have been with you on a previous journey, there may have been cues you failed to
pick up. Here's your chance to do so and complete your lines appropriately; the one
prompting you may have been someone you once ignored deliberately, totally, but are
forced to listen to now, only for your own good. The stage is set for your karmic progress.
So why tread hesitantly? Walk in with confidence, be sure of your part and don't fear
being centre-stage. The Casting Director up there never errs, and if you're the chosen one,
believe in yourself and not the undermining voices whispering in your ears. There is
never a life given that cannot be lived fully.

Look at your fear, any fear, in the eye. It could be a physical deficiency that you perceive
as repulsive, and fear that others will feel the same and avoid you, while they may not
have noticed, let alone scrutinised it the way your hyper-sensitivity would believe. It
could be an attachment that brings you the fear of loss - a wife or a house or a car, all
these can be overcome with detachment. Above all, there is fear of death. Confesses
Shailesh Vyas, a language trainer (36), "I have always had an intense fear of getting
pregnant, because I thought I would die during childbirth. Not only did the fear make me
delay my marriage as far as possible, it also led to so much negativity, that I stopped
breathing during the delivery and even had to have a Caesarian done. Strangely, the fear
stemmed from no particular reason or experience."

These are fears born of the total identification with the physical body, fears born out of
ignorance of the real Self.

Observes Ashish Virmani, "Death is inevitable for everyone who is born on this earth but
what is more important is making the best of every day that one lives."

Fears drain vitality; sap the body of all energy. Natural fears, like that of the student
fearing the teacher, are necessary for the former's growth and progress, but unnatural
fears, born in the mind, of impending illness, financial ruin or personal abandonment -
none of these are rational.

Observes Devesh Vyas (33), general manager, sales and marketing, Raheja Constructions:
"My deepest fear is the fear of having no money and not being able to provide for my
family and myself. The best way to overcome such irrational fears is to stay with the fear,
observe it and what it does and allow it to reveal itself. Since these fears cannot be done
away with, the best way is to cope with them, accept their existence and carry on with
life."
This indeed, is what reiki master and workshop trainer Anand Tendulkar did. Says he: "I
was always afraid of public speaking yet since my work demanded it, I had to keep doing
it, and today I have completely overcome my fear."

While individual fears can be eliminated in numerous ways, eliminating the cause of fear
has only one solution. To go deep within and dismantle the false self, the ego self that
entraps us in self-centred fear-generating ways of being. We can do this by meditating on
the atman as Swami Sivananda suggests. J. Krishnamurti, on the other hand, suggests a
direct face-to-face confrontation with the ego self. Says he: "Thought has created a centre
as the 'me' - me, my opinion, my country, my God, my experience, my house…Can the
mind look at fear without the centre? Can you look at the fear without naming it?…It
requires tremendous discipline. Then the mind is looking without the centre to which it
has been accustomed and there is the ending of fear, both the hidden and the open."

Fear Kills the Will and Stays all Action

Fear in our day-to-day lives has to be dealt with immediately. It is a poison that should
not be allowed to circulate. Repeat the name of your favourite deity, or chant a familiar
mantra when you feel a fear taking hold of you. Watch for the seed of a growing anxiety,
pull the weed out before it becomes a thriving parasite and numbs you of life. Joy is life's
nourishment, fear is starvation. Fear is the opposite of belief. Fear denies faith. What
have you to be afraid of if you believe that you are here on a purpose? Is there a school
board without an exam? Can there be a life without struggle? No. All difficulties are tests
set to strengthen us, not overcome us. If you are not careful, fear will keep you rooted
here and now, in your little physical form, six feet plus though you may appear.

Wayne W. Dyer writes in his book, Pulling Your Own Strings, "Any time you catch
yourself paralysed by fear - in a word, victimised - ask yourself, "What am I getting out
of this?" Your first temptation will be to answer, 'Nothing.' But go a little deeper and
you'll see why people find it easier to be victims than to take strong stances of their own,
to pull their own strings. It's the way of the smaller self to wallow in littleness, to avoid
risks, and here we aren't talking about risks like dodging a bullet in Iraq, but confronting
an innate fear of say, deep-seated jealousy. It's these fears, which keep you immobile and
weak, clutching at non-essentials, thrashing about with no place to escape. Where can
you go leaving your self behind?"

Mobilise your Courage and Inner Resources

The story of Krishna and Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita is an illustration of a positive
intention to overcome fear. At the beginning of the Mahabharata war, Arjuna could not
fight his cousins and uncles. Krishna, God Incarnate, knew it was Arjuna's duty to do so
and did not allow Arjuna's momentary weakness to overwhelm him. He exhorted him to
fight and did not allow him to run away from the battlefield. Krishna did not allow fear to
paralyse the otherwise courageous Arjuna or have him remembered by history as a
coward. Till today, Arjuna is a symbol of valour.

Sometimes, though, fears get obliterated without consciously working on them, through
deep and sustained meditation. As long as she could remember, Anupama Ramchandra
had feared the dark. In 2004, Anupama attended a Vipassana course at Igatpuri,
Maharashtra. "I was given a separate cell and I was certain the nights would be an
agony." Anupama, hardly new to Vipassana, had resolved to diligently meditate this time.

"Days of intense meditation left me too restless to sleep. My body became super-sensitive
to the slightest sound and movements. When in the forests around the Dhamma Centre a
twig snapped, I'd feel it on my skin.

"I fell into a restless sleep one night. I dreamt of being sucked into a vortex. It was a
strong sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach. When I woke up the next morning, I
knew I'd never be afraid of the dark again. Thanks to Vipassana, I'd eliminated one big
samskara."

Writer Armin Zebrowski makes a distinction between the human ego and the spiritual
ego. "The human ego consists of desires, passions, wishes and emotions. The spiritual
ego is the highest ideal of compassion and is represented by intuition, which supplies us
with inspiration. Fear is a feeling of the human ego. It is not an emotion the soul is
familiar with."

Such a fine, insightful explanation. It is the essence of this exploration into fear. Why do
we distance ourselves from the inner self, which is the core of our being? Why lose track
of the radar, which signals the presence of the soul, which we will be in every lifetime,
and not the physical or emotional surroundings we find ourselves in now? Why do we get
caught up with fears that are just the projection of our individuality this time around?
Why put all of one's identity into a job one holds and could be sacked from next week?
Why preen with a sense of special-me just because fame once knocked at your door, or
beauty decided to bestow just that little bit more? Essentially, why the fear of a lack of
recognition and appreciation? Just enjoy the delight of your senses for yourself, or even
by yourself, and let go the rest. There is no judgement waiting to condemn you. We often
perceive non-existent threats to our independence, privacy and freedom and react with
anger through prevailing fear.

Egoism and self-centredness lead to a sense of alienation. The fear of being overlooked,
and the desire for importance leads to immense anxiety. Today's whirl of social activities
and celebrity circus performances provide woeful examples of insecurities eating up
those trying to gain or retain attention. Hysterical demands for invitations, which they
fear, may not be forthcoming, or ensuring a late arrival to prove the pressure of very
important work, are reflections of insecurity. Legendary actor, Amitabh Bachchan, has
acquired a reputation for putting to shame people who invite him for a function and,
although his adherence to punctuality is well-known, people are still appalled when he
does turn up on time. A few years ago, at a book launch organised at a music store,
Bachchan walked in five minutes before the appointed time, only to find the sweeper
clearing the floor and a few waiters arranging glasses. No sign of the writer or any of the
glamorous organisers or other guests. The chief guest, however, waited and did the
honours two hours later with no audible complaint, and even the very curious could only
speculate at the irony they imagined in his expression. Bachchan in India has no fear of
being overlooked, neither does any non-famous, ordinary individual need to crave public
applause. We are all doing what we are meant to, and are perfectly placed in positions to
learn our lessons.

