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| ISBN-13: | 9781577319849 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | New World Library |
| Publication date: | 02/08/2011 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 208 |
| File size: | 387 KB |
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A Visionary Life
Conservations on Personal and Planetary Evolution
By Marc Allen
New World Library
Copyright © 1998 Marc AllenAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-57731-984-9
CHAPTER 1
Imagine Your Ideal Scene
You will become as great as your dominant aspiration.... If you cherish a vision, a lofty ideal in your heart, you will realize it.
— James Allen, As You Think
The drive out to Bernie's place was beautiful, any time of year, through rolling hills dotted with oak trees and valleys of dense, silent forests of pine. It was especially stunning in the lush change of seasons, as winter turned into spring. I saw three waterfalls I had never seen before.
It was late morning when I arrived. He was having what he called breakfast — a blend of orange, mango, and grapefruit juice. It was delicious. He poured us both a cup of strong coffee and we headed out behind his house and sat where we had before, overlooking the endless hills.
Bernie examined the little battery-operated tape recorder I brought along, and said it was "nifty." I hoped it wouldn't mess up. I felt some anxiety as I fumbled with a new tape, but Bernie seemed supremely relaxed about it all.
After I turned it on, he paused for a long time. It was clear there would be a lot of silence on the tape.
"It's always best, before we start something like this, to relax and do a short meditation. Before any kind of study, any classes or talks, even just a bit of quiet meditation helps us absorb the words much more deeply.
"Put the recorder down for a minute."
And he guided me through an exercise, doing it himself as well, almost whispering at times.
AN EXERCISE AT THE BEGINNING
"Sit comfortably; relax your arms, relax your hands in your lap, close your eyes. Take a slow, deep breath. As you exhale slowly, relax your body.... Take another deep breath. As you exhale slowly, relax your mind.... Take another breath. As you exhale slowly, let everything go, let yourself feel totally relaxed....
"Just enjoy the feeling for a moment, breathing softly. It feels so good to simply relax.... "Now just tell yourself you're ready to absorb, easily and effortlessly, everything that's necessary for you ... to grow, to expand, to evolve. To reach your objectives, to create the life you want, the world you want. There is something valuable here for you, at this moment, and you intuitively know what it is.
"Repeat to yourself, I am now, easily and effortlessly, absorbing everything I need.... I am now, easily and effortlessly, achieving my dreams and goals.... I am now, easily and effortlessly, creating the life I want....
"Take a few more deep breaths, and notice how good those words feel — or change them, if better ones come to mind! Now you're ready.
"Take one last deep breath and open your eyes, refreshed and relaxed, ready, willing, and able to fully be the magician and creative genius you already are ... ready, willing, and able to change your life for the better, in any way you desire."
We opened our eyes. The world sparkled. Bernie sat quietly for a moment before he spoke.
"I'm offering only one option with these keys. Take them and work with them and develop other options for yourself. Use only words that resonate positively and powerfully for you. Change any of the words I say, or any of the exercises I give you, to make them work for you. Each of us is unique — and we intuitively know what's most effective for us.
"This kind of meditation gives instructions, programming, to your subconscious mind. Your subconscious is infinitely powerful — it knows no limits, only those you impose on it through your own limiting thoughts and beliefs.
"Meditation like this opens you up, intuitively. Even if it has no other noticeable effect than to help you relax for a minute or two, it's certainly worthwhile."
UNDERSTANDING, KNOWLEDGE, AND WISDOM
"I want to say one more thing right at the start — something I was taught by a Tibetan Buddhist teacher named Tarthang Tulku. It's taught to all students at the beginning of their instruction.
"There are three distinct stages to worthwhile learning:
"First, we have to hear or read the information, and we have to understand it. To do this, we need to be open and receptive. Our minds have to be relatively quiet, and we have to be willing to listen and hear.
"In the second stage, we reflect on the information, so that we relate to it personally, and assimilate it into our own experience. At this stage, we not only understand it but see its truth in our lives — and understanding becomes knowledge.
"Finally, we have to live this knowledge fully, embody it, and practice it every moment of our lives. The words penetrate to our hearts, to our subconscious minds. The words then have power to affect our life experience. At this stage, knowledge becomes wisdom."
He sat in silence for a moment. Nearby, a crow landed on the topmost branch of a young pine tree and bounced and squawked hoarsely three times, adding exclamation points to Bernie's words.
THE KEY TO THE PROCESS IN A NUTSHELL
Bernie spoke the next words slowly and forcefully.
"Everything we've created in our lives was first a thought, and then a feeling. When a thought and feeling are combined and held onto, it results in a focused vision, and finally manifests as something tangible.
"We're all creative beings, creating everything we have in our lives, at every moment, for better or worse. Some people use their creative energy for success, some for failure. Some create works of art, some destroy what others create. Some create a mansion on a hill, some create a bottle of cheap fortified wine on the meanest streets in town.
