Secret to success, both in material world and spirituality is
“FOCUS”.
Call it many names; end of the day it boils down to one’s
ability to shut off noise and single-pointedly concentrate on the given task at
hand.
There is no such thing as multi-tasking. It’s a typical HR
lingo invented by “ANAL”sts doing their arm chair intellectual thinking.
If we break it down further, we realize that Concentration
or focus or being in the zone is dependent on a lot of factors. Consider that
as an effect, we need to control or channelize the cause in order to have a
desired effect.
You cannot wish your way into concentration. It doesn’t work
that way!. The whole “The Secret” AKA ‘Law of attraction’ has brainwashed the younger
generation into believing that they can attract anything in their lives if they
constantly think about it.
While the statement of, ‘Law of attraction’ is an axiom and
absolutely true. Problem is, our mind thinks a million thoughts in a day, your
2 hour of manifestation meditation will be like a needle in the haystack and
therefore your predominant majority of thought process will have its way!!
Out of these million thoughts a day, majority of them is
what we call in our programming language are “loops”. It is a
logical pre-programmed sub-routine, an amaygdala reaction to a given stimuli. The
pre-program is deep rooted and is derived from combination of your genes,
upbringing and conditioning, none of which is in your control. As if that is
not daunting enough, the program is SUPER fast and works in nano seconds (or
faster, which no time unit can measure). By the time your thinking mind gets
activated, the decision is already made. Your pre program has already judged
the situation, decided on the bias and executed the response.
In that effect, despite having a thinking mind at our
disposal, we are ALL slaves. Our response to a given situation is not a
deliberate decision. We live in an illusion of control. We think that we have deliberately come to a
given conclusion, whereas in reality, decision was made seconds before we owned
it.
The famous libet experiment talks about it in detail (google
it, it is outside the scope of this blog)
Spiritually speaking, crux of all religions (the ones that I
have read) is to go beyond this conditioning. All the enlightened masters (of
past and present) allude to the same state where this “Default mode network” is
conquered. Where, instead of a constant chit chat happening in the background,
you witness blank silence.
That blank silence if reached at higher planes is a spiritual
experience and if experienced at lower materialistic planes is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
explained in his book “ FLOW”
In this state, anything you concentrate on becomes your
bitch. You own it, it is as if the thing is revealing itself to you. Time slows
down, and you feel you are working in a limbo outside the time space continuum.
I had a couple of occasions where this happened to me. One
was a psychedelic experience and other was while playing cricket in younger
days. This bowler (from salwan school,
fastest in delhi back then) was at his peak and throwing bullets and somehow I
had hit a purple patch where I was almost playing out of my skin. My skill
level improved to match the challenge of the occasion and it was almost as if
someone else was playing using my body.
Question is, can we induce this state at will, or even this
is part of the bigger plan, will happen when it is suppose to happen.
Meditation experts claim that this state can be achieved by
constant practice. Psychedelics, ofcourse are a shortcut, but like any other
shortcut, would have its repercussions.
Another fascinating thing I am reading these days is
Holotropic breathwork ( goro ka pranayama)
Prof Stan Grof has done some interesting work on this. It is
about reaching altered state of consciousness by regulating the pace and
duration of your breaths.
I know Ed Seykota also uses that in his Trading tribe
sessions and if you read the details provided by victims (I mean participants)
, it is nothing short of hair raising once in lifetime shit.
This is a fascinating and never ending topic, for time
being, lets leave it here. Time to play some poker.