Sages affirm there are only two primary emotions: fear and love. Fear is the absence
of love. Fear embodies separation and love unity

Another instance recalled by a fashion photographer involved a photo-session for a

magazine cover, which featured four top male models of the decade. Four smart, good-
looking men, unquestionably the toast of their time. However, their misplaced anxieties,
wrapped up in their celebrated egos, provided many moments of mirth in the
photographer's studio. This is what happened that evening - each of them got to the studio
within a few minutes of the others, but two of them kept circling the studio in their
respective cars, calling from their cell-phones and asking the staff if all the other models
had arrived, not willing to be the first one in, each reluctant to be the one who came in
and waited. This went on, till the photographer took matters into his hands, not wanting
this formula driving to go on all night, and lied systematically to each one saying two
others had arrived and so on. The shoot took place, and the photographs looked great.
But, no one present that night ever forgot the fears these men displayed, when ironically,
they had been called to participate in a shoot, which actually celebrated their handsome
faces, great physiques and success in a chosen field. Unfortunately, their immature
behaviour left behind impressions that were anything but glorious.

Deepak Chopra believes that control is the way the ego solves the problem of fear.
"Whenever any of us falls into controlling behaviour, one of the following scenarios is at
work in the unconscious:
o We are afraid someone will reject us
o We are afraid of failing
o We are afraid of being wrong
o We are afraid of being powerless
o We are afraid of being destroyed

Fearful thoughts keep chasing each other in a vicious circle. Insecurities mount and the
fear of loss of control leads to more fear, and a paramount desire to keep the face of
control secure. What do we achieve? Tension and unhappiness.

Fear is a feeling of the human ego. It is not an emotion the soul is familiar with

Dada Vaswani also believes that one of the greatest maladies is loneliness, and all fears
arise from a basic fear of abandonment and frustration. He says that long queues outside
cinema theatres indicate the growing internal loneliness, when all diversions are sought
externally, with little thought for introspection or self-expansion. Mind games, instead of
soul-food. Fears are only self-imposed limitations, not lines drawn in concrete. You can
learn to use the computer even when well into your 60s, if you believe you can do it. But
if the fear of embarrassment or failure holds you back, then it is the fear that controls you
and the desire suffocates and dies. You will sadly, take away from yourself a minor but
significant sense of accomplishment. You give the fear a larger-than-life status, and put
life itself in the sidelines. Fear is undermining. If fear has its rationales - of caution and
wisdom - give it a good hearing, then proceed. If fear gains the upper hand, confusion
prevails. Objectives blurs, confidence is lost. What is the choice you want to make? A
few smudges on a clean mirror don't make the mirror useless, the smudges just have to be
wiped off.

Disarm the Dragon with Loving Forgiveness

The presence of fear indicates the inability to love completely. We often hold fear up
against ourselves as armour. An instrument of defence even in the presence of family and
friends. Why is fear a tool of survival? Love ensures a more comfortable trek, some
provision for nourishment and protection against a few blows and setbacks. Fear can't be
part of this ongoing, wholesome process. Yes, life's journey requires checks and surveys,
of pauses and progress, but certainly, the journey can be free of fear. Free of believing in
half-loves, inadequate communication and incomplete acceptance. Fear predicts an
inability to let go, a restraint and an inactive pause in which precious moments of growth
are arrested. Instead, use the power of visualisation to untangle knots. Think of yourself
as the victor in spiritual warfare, where negative thought is defeat and positive endeavour
a spur. Let go of the thoughts that attract the fear to you. Set yourself free and invite the
free flow of love and good energy.

The most vulnerable is the most fearless. Like a newborn, says Deepak Chopra in his
book, The Path to Love: "Newborn infants, because they have no past, lack all defences;
a baby is completely vulnerable to any intruder or harmful influence, utterly dependent
on outside protection to survive. Yet, paradoxically, no one is more invulnerable than a
newborn child, because it has no fear. Experience has yet to create its imprint on the
nervous system, and without a frame of reference there is no threat."

Chopra points out some patterns of futile behaviour:

o We constantly compare ourselves to an ideal that we can never live up to. The loveless
inner voice drives us by saying, "You aren't good enough, thin enough, pretty enough,
happy enough, secure enough."
o We look for approval in others. This behaviour basically projects our inner
dissatisfaction with ourselves in the hope that some outside authority will lift it from our
souls.
o We rely on love to remove the obstacles that keep it away. All sorts of unloving
behaviours are allowed to persist with the attitude that we will become affectionate, open,
trusting and intimate only by a touch of love's magic wand.

This very instant, do yourself a favour. Trash all debilitating thoughts. Empty the mind,
while simply knowing that the Self is all, and set yourself free. Because fears are just
hollow concepts built in the mind and drawn from interpretations of experiences. If a
salesperson in a store has been rude to you once, you shudder to enter the store again,
even if you quite like what's on display inside. Ever paused to consider that perhaps that
salesman is not employed there any longer? Or, you can learn to ride a bike and wobble
along in the fear of falling, but if you believe that it's just a wonderful joy-ride, choose to
steady your hands and look straight ahead, hey, it could well be one unforgettable ride.

Make up Your Mind

by Swami Veda Bharati

You determine your mind by the thoughts you think moment to moment. so choose
the mind you wish to have and think it into being

In the previous articles we have described the aims of Indian psychology up to its
penultimate goal. The rishis did not study the secrets of the mind by observing animal
and human behaviour. They studied and analysed it by using themselves as guinea pigs.
What happens to the mind if it concentrates on a flame for one hour a day for six months?
What happens to it if the object of concentration is flowing water, or a dot, or a certain
thought? They observed the changes in the states of consciousness and recorded their
observations in short scientific formulae, sutras. We can understand these formulae and
replicate them only if we replicate their methodology, the steps in self-experimentation.
This is why the practice of meditation is the lab work of spirituality.

The formulae on the mind are not to be found in one single text. They are scattered
throughout the literature that serves as a guide to different contexts of life. The actual
methodology and the guide to experiments is found in the oral tradition of the meditation
masters and its aims can be achieved through discipline, anushasana.

We cannot learn to use our minds in sattvic patterns, as described in the previous sections
of this article, without first learning how our minds are formed, from what sources is the
mind derived.
o The true field of our individual mind is a wave of the universal mind. It is the purest
crystal, the most beautiful place in the universe; nothing can be more beauteous, more
glorious, more illuminated and calmer than this wave-field. It is closest to atman than any
other entity in the universe.
o At the moment of being conceived into the current body, we bring from the past lives
all our samskaras, imprints of past actions and experiences, whether they be sattvic,
rajasic or tamasic.
o The mother-mind and the father-mind are infused into this wave of the universal mind
which is patterned by previous samskaras, subtly altering the pre-existent pattern,
imprinting on it the mother-father samskaras to a certain extent.
o From the moment of conception, whatever is happening in and to the mother's mind is
being passed on to the mind of the foetus. The foetus is not merely taking physical
nutrition through mother's body, its mind is being constantly reshaped.
o The kind of sattvic, rajasic or tamasic food the mother eats also impacts the foetus's
mind. So, for example, the food (a) obtained by causing pain to creatures will create a
painful mind prone to hurting living beings, and (b) cooked with anger, it will contribute
to creating an angry mind.
o From the moment of conception, the mind is constantly in a state of flux and change. It
is never the same from moment to moment. A moment, kshana, is defined by the yogis as
the time it takes an atomic particle to traverse to an immediately contiguous point in
space. In that moment, each moment, the mind is reconstituted, has changed from its
preceding state. This is a person's primary education.
o The processes that go into the making of a foetus's mind continue after the child
emerges from the womb. At first the parents, immediate family and others determine the
composition of our minds but, later, throughout life we ourselves are choosing the
constituents of our mind moment to moment. Our attitudes, temperaments, inclinations,
habit patterns, addictions, mental engagements, are all being set in this way; some being
weakened by making different choices, some being strengthened.

