Shortcuts to Success

Do we need to work all the time to succeed ?

What if we are already working all the time? Our minds are never idle, thoughts race through them all day, even in sleep. So nobody can be called idle. Not even the loafer who just eats, drinks, and sleeps and does nothing else all day.

From childhood, we are exhorted to never sit idle, to always be engaged in work. I want to make a point that our notion of industriousness needs a slight modification. The thoughts racing in our mind are involuntary. Involuntary thoughts also need exertion. That is why we get stress (Stress is the result of involuntary thoughts-Hans Selye)

So if we are already working all the time, why are we not getting desired results? This is because our thoughts are scattered. Recall the lens which can create fire using sunlight. The same sunrays when not focused cannot ignite anything.

Focus is the lens which creates results from our thoughts. Focus makes thoughts unidirectional (in a single direction). If we do not focus, all our thought energy is going to waste being frittered way in multiple pursuits, leading to nowhere. Have you timed yourself how long you can stick to a task as simple as watching a youtube video? A recent study revealed that 90 % viewers watch a video in full only if it is 10 seconds long. Only 9.42% of viewers watched in full if it was a 5 min. long video. (See bottom for source)

It is much less with our minds. We may have multiple thoughts in one second. Studies estimate a human being to have around 40,000 thoughts per day; however, the actual figure could be many times that. Each thought is composed of several other thoughts. Some may last only micro seconds.

He is successful who can make each thought last for several seconds; to begin with, this is the aim of concentration.

What happens when we align our thoughts in a single direction? They gain in power and intensity. They can burn away problems and obstacles and reveal solutions and ideas and opportunities that we never knew existed. They can bring out latent powers inside us, that we never believed in.

All great achievers in all fields-be it industry, business, politics, arts, or literature-could concentrate their thoughts calmly for long periods of time.

Therefore we only have to change the direction of our thoughts to succeed-change negative thoughts into positive, constructive thoughts,  disbelieving thoughts into those of belief and affirmation, scattered thoughts into those of a single direction and focus.

The study on Youtube viewers' attention span is here :http://philcooke.com/online_attention_span/)
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Experience Your Energy Field

Energy fields occur around every living being from humans to animals, plants and minerals. This seems to be a verification of the age old philosophy that consciousness resides in everything. As Jalaluddin Rumi has put it:
“God sleeps in minerals,
Awakens in plants,
Moves in animals and
Thinks in humans.”

Energy has been variedly described as Ki in Japanese, Prana in Sanskrit, Chi in Chinese and Bio plasma in modern new age lingo. We may not be aware of the terms for this phenomenon in other languages, but it being universal, we need not be surprised if we keep encountering this in varied cultures.The human energy field is shaped like a three dimensional ellipse. (the elliptical equivalent of a sphere)

I had my first experience of this energy (I will call it Chi here) in a Tai chi class. The class was conducted by Mr. Marco from Auroville, India.

The practice is simple. The essential thing is to be relaxed.

1. Sit straight on a chair or mat.

2. Wear loose clothing.

3. Attain a state of progressive relaxation of your body as described below.

4. Relaxation is indicated by the looseness of your fore arms.

5. Shake your forearms as you would shake a bottle. The only thing is, you should think it is connected loosely at the joints.

6. Shake your palms vigorously, keeping the forearms still. Similar to waving a piece of cloth tied to a pole.

7. Now move your forearms (one by one) up, do not bother about the palm, let it lie as it is – a piece of cloth that may move up or down as the pole to which it is tied is moved up and down.

8. After repeated attempts, you will feel the relaxation. When the palm is really hanging limp, you will feel the relaxation in your stomach.

9. Do this alternately with the left and right hands.

10. When you feel somewhat relaxed and loose in your stomach (solar plexus), you can start to feel the chi energy.

11. Feeling the Chi: Now holding your forearms still, gently move your palms upward, without any tension.

12. When the palm and forearm are not curved anymore, bring the two palms, gently together, so as to face each other.(They should not touch )

13. As the palms come closer, you will feel a tingling in the finger tips.

14. Other sensations experienced on the finger tips and palm are: a slight warmth, a pulling or pushing sensation(similar to attraction and repulsion of magnets)

15. This is your energy field.

16. You can experiment with your energy field by bringing the palms wide apart slowly, but still facing each other.

17. You can hold one palm still and move the other over it.

18. You can move one palm in a circular motion over the other.

19. The sensations as the energy fields around each palm interact are different in each of these steps.

20. Sensitive people may find it easier to experience the energy field.

21. If the energy field is not experienced, repeat the exercise daily till you do.

22. Afterwards, you can experiment in other ways, like chanting mantras and prayers and experiencing the variations in the sensations.
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The limits of humans-or are there any ?

There does not seem to be any limit to the extraordinary feats achieved by humans in their quest to transcend mortal boundaries.

I once watched was a show on National Geographic,around December 2001 or so.It showed old women demonstrating their martial arts prowess. The camera showed an iron rod being placed (sharp end) against an old lady's temple and being hammered in at full force.Can you guess what happened ?

The end result was that the thick iron rod was bent into a big V. And the woman? Smiling as ever, she didn’t even move a muscle throughout the demo.She was a regular practitioner of Qigong.Does not this lady's story give us inspiration to question our own limits that we have set on ourselves?

Martial arts like Taichi, Qigong and Sindo focus on developing the internal life energy (Called Prana in Sanskrit / Chi in Chinese/ Ki in Japanese). Often the practitioners can achieve astonishing results as described above.