“You cannot know the meaning of your life until you are connected to the power that created you ….” Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
The above quote may see out of place in a business, and inherently secular forum on financial, and personal achievement. However, many of the success principles in use today are anciently expressed in the religious ideals of history. Early personal development literature in emphasized character and was often entwined with religious principles, even in recent times Investor Sir John Templeton wrote extensively of the religious principles as the basis of business success.
"Science has now confirmed what philosophers, mystics, and other intuitive people have long declared: every human being has been literally "engineered for success" by his Creator. Every human being has access to a power greater than himself" wrote Dr. Maxwell Maltz.
It is true that often religious ideas are diminished as quaint, often because of the misunderstanding by some religionists; however, we must remember that the eternal truths expressed in history were described within the worldview and available knowledge of the time. it was only in the 1920’s that we even knew there were other galaxies. That even led to scientists’, such as Einstein, interpreting measured fact incorrectly until it was known other galaxies existed. Nevertheless, the fundamental laws of the universe remain. In the same way, Philosophies of the past may not completely agree with modern exacting scientific methodology, yet their fundamental truths can often be staggeringly powerful.
Consider the Law of Attraction. Students of success recognize that the law of attraction requires:
1. An omnipresent intelligence, be it in the form of the divine or an impersonal intelligent quantum field.
2. Thought has a creative power to manifest the external reality.
3. Our creative potential is released by gratitude of the present and that total acceptance of the present unlocks our potential to unleash our future.
Most here are familiar with the movie ‘The Secret’ which refers to the emerald Tablet. Also known as Smaragdine Table, Tabula Smaragdina, or The Secret of Hermes it was viewed as a foundation text for European Hermetic Alchemists.
“1. Tis true without lying, certain most true.
2. That wch is below is like that wch is above that wch is above is like yt wch is below to do ye miracles of one only thing.
3. And as all things have been arose from one by ye meditation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.” (Isaac Newton translation, with original spelling).
Founding ideas such as these that are behind the Law of Attraction can be traced to earliest times and are pronounced clearly in Hinduism and Buddhism, Kabbalah and the divine ecstacy of Rumi. .As religion was a dynamic part of ancient life I will refer to religious texts here, without the intent to proselytize. Nevertheless, I put this warning upfront in respect to the varied sensitivities of our group.
Omni-Present intelligence
Hindu religious thought is based upon the belief in the Ultimate Reality (Brahman of the Upanishads), faith in the reality of the spirit (ãtman), and faith in the spiritual order of the world.
The Ultimate Reality is described by the Vedic phrase "Ekam sat vipraha, bahudha vadanti" or "Truth is one, the wise call It by various names." Ultimate Reality possesses infinite potential, power and intelligence, and therefore cannot be limited by a single name or form. Therefore the ultimate reality is described as having both personal and impersonal aspects.
The impersonal (Nirguna Brahman) has no attributes and is beyond reasoning, thought and conception, is not an object of prayer but the object of meditation and contemplation. However, the personal aspect (Saguna Brahman) is creator, controller and sustainer of the universe, however, being unlimited Saguna Brahman is unable to take only one form and is worshipped via both male and female deities.
In Sanskrit creation, srishtî, means "projecting gross phenomenon from subtle substance" and creation originates from the Ultimate Reality, Brahman. Brahman is potter, the potter’s wheel and the clay. Thus Brahman is the whole universe, animate and inanimate. God abides in all created things and beings.
Since the Ultimate Reality (Brahman) manifests as consciousness (atman) and nature (matter), made possible by the inherent creative energy (maya) of Brahman, then all things animate and inanimate are seen as part of The Ultimate Reality. Creation is seen as part of the Ultimate all-pervasive Divinity in the universe, arising in all things and beings. As the Universe is believed to be divine it is without an absolute beginning or end, but continues in cycles of beginnings and endings. The creative manifestation of Brahman is depicted as a divine sport (lîlã), in which Brahman manifests in diverse forms in the creation, stays in that mode for a time (sustenance), and reverts back to the original state (dissolution). In creation consciousness evolves from lower forms to higher forms of life until it becomes aware of itself in a human body and then seeks release back to the original divinity. This cycle repeats in endless beginnings and endings, expansions and contractions, called Shrishti and Pralaya, ending in a dooms day (Mahapralaya) when all the universe contracts before once again expanding and constituting all the energies of animate and inanimate creation.
Just as the universe is Brahman, an individual is essentially ãtman (literally "God within", soul, spirit, consciousness, the source of intellect and ego) clothed in a physical body. The predominant Hindu view is that the same ãtman dwells in all beings and all humans have a common source and are interconnected.
This reminds me of the law of energy- conservation that states energy cannot be destroyed although it can manifest as either matter or energy. A secular quantum theorist may describe the Hindu view as a paralleling this quantum reality.