Whatever we fill our minds with is what we become. Yo yach-chhraddhah sa eva sah.
These determine our pleasantness or unpleasantness; our social skills or clumsy
communication; violence or docility; our success in marriage and profession or dismal
failure. Alldepends on how we constitute and reconstitute our minds moment to moment.
Our happiness or suffering, success or failure, are not created by 'others'. They are our
own doings.

Let us not blame our parents for our unhappiness and lack of success. The freedom of
will is always at our disposal which we can use to alter our own mind's composition, and
thereby our future and fate. The will is an innate attribute of our spiritual source of which
we have not yet spoken - but hope to do so in the forthcoming discussions. Freedom
means freedom from our psychological patterns by the application of the resources of the
spiritual will.

"No one loves me". If this is your complaint, learn to become lovable. "No one listens to
me". If this is what many hear from you frequently, tune your mind to a state whereby
others do wish to hear your tone of voice. Choose what you wish to be, and start working
on that state of being by cultivating the relevant thoughts. If you wish to be perceived a
certain way by others, let that kind of fragrance in words, tone, body language, manner of
glance, exude from you.

What we are is primarily what our mind is. What do you wish to be? Cultivate that being
by cultivating that kind of mind. Have you been ignored? Disliked? Opposed? Become
such that no one is ever again inclined to ignore you, dislike you, oppose you.

Select the thoughts that are conducive to cultivating that kind of personality. Think those
kinds of thoughts repeatedly, and in time, without any effort on your part, others will say,
"S/he has changed, has mellowed, has become so likable, lovable, so inspiring, such a
loving guide".

Often in the course of spiritual counselling I hear spouses and others in relationships say,
"Oh, Swamiji, s/he will never change". My question always is: Would you change? Take
the initiative. Your act is your act; the samskaras you wish to imprint upon yourself are of
your choice. The kind of personality you wish for is yours to choose. Through being the
way you wish to be, you will evoke the desired responses from others.

There are two reasons that induce people to say 'yes' to someone. Fear. And love. May
you be such that your presence melts hearts and all are inclined to say 'yes' to you - not
because they fear you but because they love you so.
Mission Divine

Life mission, near vadodara, is a flourishing spiritual organisation committed to

promoting a global spiritual resurgence as commanded by lord lakulish, 28th avatar
of shiva. uniquely, the organisation believes that liberation is through the attainment
of the divine body. Here, a sketch of the organisation and an exclusive interview
with its present head, swami rajarshi muni.

The scorching, dry, May gust was like the blast from a furnace. We were perpetually
chasing the shimmering mirages that appeared on the baking asphalt, only to vaporise
into thin air as our jeep sped upon them. There were hardly any trees—a distinctive
feature of this water-starved Saurashtra region of Gujarat, and the flat, scrub dotted
landscape was desolate, if strangely alluring.
Hours later, we arrived at Jakhan village, near Limbdi, in Surendranagar district. Here, 50
acres of land is being developed for the establishment of‘Rajrajeshwardham’, the
international headquarters of Lakulish International Fellowship’s Enlightenment (LIFE)
Mission. Water has already transformed this land, a donation from the local community,
into a life-attracting oasis. As freshly watered young trees swayed in the breeze, squirrels
gamboled about, doves gurgled and an egret fussed about in a puddle.
Under the busy hands of skilled sculptors, an impressive ‘trimurti’ complex of three
temples, one each devoted to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, is fast taking shape. Closely
supervised by a Sompura, temple builder, all rules governing temple building have been
stringently followed. Thus, no iron has been used, even for reinforcement; instead,
different sections ‘the male and female components’, have been individually carved,
designed to fit snugly into each other to ensure a strong edifice in this earthquake prone
region.
Craftsmen from Orissa have just finished carving the 50 stone apsaras to support the
massive roof of the temple. In keeping with scriptural prescriptions, a massive bathing
tank has been excavated. ‘Sudha Sarovar’, which will have separate sections for men and
women, is fed with water from the Bhogavo river, an undertaking that will also improve
water supply in the region. In the pipeline are a yoga institute, high school, charitable
hospital, technical school, vocational training centre, library, gardens and fountains,
besides accommodation facilities for visitors.
Aimed at mankind’s spiritual emancipation, this ambitious project, is, infact, the
fulfillment of a divine commandment received by Swami Kripalvanand from Lord
Lakulish, the 28th Avatar of Lord Shiva. Lakulish, who preached the Sanatan Dharma
about 5,000 years ago, has, I am informed, reappeared on earth for the re-institution of
this divine knowledge in our age.
It started in 1913, when Swami Pranavanand was initiated by Lord Lakulish in the Divine
Yoga. Practising in seclusion, he became a highly attained yogi, conquering hunger and
thirst. In 1931, he initiated Swami Kripalvanand, who immersed himself in sadhana for
almost 40 years.
In 1956, Lord Lakulish appeared before Kripalvanand, commanding him to work for a
global renaissance of Indian philosophy and spiritual culture. After him, this task fell
upon his disciple, Swami Rajarshi Muni, the present head of the Lakulish spiritual
lineage. Life Mission is the outcome of his commitment to the execution of Lakulish’s
wish.
Currently based in Kayavarohan, near Vadodara, Life Mission boasts an outstanding
record of service in the social, cultural and spiritual spheres. Through the Lakulish
Institute of Yoga, thousands of students over the world have been trained in this
discipline. Awards won by them in yoga competitions worldwide, including the recent
Yoga Olympics at Argentina, testify to the level of excellence of the teaching. R.J. Jadeja,
who heads the Lakulish Institiute of Yoga, explains its role in popularising yoga.
“Through our camps held all over the country, we aim to make the immense benefits of
yoga available to all. Besides, our efforts have helped to bring academic recognition to
Yoga and also pioneered its inclusion among competitive sports. Besides, it is the only
institute of its kind that conducts its activities almost completely free of cost”, he says.
At a typical residential workshop at Kayavarohan, students learn asanas and pranayam
techniques. Evaluated at the end of the workshop, they return for progressively advanced
seminars. At the successful completion of each level, a certificate is awarded.
Besides the yoga workshops, Life Mission has also established more than 17,000 culture
centres to promote spiritual values worldwide.
Yogesh Shah was a disciple of Kripalvanand since his childhood days in Malav. Today, a
successful businessman settled in Mumbai, he feels graced to be involved with Life
Mission. “Working for the spread of spiritual values and universal brotherhood gives me
peace and is satisfying. Truly, it is my life and whatever I do for it still doesn’t seem
enough,” he says.
Spiritually, an important belief of the spiritual lineage of Lakulish is the concept of the
divya deha, divine body. Considered the highest attainment of yoga sadhana, it confers
upon the sadhak, immortality and eternal freedom from the cycle of life and death. The
path to its attainment is encapsulated in the secret yoga, handed down by Lakulish
himself, to be passed down from guru to student.
In an exclusive interview, Swami Rajarshi Muni talked about Life Mission, yoga and the
divine body. Excerpts:

Can you tell us something about Life Mission?