"Everything we do is a creative act — something that requires its own planning — and is the result of some kind of vision."
We sat in silence and reflected on those words for a few minutes; then he smiled broadly.
"We've got to open the book with a poem — just like traditional Tibetan Buddhist books. The tradition says if you understand the poem, you don't need to read the book, because all the wisdom in the book is contained in the poem."
He was as exuberant as a child.
"James Allen said it all in the poem that opens his great book, As You Think."
He quoted, forcefully, from memory:
"Mind is the master power that molds and makes,
And xwe are mind, and evermore we take
The tool of thought, and shaping what we will,
Bring forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills.
We think in secret and it comes to pass —
Our world is but our looking glass."
We sat in silence again. Everything was calm and quiet.
CREATING YOUR IDEAL SCENE
"The first key isn't all that difficult to understand — it's even kind of fun to do. And it's the single most important thing you can do in your life, because it leads to all the other keys. It even contains all the other keys, if it's done fully enough.
"The first key is to imagine your ideal scene."
"Imagine five years have passed — or two years, if you're impatient, or ten, if you're patient. In those years, you were so inspired by these words" — Bernie had to laugh at this — "and by everything else that's inspired you along the way — that everything has happened to you in the best way you can imagine. You've created your dreams; you've become a success, in every way you can imagine, in everything you most desire. Best of all, it's happened in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.
"What will you be doing, ideally? What have you accomplished? Where will you be living? What does your home look like? What are your relationships like? What's a typical day for you? What are you doing to contribute to a better world?
"Just let your imagination go. Be as farfetched as possible. Shoot for the moon! Let it be ideal — we'll deal with reality later.
"Be sure to write it down. Don't worry that writing will make it too concrete — it isn't carved in stone; you can always change it later, if you want. Just play with it, have fun with it. Don't worry that it's too big a dream; we'll deal with doubts and limiting beliefs — and detachment — later.
"Take a sheet of paper and write MY IDEAL SCENE at the top. Suspend your doubts and limitations and let your imagination soar.
"After you've written it, find a special folder or notebook — or even a beautiful box or something — and put it in there. We'll add more to it later. This is the beginning, the essential first step, in creating what you want in life.
"Keep reviewing your ideal scene, so you keep it in mind. This is the most important work you can do. It's your visualization of your future. It's the first part of your map to success — no matter what you define that success to be."
He sipped his coffee and looked off into the distance. There was another long beat of silence.
"I'm not exaggerating when I say this little exercise was probably the single most important thing I ever did in my life. I remember it vividly. It was the day of my thirtieth birthday, the most difficult — and the best — single day I've ever had. I spent most of the day pacing back and forth in my little slum apartment, taking a good look at my life. I was in an odd state of shock. I realized I wasn't a kid anymore; yet I felt so young, so unprepared.
"I looked at my strengths and weaknesses, and I was honest with myself in a way I'd never been before.
"I'd always done what I was passionate about, without compromising. That was a strength, something I was born with, something a lot of people learn only with difficulty, or never learn at all. And it's essential to real success, and fulfillment.
"I'd done a lot of interesting things in my twenties. I went to Europe and India. I met all kinds of fascinating people, saw other cultures, religions, studied other philosophies. I learned about meditation, and that's been invaluable to me all my life. I recommend meditation to everyone.
"I'd attained at least some degree of peace, a bit of serenity, at times, because of the meditation I'd done — and yet my thirtieth birthday was tough emotionally. After thirty years of life, I was an adult. It was undeniable. And I'd accomplished very little. I had no job, no income, no assets, no committed relationship. Worst of all, I had no direction, no goals. I didn't know where I wanted to go in life — and so of course I was going nowhere. I didn't have a clue about how to attain success. I'd never even taken the first step of defining what success meant for me — what I wanted to do with my life!
"For thirty years, I'd been a follower, not a leader. I'd followed teachers in school, girlfriends and gurus and other people after school. And I'd been left with nothing, at least materially. Spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, the meditation I was doing had good effects — but it didn't help pay the rent. It was time for me to somehow start directing the course of my life.
"I remembered a game I'd played, years earlier, with a group of friends. I didn't remember what I'd said in the game when I first played it. I wasn't ready, obviously, to understand its value. I didn't realize it was a key to success. But the day I turned thirty, something in me shifted. I played the game, all alone, pacing up and down in my funky little apartment. My cat thought I'd gone nuts.
"I pretended five years had passed, and everything had gone as well as I could possibly imagine....
"A picture immediately sprang to mind: I owned my own business! I owned a beautiful hotel, a place of rejuvenation and peace and pleasure. It was highly successful, and I was able to invest in all kinds of other businesses, and support all kinds of people in reaching their dreams. I supported my employees through profit-sharing, and contributed abundantly to a great many nonprofit groups doing good work in the world, taking care of people, and the environment. I had a loving wife and a family. I owned a beautiful home, in a quiet, peaceful place, surrounded by open land...."