The task of enabling a rebirth of Bhartiya sanskriti was given to my Guru, Kripalvanand,
who initiated this work, but died before it was completed. As social transformation on
this scale is not easy to effect, initially I continued to concentrate on my own sadhana in
seclusion. However, when I myself received the darshan of Lakulish commanding me to
continue the work, I got more involved. Life Mission was started as a means to fulfill this
task.
We work on two fronts. Firstly, by propagating our spiritual culture the world over. This
is achieved through our various Sanskar kendras, being opened all over the country and
abroad.
Secondly, we concentrate on seva and public welfare, by providing drinking water,
education and professional training, medical services, etc. We are supported by local
communities, and not just Hindus, but even Christians and Muslims are actively involved
in our movement.

Spiritually, what is the major aspect of the Lakulish lineage all about?
The most important spiritual aspect of the Lakulish spiritual lineage is the attainment of
the 'divine body’. You can find scriptural reference to this in a shloka from the
Shvetashvatar Upanishad, which says: “One who has attained a body baked in the fire of
yoga is free from disease and death.” It means here that the body gains immortality. This
is true freedom from the cycle of life and death, not liberation as a state after death.
If ‘moksh’ means liberation from rebirth and death, then you are only liberated if you do
not die! Only through the attainment of the divine body are you truly liberated from the
constraints of time and space with the power to assume any form, anywhere in existence.

Has anybody managed to attain this Divine body yet?

(Laughs) Several people have attained the ‘divine body’. Sant Kabir, who took samadhi
by covering himself with a cloth, was assumed dead by his disciples. However, when
they opened the shroud there was no body, just a pile of flowers! Similarly, Meerabai’s
mortal remains were never recovered; she left behind only some articles of clothing.
Sant Dnyaneshwar took samadhi in an underground cave, which was sealed. 250 years
later, on hearing voices inside, people opened it, only to see the Dnyaneshwar still
meditating inside. He asked them to cut off the roots of a nearby tree that were choking
him. These are only few instances of the immortality of the divine body.
Another point. Old age is the degeneration of the body, which takes over when active
growth stops. As part of the process of attainment of the divine body, a reversal of ageing
takes place. This is why Dnyaneshwar is popularly believed to have composed his
Dnyaneshwari at the age of 15 years. The whole point has been missed here, because, due
to the reversal of ageing, he only resembled a youth without facial hair and other signs of
age.
(He refers to his book Divine Body through Yoga, available in Gujarati and Hindi, where
various spiritual personalities from different religions who have attained this state are
mentioned.)
We have always considered the body to be impermanent and unimportant, while it is the
soul that remains eternal.
What is the soul? The atman is only a smaller spark of the Paramatman, the universal
soul. This Paramatman cannot be extinguished, though individual sparks may cease to be.
The normal body, as we all know, is composed of the five elements, tatvas. Through
yoga, it is possible to combine and fuse these together to form energy—Shakti Tatva.
As the universe was created from energy, so, to go back, we need to transcend to this
energy, called Ishwar Tatva, or Paramatman, which never dies. This energy can assume
any and as many forms as it desires.
However, this is beyond human language and understanding. Being impossible to
understood without experience, the scriptures described it as “Neti! Neti! Neti!”

How can one attain a divine body?

This state is the result of intense yoga sadhana. Call it, karma yoga, gyan yoga or bhakti
yoga, all these teach the way to God. The word ‘yoga’ stands for ‘unison’—of the
individual soul with the cosmic soul." It is not without reason therefore, that each chapter
of the Bhagavad Gita is also called yoga.
Yoga teaches us that whatever we are—is also the universe. The cell is the smallest unit
of our bodies and each cell has a nucleus. All the stars of our cosmos are like the nuclei of
our cells. Therefore yoga instructs us to know the body in order to understand the
universe.
Science may teach otherwise, but in reality we have three bodies. The gross body of flesh
and bone is the outer third layer, besides we have the subtle and causal bodies.
While in our waking state, our oneness is with the gross body. However while dreaming
in sleep, our consciousness is one with the subtle body. The third phase, that of dreamless
sleep is the causal state when consciousness is completely withdrawn. Yoga teaches that
even the universe has three bodies. Our state of consciousness connects with the
corresponding state of the universe
It is in the fourth state, beyond even that of the dreamlessness known as Turiya, that one
merges into the blissful totality of the Self, which is essential for the attainment of the
divine body.
In a nutshell, yoga enables you to transcend these lower levels of consciousness and
attain direct contact with the soul, known as atman sakshaatkar or Paramatman
sakshaatkar.

Can you elaborate more on the role of Yoga?

Ashtanga yoga consists of yam, niyam, asana, pranayam, dhyan, pratyahar, dharna and
samadhi.
Yam and niyam increase the satvic gunas in a seeker. The asanas, done with pranayam,
help to experience the subtle body, which culminates in the keval kumbhak or the
complete cessation of respiration. Dhyan is total concentration and pratyahar is pulling
the mind inward. Dharana, focus, draws up consciousness from the lower realms and
bringing it up to the 18th point, which leads to samadhi, where thought ceases
completely.
Intense sadhana while in nirvikalp samadhi, or the permanent stage of samadhi leads to
the attainment of the divine body.
To reach this stage, you need a guru, who gives the ‘key’ to sadhana only when the
student is ready. I got the ‘key’ from my guru, who got it from his. Only a guru
parampara whose spiritual head holds this ‘key’ is a valid one. This knowedge is always
originally handed down by God himself, Lord Lakulish in the case of my tradition.

Can any human being aspire to a divine body? Unlike all other forms of knowledge,
the Vedas are not an intellectual creation of man. There are no credits to any authors,
because the sages simply wrote down what came from God Himself. That is why we call
it Sanatan Dharma or Eternal Truth. I call it Sanatan Dharma, not Hindu Dharma. If a
person from another religion also follows it what problem can anyone have? You can be a
Christian, Muslim or Zoroastrian and still follow this religion. By yoga sadhana under a
teacher anyone can aspire to the final state of the divine body. This is God’s knowledge
and there can be no copyright.
Breaking the pain chain

If you are aware in the present, you break away from past and you create a new
future, and you heal=you are no more a victim, but a survivor.

When a couple enters into a relationship, they bring into the relationship a lot from their
past. If it is not disposed of, it affects the interpersonal relationship between the two.
If you have in some way been emotionally scarred prior to entering a new relationship
and those scars remain unhealed, then you may be inadvertently and unintentionally
contaminating the relationship.
Sexual molestation or physical abuse as a child may come in the way of freely
participating in an intimate relationship. If you have had a painful and combative
relationship with either one or both of your parents, you may have great difficulty relating
freely with your partner.
Sigmund Freud’s view is that all symptoms, strange and unhealthy ways of thinking and
behaving, are due to an effort to cope with and adjust with life, which though necessary
to survive at a particular time and in a particular environment, might not be appropriate in
the present scenario.
In addition to emotional scars, we also carry thoughts, feeling and behaviour patterns of
our childhood in our body-mind. Each person has three ego states, which are distinct
sources of behaviour; the parent ego state, the child ego state and the adult ego state.
When you are acting, thinking and feeling as you observed your parents to be doing, you
are in your parent ego state. When you are feeling and acting as you did when you were a
child, you are in your child ego state. When you are dealing with current reality,
gathering facts and computing objectively, you are in your adult ego state.
The truth is that you cannot give away what you do not have. If your heart is encumbered
with pain and angst, and if your mind is controlled by unconscious childhood patterns,
you cannot give unencumbered love to anyone. You become part of the ‘pain chain’,
wherein your own victimisation is transferred to other people; a ‘victim’ creates another
‘victim’ and the ‘pain chain’ goes on.
Don’t delude yourself into thinking that you can effectively compartmentalise your
emotional pain and keep it from infecting your relationship. It requires immense amounts
of energy even to keep it contained, where it constantly bubbles waiting to erupt.
Moreover, the very fact that so much of energy is devoted to containment of the pain
undeniably changes you. In fact, if there is anything worse than having a problem, it is
denying that you have one.
You may have been victimised but understand that those who have victimised you have
themselves been a victim of circumstances. One victim victimises another. And you
create more victims if you don’t consciously choose to break the ‘pain chain’.
I am not suggesting that you as a child were accountable for what happened to you.
Having said that, accountability would mean that the adult (grown child) holds the
responsibility for what he or she does about the aftermath of painful events in life.
If you are aware in the present, you break away from past and you create a new future,
and you heal—you are no more a victim, but a survivor.

Mapping your Mind

To take control of your life, buzan brothers propose radiant thinking, a brain-based
mode of advanced thought, and its natural expression, the mind map
Summary of mind map laws Use emphasis • Always use a central image. • Use images
throughout your Mind Map. • Use more colours per central image. • Use dimension in
images and around words. •
More >>

Have you ever wanted to improve your memory, creativity, concentration,

communication ability and learning as well as thinking skills, general intelligence and
quickness of mind? Did you ever realise that although you are knowledgeable enough
about your subject but less and less able to pull all the details together in order to write
about it?
Students can best understand this problem when they face difficulty in assembling their
thoughts after going through verbose class notes. And when the exams knock at the door,
they end up sifting through guide books.
Most of us, in our daily lives, face the same problem—of taking a decision or finding a
solution.
Having identified this, two British scholars penned The Mind Map Book, a ground-
breaking, colourful note-making technique which propounded the idea of Radiant
Thinking and its best natural expression: mind mapping. It is now estimated that there are
over 250 million mind mappers worldwide who have benefited after applying this unique
technique, claims the book.
The colourful mind maps where you see more of the picture, in colours leave indelible
mark on the network of tunnels (suggested by the guru of lateral thinking Edward de
Bono) in your brain. And the results are incredible.
Tony Buzan, world’s leading author and lecturer on the brain, learning
and thinking skills and also the originator of mind maps, and his brother Barry Buzan, a
professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, realised the
need to help 95 per cent people on this
earth who face problems in areas such
as thinking, memory, concentration, motivation, organisation of ideas, decision-making
and planning. The result was mind maps, also termed as “the Swiss army knife for the
brain”, which were introduced to the world in 1974, with the publication of the book-Use
Your Head.
Divided into sequential levels for
a beginner to an advanced student,
The Mind Map Book makes it easy
to remember things and think brilliant ideas. It teaches you, step by step,
how to systematically take control
of your life.
One chapter describes how the great brains used more of their natural ability and how
they were intuitively beginning to use the principles of radiant thinking and mind
mapping. People from all walks of life, for example, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton,
Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Beethoven, James Joyce, Vincent van Gogh, Mark
Twain— all used mind mapping to express themselves in ways that reflect the full range
of their mental skills.
The standard linear note-taking style of students at all levels in school, college and
university only allows part of the complete picture to you as there is no free radiation of
ideas. These notes lack the visual rhythm and pattern, colour, image, visualisation,
association, dimension, spatial awareness etc. Hence nothing new emerges. This
technique utilises only a fraction of the brain’s enormous learning potential.
Here originates the concept of radiant thinking that brings the gigantic data resting in
your brain cells to its logical conclusion, where you start learning in a better, faster way.
Radiant thinking refers to associative thought processes that proceed from or connect to a
central point, leading to a coloured graphic image called mind map. It provides a
universal key to unlocking the potential of the brain. The mind map harnesses the full
range of cortical skills—word, image, number, logic, rhythm, colour and spatial
awareness—in a single, uniquely powerful technique.
How does a mind mapper start the process? In the beginning, the mind mapper creates a
central theme from which its associations radiate in the form of branches and sub-
branches and so on. Every key word or image thus added itself brings the possibility of a
new and greater range of associations. More and more related and unrelated ideas occur
during the process, forming patterns of association.
In order to create a mind map, you first identify your Basic Ordering Ideas (BOIs) that
are key concepts within which a host of other concepts can be organised. For example,
the term ‘machines’ contains a vast array of categories, one of which is ‘motor vehicles’.
This, in turn, generates a large range, one of which is ‘cars’. This brings in the type of car
such as Maruti that can again be subdivided into various models. So machines would be
the BOI not Maruti as ‘machines’ structures a huge range of information.
If mind mappers give more emphasis to colour, pictures, codes, dimensions, diagrams,
numbers etc. their mind maps become more interesting and entertaining which, in turn,
aid creativity, memory and specifically the recall of information.
The full power of the mind map
is realised by having a central image instead of a central word, and by
using images wherever appropriate rather than words. Why images?
Well, the Buzans have a convincing answer. Quoting the article ‘Learning 10,000
pictures’, written by Lionel Standing in the Quarterly Journal
of Experimental Psychology, where he commented that ‘the capacity of recognition
memory for pictures is almost limitless!’, the Buzans add that pictures are more evocative
than words, more precise and potent in triggering a wide range of associations, thereby
enhancing creative thinking and memory.
The three ‘As’ of mind mapping are:
• Accept
• Apply
• Adapt
Accept means one should set aside any preconceptions one may have about one’s mental
limitations and follow the mental mapping laws and recommendations (see box)
correctly; Apply is the second stage where the book suggests to make at least 100 mind
maps, developing your own mind mapping style. Adapt refers to the ongoing
development of the mind mapping skills.
Thus, after following the mind mapping laws, one can reach a stage where things become
immensely clear. With the help of a well-crafted mind map, you can organise yours as
well as other peoples’ ideas; enhance memory; think creatively; create a group mind by
bringing individuals together; analyse yourself; solve personal problems; maintain a mind
map diary; presentations; management; teaching; story-telling, etc. The choice is
enormous.
One interesting chapter in the book is the compilation of 17 notes of great thinkers from
all walks of life in the form of a quiz. They clearly show that it is natural for an advanced
intelligence to use a greater than average range of cortical skills.
Loving What Is

Byron katie is a revolutionary spiritual teacher who invites us to conduct a

penetrating analysis of our beliefs and concepts through a process she calls 'the
work'. these four questions and a turnaround help us to cut through all illusions and
embrace what-is

Many people spend 10, 20, 30 years in sincere spiritual study and practice, only to realise
they still hate their jobs, their mothers, and the noise coming from the neighbour's
blasting stereo. Sounds familiar? If so, according to Byron Katie, it's because we're
seeing everything upside down. What we believe to be true, isn't, and what we've been
told works, doesn't. We blame, fear and react because we've not gone within to find out
what's true for us…not because we didn't want to, but because we haven't known how.