He gestured around as he said it.
"And best of all, I was doing it in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time. That was my ideal.
"This picture — this vision — felt so good. Even just dreaming of it was empowering to me in some way. Instantly.
"But as soon as it sprang to mind, a flood of doubts and fears sprang up as well. Voices cried out, It's way too much. It won't work. You're asking for trouble, for failure. You'll never be able to do it all. You don't have what it takes. Pick something smaller and safer to do with your life, something easier to achieve.
"But I'd done enough meditation, and learned enough to know those inner voices were agitated and apprehensive — so I knew they were the voices of my fears, of my limiting beliefs. As soon as I recognized that, another voice spoke, calmer and clearer and I knew it was my intuition, my inner guidance. I'd learned to identify it: It always speaks confidently. It always speaks the truth. It's calm and quiet. It always feels right.
"That voice said, Don't listen to your doubts and fears. They'll dissolve, over time, because they're not true. The truth is, you can have whatever you can dream of. There are no limits to what you can accomplish, if you follow your intuition, and find your vocation, your calling, and do what's aligned with your mission in life. You can accomplish great things — you can be as great as you can dream!
"It's true for me, and it's true for you. It's true for everyone, if they understand this key — if they have the knowledge and courage to write down their ideal scene, and if they keep focused on the vision it always contains.
"I wrote it down, and have never forgotten it. It changed my life.
"It evolved over the years into a lifetime plan, not just a five-year plan. And it keeps evolving, growing. Now my ambition is no less than to carry on Buckminster Fuller's work, and Barbara Marx Hubbard's work, and Riane Eisler's work, and help the entire planet evolve into a system that works, a sustainable system that supports all life upon it. A world of peace and plenty for all, bringing back, and evolving into, the partnership model rather than the dominator model, to use Riane Eisler's words. But I'm getting ahead of myself — that's the final key, the ten percent solution we'll talk about later.
"One step at a time. We need to take care of ourselves before we can take care of others. We need to imagine how we can be fulfilled, how we can contribute to the world in a way no one else can. For we're all creative geniuses, I'm convinced of that — all we need are the right tools. All we need is the right understanding, the knowledge of our own capability and power.
"Creating an ideal scene leads to every other step, every other key. It teaches you how to be a visionary. Within your ideal scene is the vision of your success in the world, the vision of the world to come."
We sat in silence. A warm wind began to blow, and the trees waved their branches.
I went home and wrote down my ideal scene. It was scarier to do than I thought it would be. It was definitely a challenge. But it felt good to put all my vague, amorphous dreams into concrete words. I filled two handwritten pages, put them in a white folder, and put it in my top desk drawer.
I, too, wanted to create a successful business, and help to make the world a better place for all. I, too, wanted to own a beautiful home, and have a family, or at least a loving relationship. But a lot of doubts arose, in full force. My dreams were far from my current reality.
CHAPTER 2Discover Your Vocation, and Your Mission or Purpose in Life
Until thought is linked with purpose, there is no intelligent accomplishment....
— James Allen, As You Think
Bernie called a few days later. He was going to be in town — my office, or his? It was a no-brainer — his office was far more comfortable than mine. It even had room service.
He had a suite in a downtown hotel, on the mezzanine floor, with a balcony in front, overlooking the lobby. We sat in comfortable stuffed chairs and watched the people come and go from our perch above. We had lunch delivered, and Bernie had his usual: a ham sandwich on white bread.
I told him I had written down my ideal scene, and it was surprisingly hard to do — scary, in fact.
"Oh, then I forgot to add one thing," he said. "At the top of your ideal scene, write, in big capital letters,
IN AN EASY AND RELAXED MANNER, IN A HEALTHY AND POSITIVE WAY, IN ITS OWN PERFECT TIME.
"Then write your ideal scene. Later, when we get to goals, you should do the same thing: always start your list with those words. Keep repeating them to yourself, until they sink into your subconscious. Before you know it, you'll be accomplishing everything you need in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Visionary Life by Marc Allen. Copyright © 1998 Marc Allen. Excerpted by permission of New World Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Keys to Transforming Your Life and the World,Key One Imagine Your Ideal Scene,
Key Two Discover Your Vocation, and Your Mission or Purpose in Life,
Key Three Create Long-Term Goals — A Five-Year Plan that Will Evolve into a Lifetime Plan,
Key Four Create Short-Term Goals that Move You Toward Each Long-Term Goal,
Key Five Visualize Your Success,
Key Six Learn to Face Your Emotions, and See the Gift in Each One,
Key Seven Practice the Fine Art of Communication,
Key Eight Listen to the Voice of Your Intuition,
Key Nine The Fine Art of Detachment,
Key Ten Give Abundantly and Reap the Rewards — The Ten Percent Solution to Personal and Global Financial Problems,
Afterword,
Ten Keys to Transforming Your Life and the World,
Notes,
Acknowledgments,
Bibliography & Recommended Reading,
About the Author,