Byron Kathleen Reid, a businesswoman and mother living in the high deserts of southern
California, became severely depressed while in her 30s. Over a 10-year period, her
depression deepened, and Katie spent almost two years seldom able to leave her bed,
obsessing over suicide. Then one morning, from the depths of despair, she experienced a
life-changing realisation.

The remedy that brought Katie her freedom is something she calls 'The Work', a
penetrating inquiry process of four questions and a "turnaround". By exposing
unconscious beliefs to the clear light of direct investigation, the mind wakes up to its
innocent mistakes and connects with its inherent joy and clarity. The Work is
astonishingly simple, accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, and requires
nothing more than a pen, paper and an open mind.

Since 1986, Katie has introduced The Work to hundreds of thousands of people in over
30 countries around the world. In addition to public events, she has introduced The Work
in corporations, universities, schools, churches, prisons, and hospitals. Time magazine
has profiled Katie, calling her "a visionary for the new millennium". Katie has two books
to her name: Loving What Is and I Need Your Love - Is That True?

This interview is the transcript of a 75-minute telephone conversation between Pune and
Germany. Excerpts:

What does the term 'enlightenment' mean to you?

People often ask me if I'm an enlightened being. I don't know anything about that. I am
just someone who knows the difference between this hurts and this doesn't. I am someone
who wants only what-is.
So what would you say to all the people who are searching for this concept called
enlightenment?
I would ask them to question their stressful thoughts. The Work is four questions: Is it
true? Can you absolutely know that it's true? How do you react when you believe that
thought? Who would you be without the thought? And then the turnaround, which is a
way of experiencing the opposite of what you believe. When you question your stressful
thoughts, the mind naturally finds peace.

How does The Work lead to peace?

It's like this. I'm walking in the desert and I see an enormous snake, and I'm terrified of
snakes. So I jump back and my heart is beating and I'm paralysed with fear. And then I
happen to look again, and I see that the snake is actually a rope.

Right.
Now I invite you to stand over the rope for one thousand years and try to make yourself
afraid of it again. You can't. It's not possible, because you have realised for yourself what
is true. That is self-realisation. You realise that the snake is a rope and that there's nothing
to be afraid of. It was just a misunderstanding.

The mind is full of apparent snakes - the stressful thoughts that cause us sadness or anger
or depression. And I can tell you that every snake in the mind is actually a rope. There are
no exceptions. If you think you have a problem, you're confused. If you think that there
are any problems in the world, you are confused. You're looking at a rope and seeing a
snake. Life is not fearful. It's our unquestioned thoughts about life that cause our
suffering, not life itself. Life is benevolent and kind and good, and we always have more
than we need under all circumstances. But it takes a thoroughly questioned mind to see
that.

Most seekers believe that the entire journey of spirituality is to get rid of thoughts,
but your version is quite different.
Well, in my experience, if anything exists, thought does. When I first woke up to reality, I
fell in love with thought; you could say that mind fell in love with mind. That's all there
is. If there's no thought, there's no world.

And, you know, thoughts are like children. If they're resisted or suppressed or neglected,
they're going to scream, until we meet them with understanding. It's not helpful to believe
that thoughts are obstacles to happiness. And we humans have been trying to get rid of
thoughts for thousands of years. It just doesn't work. You can't let go of thoughts. No one
has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell the story of how they
have. I don't let go of my thoughts - I meet them with understanding. Then they let go of
me.

Right.
As we question what we believe, we come to see that we're not who we thought we were.
The transformation comes out of the infinite polarity of the mind, which we've rarely
experienced, because the "I know" mind has been so much in control. And as we inquire,
our world changes, because we're working with the projector - mind - and not with what
is projected. We lose our entire world, the world as we understood it. And each time,
reality gets kinder. The bottom line is that when the mind is closed, the heart is closed;
when the mind is open, the heart is open. So if you want to open your heart, question
your thinking.

Yet so many teachings of the past tend to hate thought, or they make it sound like a
real villain…
Hatred is hatred, whether we hate thoughts or people. It's a very painful emotion.

But so many of these wise people, including U.G. Krishnamurthy …he has written a
book, Thought is your Enemy.
(Laughs) Well, it is until it's not. But it's painful to have an enemy. It's the war with the
self. Thoughts are friends, they're part of reality, and until you deeply see that not even
thoughts exist, you'll spend your whole life struggling against them. I like to say that
arguing with reality is like trying to teach a cat to bark: hopeless! When you argue with
reality, you lose - but only 100 per cent of the time.

I meet many seekers and I discuss The Work with them and the argument they give
is that 'this is all mental'.
(Laughs) They're absolutely right. But there's nothing that is not mind.

They believe that there is some space, which you have to reach, which is beyond the
mind and only that will set you free.
That's the story of a future. And the future is always imagined; it never comes. There is
only this moment right now - and not even that. The Work's four questions and
turnaround are very threatening to the closed mind. It begins to lose its identity. It has its
sacred story of reaching a goal, getting rid of thoughts, attaining some transcendent state
called 'enlightenment'. So-called enlightenment experiences are stories of a past. When
you question what you believe, you lose all your stories about the world, you lose the
whole world as you understood it to be. It takes a lot of courage to go inside yourself and
genuinely answer these four questions.

I have sensed the power of these myself and I just can't believe that these four
simple questions can do so much damage. They just demolish everything…and so
much love appears.
Yes. We begin to see clearly because the mind is not at war with itself. In fact, we become
excited about reality, even about the worst that could happen. We open our arms to
reality. Just show me a problem that doesn't come from believing an untrue thought! It's
like rolling around heaven all day - just show me a problem!

Katie, in your experience, without stories and concepts, how does one experience
something like food or sex or whatever?
Ah, it's all fabulous! (laughs). You experience it all with such gratitude and joy and
appreciation, because there is no control in it. The taste of broccoli - what could be more
enlightening than that? Or sex - it's the epitome of letting go, surrendering to God, which
is another name for reality. When sex is without control, you have no idea what can
happen. An orgasm can be so intense and last so long that it could kill you with ecstasy,
you just can't know. But because there's nothing that you can attach to, you're fearless,
you're completely open to it.

You often say that all pain is a result of concepts and beliefs - right?
Well, all suffering is caused by believing our thoughts. Suffering is always optional.
Sanity doesn't suffer - ever. Suffering has nothing to do with the body or with a person's
circumstances. You can be in great pain without any suffering at all. You can be in pain
and be in heaven, or you can be in pain and suffer. How do you know you're supposed to
be in pain? Because that's what's happening. To live without a stressful story, to embrace
what is, even in pain, that's heaven. To be in pain and tell the story that you shouldn't be
in pain, that's hell.

So pain doesn't have to do with thinking?

Well, ultimately it does. All pain is projected, and it takes a very clear mind to understand
that. But when people do The Work, pain changes. The joy overrides the physical
identification of 'I'. You have probably noticed it in yourself to some degree. If nothing
else, you stop fearing pain.

Now that is definitely true about the pain reduction; but if pain is a result of
concepts, even pleasure would be a result of concepts.
Absolutely.

So, what is this joy or ecstasy that one is having in sex?

What I say is, Who cares? Isn't it beautiful? (GD laughs and Katie joins in)

So you don't mind if the good stories are functioning?

Absolutely not. If you're having the most wonderful dream, would you want someone to
wake you up? I love my dream: 'This is a perfect world. I love my husband. God is good.'
But if you're having a nightmare, you may want to wake yourself up. And it is our
responsibility to wake ourselves up. I love my world. I love myself. So don't bother to
wake me. I'm having a wonderful dream.

Yes. But you know, many of the things you say, they just cut through the old
spirituality which is against every dream, every pain and pleasure, absolutely…
Well, love is the power; and the beautiful dream is nothing more than the clear mirror
image of itself, and all identification is felt in that. It's felt as a balance and celebration of
its true nature. And true or not, it is balanced. We live in a state of grace. All the pain we
have ever suffered, all the pain that any human being on this planet has ever suffered, is
over. How could life be any kinder than that?

Okay, Katie, one personal question. I have sent it to you as a question at the Parlor
on your website, but you haven't had a chance to answer it yet. This thing about
receiving other people's thoughts and energies... there is still a part of me that
believes that. I seem to suffer the symptoms of people's physical illnesses.
What I love about separate bodies is that when you hurt, I don't. It's not my turn - it's your
turn. When I hurt, it's my turn. And when you are in pain, if I project what that might feel
like if it happened to me, then I am feeling that projection. I am not feeling your pain; I
am feeling my own projection.

But what about when I suddenly get an asthma attack and later on I find out that it
happened to my mother simultaneously?
That's a beautiful connection and closeness.

Right. But it's painful. I have trouble with it. So what are the concepts one could
question on this subject?
'I feel my mother's pain'- is that true? No, you were feeling your own pain. It's not
possible to feel another person's pain. Who would you be without your story? Pain-free,
happy, and totally available if she needs you. She is having her asthma attack; you are
having yours. And if you did a poll all over the world, you'd find out there are thousands
of people having these attacks at the same instant, and you could just as easily say, 'Oh! It
wasn't my mother's, it was that little boy's in Bolivia!' 'I was feeling my mother's attack' -
is that true? No. It was 100 per cent yours.

Right.
Then the third question: 'I was feeling my mother's attack'- how do you react when you
believe that thought? Well, I just heard some of your reactions: you become mystified,
you start entering a magical world, a superstitious world. Maybe you feel responsible for
your mother. And maybe you start feeling like someone special.

Yes… I become 'psychic'.

Yes. It's painful to be special that way.

Is there anything to this psychic stuff at all?

For me, no. If I'm not interested in being special, or being more gifted than ordinary, non-
psychic people, then I just notice, and question my thoughts, and turn them around. 'I was
feeling my mother's attack.' Turn it around: 'I was feeling my own attack'. Isn't that as
true or truer?

Yes.
And if your mind is clear, sweetheart, if you're not attached to living or dying, an asthma
attack can be a beautiful thing. I would also question the thought 'I need to breathe'.

Wow… nice.
I took a drink of water one day, and it went down the "wrong pipe" - that is, it went down
the right way even though people call it the wrong way. I was breathing water, not air,
and because I didn't believe the story that it was supposed to be air, there was no problem.
Because I didn't have the concept 'I need to breathe', for a moment I was a fish. The water
went down, then it came up. It was so gentle, as if my lungs were being rinsed out. No
story, no resistance. We resist the story, not the experience.
Wow!
But if I believed the thought 'I need to breathe', then I would have had a big problem. It
would have been a very painful choking.

Perfect.
We really are amphibious, though we wouldn't live very long that way. (Both laugh)

Okay, Katie, last question. What about this whole game of crystals and stones and
stuff? Just beliefs?
If you believe that putting crystals on his bed is going to help you, I say, "Good! Do it!"
Until you can question what you believe, it may be the kindest way.

But there is no truth to any of this?

Not for me. And even if there is, what isn't love? You can put a crystal near me or cup of
decaf or a telephone or an apple. The meaning it has is whatever I put onto it. I get what I
project. And if people could understand the mind, they'd realise that the mind creates the
whole world. People believe what they think, and it becomes mysticism. And that's okay,
until they're ready for something more mature.

So when all is said and done, nothing has any reality in itself except what you put on
it.
Totally. Nothing else is possible.

You really demolish the whole world… (Laughs)

No, only the world of suffering. (Both laugh)
The Pursuit of Perfection

The pursuit of perfection will lead us to excellence and release our highest potential

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ tells his followers: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as
your Father which is in heaven is perfect".

The call to perfection is one of the several yearnings embedded in man's heart. It is one of
our chief motivating factors, driving the sportsman as much as the chef, the artist as much
as the craftsman. Even the toddler painstakingly rolling a clay chapatti on her chapatti
stand is responding to that ancient drive.

And yet when this pursuit is inappropriately applied, it fills up the waiting rooms of
therapists and psychiatrists and is one of the chief sources of our misery.

The serial, Desperate Housewives, has one such perfectionist. Her perfectly baked and
presented muffins and impeccable house only have her family up in arms.

Many of us, as the lady in question, make perfection our identity. We slip on this persona
like a dress to cover up the untidy chaos within us - dissatisfaction and discontentment,
self-doubts and fears. We use this identity to bolster up our sagging self-esteem and to put
others down. No wonder no one wants to be around us. I once knew someone who was so
particular about her upholstery that going to her house was like being in a minefield. One
hardly dare sit lest it create a crease or God forbid, stain.

When we use this drive to create an identity or to improve our self-esteem, we also set the
stage for constant disappointment and self-condemnation. For the zeal for perfection
ensures that we will keep failing. And if perfection is our identity, we will not be able to
bear the failures. It will hurt our sense of self, shame and embarrass us, and create
negative labels about ourselves. The combination of high self-expectation and poor self-
esteem is a lethal one.

For the drive to perfection to be healthy and wholesome, we have to develop a sound
self-esteem that is based on who we are and not on what we do. Only then will we be free
to experiment, innovate, and try again and again as we must if we are committed to
perfection. Self-esteem also frees us of the self-consciousness and self-doubt that
interferes with our focus and commitment to the task.

So what must we do to pursue perfection?

Cultivate mindfulness. Perfection is impossible to attain if our minds are not on the job.
We cannot dust a room perfectly, park a car perfectly, execute a dance step perfectly or
have a perfect bath absentmindedly. Most of us act on auto-control. Everything becomes
a habit, a matter of course and once that is so, perfection is doomed. The pursuit of
perfection also requires us to constantly strive, to keep bettering ourselves. When we are
committed to perfection, it does not matter what we do, whether it is cooking a meal,
arranging the newspapers, dusting the dining table or creating a masterpiece. Our
attention will be focused on the task and we will try our utmost to make it as good as we
can. I have a sister in Kerala who is an artist in the way she dries and folds her saris. First
comes the dip into starch water. Then she, along with anyone handy, will hold either side
of the two ends of the sari and pull until the sari is stretched taut. It is then gently laid on
the bed of pebbles that constitutes her front yard. The hot Kerala sun bores down upon it
and dries it in half-an-hour or so. Now crisp like rice paper, she proceeds to fold it with
meticulous perfection. So good is she at the art that she simply does not need to iron her
saris.

A friend of mine confesses to being a dedicated packer. I have seen her at the task and
marvelled at the sheer artistry of the effort, as packages of various shapes and sizes are
patiently juggled until they fit like a jigsaw puzzle.

I remember the perfect chutney sandwich I once had at a theatre during an interval while
seeing a play. A mundane piece of food was made sublime by the attention to detail, the
freshness of the bread, the right quantity of butter and the dexterous blending of flavours.

It simply does not matter how inconsequential the task is. What matters is how much
attention we pay to it and how sincerely we strive to master it.

It follows then that perfection is pursued through incremental efforts. The Kaizan
approach of constant self-improvement is a succinct formula. Through its application, we
compete with no one but ourselves. It does not matter where we are on the scale of
perfection, whether at the nadir or at the peak. It only matters that we keep trying. A klutz
in pursuit of perfection has a better chance to be an ace ballerina than a competent dancer
who is not interested in improving herself.

Excellence is won through the pursuit of perfection. As we keep competing with

ourselves, as we shave off a second from our running record, or make a chapatti rounder
than our earlier attempt, we land on the cutting edge of excellence. We are as good as we
can get today. Tomorrow, we will push the envelope once again. Life begins to be truly
exciting and even mundane tasks become absorbing when we approach them from this
vantage view. Washing dishes, sweeping the floor, cooking, cutting vegetables, making a
balance sheet, directing traffic, driving, each of them can help us get that much closer to
perfection.

That is the point of perfection. Perfection, like other absolute ideals, can never be won,
but its pursuit is the most powerful drive we have to move along the path of growth and
self-realisation.
Gift of the Present

Being in the now is at the heart of all spiritual practice and the secret of
enlightenment. however, tethering the mind to the moment is not the easiest thing in
the world. here are some techniques.

Life is now," exhorts Eckhart Tolle, author of the bestseller The Power of Now. The key
to unlocking one's innate creative potential is to step out of tensions from the past and
expectations about the future and being fully in the present moment.

Eckhart Tolle was under 30 years of age, fed up with living when he chanced upon this
truth, which forms the core of his teachings. Shannon Duncan, a self-made millionaire,
was under 30 when disenchanted with his riches and success, he embarked upon a similar
set of revelations, which led him to write Present Moment Awareness. The wisdom these
new age teachers bring to us isn't exactly new. It also forms the basis of the ancient
Buddhist practice of Mindfulness. New age or call it simply timeless - cultivating present
moment awareness is a technique that could help you realise your own highest potential.

Recognise your Mindset

Most of us tend to be either wallow-ers or wait-ers. The wallow-ers carry into each
moment baggage from the past. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness
and non-forgiveness typify the wallow-er mindset. The wait-er mindset is typical of those
who are so busy getting to the future - that perfect job, house, or relationship - that the
present is reduced to a mere means of getting there. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress and
worry go with living too much in the future. Recognising which side one tends towards is
an important first step.

Psychological Versus Clock Time

Learning to distinguish between psychological time and clock time is an important
second step. Clock time enhances our productivity and effectiveness - enabling us to plan
things, keep appointments, schedule work. For instance, learning from a past mistake and
not repeating it is using clock time but dwelling upon it in guilt and regret is to be in
psychological time. Similarly, setting oneself a goal and working towards it is to function
in clock time but believing all one's happiness and fulfillment will come from it, is falling
into the trap of psychological time. Psychological time is blurred with emotions and
impairs the ability to function optimally. "Think of these emotions as raindrops on a car's
windshield. If we become absorbed in them, then we can't see where we are going or
what we are going to crash into. But, if we take a deep breath and look through them, we
still know they are there and that there is also the road ahead," explains Shannon Duncan.

Becoming aware of the grip of psychological time and shrugging it off and returning into
clock time or present moment awareness, creates the clear space for accomplishing our
goals in life.

Mindfulness in Daily Life

The practice of specific techniques, incorporated into daily living, can also provide a way
forward. "It is essential to bring more consciousness into your life in ordinary situations
when everything is going relatively smoothly. In this way you grow in presence power,"
advises Mr.Tolle.

Routine Task Mindfulness

Mindfulness can be practiced in the most ordinary situations. You can begin by choosing
any routine chore- brushing your teeth, doing the dishes, watering the plants, typing a
page, anything. Now devote your full attention to the task. Try brushing your teeth
mindfully by being aware of smell, taste, texture, touch, and movement. By paying
attention to the minutest detail. The quality of your attention can transform the ordinary
moment and reveal its unique potential.

This magical quality can be transferred too, to your relationships. Simply take a few
minutes off to observe without labelling those closest to you. Just try looking at your
child, at your partner, your mother. Really pay attention to them as they are. Whenever
you're caught evaluating what you see, just note "thinking" and come back to seeing with
bare attention. In sharing the pure essence of their being, you enter into a deeper
communion.

Listening
Shutting the eyes and focusing on listening to all the sounds around is another technique
for fully entering the present. The trick is to be still and attentive to sound. Let sound in,
hearing sounds as they are without judging what you hear. There's no right or wrong
sound. Just listen - a dog barking, birds singing, a car honking, traffic whirring past, a
faucet dripping, a colleague's cough, a phone ringing. As you listen to this medley of
noises of life playing out, you experience the richness of being connected to all life and
are able to detect the melody underneath. It's all right here in this moment.

Body Scan
Developing a conscious awareness of the body helps to keep the mind in the present
moment. Practice this age-old yogic technique:

Lie down in a relatively quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Lie on your back with
your legs outstretched and your arms at your sides. Feel the alignment of your body as a
whole, and feel the floor support your body. It is important not to try to relax or to try to
achieve anything. Just pay close attention and notice sensations as precisely as you can.
There is no right or wrong thing to feel. Bring your attention to the toes of your left foot
and become aware of any sensation of temperature, touch, moisture, or air currents. Let
your attention rest there for a few seconds. Then, as you inhale, let go of the toes and
bring attention to the bottom of the foot, then to the top of the foot, then to the ankle, then
the lower leg. Follow all the way to the left hip and then start with the toes of the right
leg. Scan your whole body this way.
Regular practice creates a connection with the energy field of your body. When faced
with a challenge -creative or otherwise - a few moments of retreating into body
consciousness can create that space from which to jump forth with confidence.

Awareness of Breath
"What's nice about using the breath as a focus for mindfulness is that it is portable,
always available to our attention, and is a natural rhythm of the body," says Dr Ernest
Shaw. Find a comfortable chair or cushion to sit on. Sit erect, but relaxed. You can close
your eyes or leave them partially open. Now bring your attention to your stomach. Notice
it fill with the intake of breath, and then fall when you exhale.

Just pay attention to the rising and falling of the belly. Do not try to alter your breathing
in any way. Just be with it as it is. When your mind wanders, which it will and you realise
you're no longer with the breath, but caught up in thinking, just make a conscious mental
note that you're thinking and come back to the breath. This is all you have to do - return
to this moment whenever you realise you've drifted away.

Watch that Thought

Paying attention to the mind itself can paradoxically serve to still it. Just sit quietly and
direct your mind to watch the next thought as it comes. For a while, as you wait in perfect
alertness, there will be no thought - only your watching presence as it stands guard.

Schedule Witness Breaks

The essence of transformation is "a non-judgmental witnessing, viewing, or seeing of
yourself and how you interact with your life." If through the helter skelter of our daily
routines we can take a few moments to catch ourselves in the act of living, the self-
awareness can serve as a powerful torch illuminating the way ahead. With the aid of an
alarm in your wristwatch or through a timer on your PC, randomly schedule a witness
break or two through your day.

As the alarm goes off take a few seconds to observe yourself - what are you doing? Make
it a habit to monitor your mental-emotional state through self-observation. "Am I at ease
at this moment?" is a good question to ask. Or you can ask: "What's going on inside me at
this moment?" Just a few seconds of observation before you carry on with whatever task
you are engaged in is all that is required.

Learning the grammar of present moment awareness could help you write a new chapter
in your life. Charge your life with the current moment and the present could be your best
ever gift to yourself!