The Power of Thought
Of course, Western thought has been influenced by its exposure to the East. It has even been proposed that Hindu or Buddhist ideas existed in ancient Alexandria and ideas such as reincarnation are explored by Pythagoras and Plato. Also some similar ideas are found independent of the east.
Consider the power of thought. As we have already noted, Hinduism linked consciousness with the process of creation.
In modern times, the philosophy that “thoughts are things” is a fundamental truth of the personal development movement. The idea that our thoughts are manifested in our reality, or that man can be a co-creator of his personal experience is easily found in the character development literature of a century ago.
We see that demonstrated by the many examples of mental rehearsal being used by successful athletes, salesmen or inventors. Golfer Jack Nicklaus described how he would rehearse every detail of a stroke, how the ball would land, how far it would roll. Edison believed that ideas were out there fully formed to be picked, as if part of a universal mind ready for the taking.
Writer Iris Murdoch, whose exceptional abilities in the use of English were renowned, added that language is thought. Murdoch emphasized the importance of correct speech because by learning to speak correctly you learn to think correctly. “Silence is indeed the friend and helpmeet of thought and invention; but, if one aims at readiness of speech and beauty of discourse, he will get at them by no other discipline than the study of words, and their constant practice” wrote Gregory Thaumaturgus (The Panegyric of Origin I).
You have probably heard such phrases as ‘the pen is mightier than the sword.’ Obviously this refers to the words written by the pen, rather than the pen itself. We see these practical truths in everyday life.
Even today, the tone of a language has a psychological impact on society. According to Professor Emeritus of Rhetoric at the University of Minnesota, Michael J Bennett, a large body of socio-linguists believes that English speaking nations were more successful because English is psychologically more direct, expansive, competitive and self direct. Whether, you agree with that statement, or not, I think you would agree that language has the power to mold and be molded by its society.
In ancient societies words were seen to carry even greater power.
History proves that the idea of the creative power of thought and language is nothing new. As Western thought developed from a foundation of Judeo-Christian thought and Greek philosophy, let’s see how the power of words were a part of Western history.
“In Jewish thought a word was more than a sound expressing a meaning; a word actually did things. The word of God is not simply a sound; it is an effective cause. In the creation story God’s word creates. God said, Let there be light, and there was light (Gen 1:3). …He sent forth his word and healed them (Ps. 107:20)… In Jewish thought God’s word not only said things; it did things “ wrote Scottish scholar William Barclay.
Later as the Aramaic language was increasingly spoken throughout Palestine, the sacred texts were translated into books called Targums (literally, translations). In the Hebrew Bible (or Tanak) God is described with human feelings and actions which the Targum writers felt was too human. So they spoke of the word, or memra, of God instead of referring to God.
For example, Isaiah 48:13 states ‘My hand hath laid the foundation of the earth’ whereas in the Targums we read ‘By my word (memra) I have founded the earth’.
We have already observed Iris Murdoch’s view of the link between thought and language and in ancient times this link was much more a part of common thought. For example, the ancient Jews and Greeks linked the word with wisdom.
Starting with the Jewish example, the memra is linked with wisdom (Sophia). In the Proverbs wisdom is personified and by ‘wisdom God founded the earth.’ She is everlasting and with God before the earth and with God at the time of creation (Prov. 8:1-9).
Other books called the Apocrypha were written between the Old and New Testaments. These books, accepted by Catholicism but traditionally rejected by Protestants, claim that wisdom was created before the rest of creation and was Gods instrument in the creation process (Ecclesiasticus [Sirach] 1:1-10). Wisdom works all things (Wisdom 8:5) and God made all things by his word and man by his wisdom (Wisdom 9:1,2).
Now in Greece, around 560 BCE, Heracleitus described the world as a flux. An ever changing state of change. To explain why the world is not in chaos Heracleitus ‘all things happen according to the logos’. Logos is the Greek word for ‘word’ and is commonly used to refer to a message. However, the Greeks were fascinated by the idea of a mind or reason or logos that ‘ruled over all things’ (Anaxagoras) Logos was the mind of God. Plato declared it was gods logos that kept the planets on their course and controlled the seasons.
A Philosophic school called the Stoics claimed that the logos (Greek word) of God ‘roamed through all things’ and that the mind of man is only a small part of, and interconnected with, the mind of god. Roman philosopher Seneca stated ‘Reason is nothing else than a part of the divine spirit immersed in human body.’ Thus, the logos put order in the universe and sense in man.
Clearly, wisdom, reason and word are linked in both Jewish and Greek thought. However, there are differences. In Hellenistic thought the logos (the Word of God or Reason of God) is related to the notion that the universe itself is divine, a living being whose soul is God. God is everywhere and within everything. Jewish Kabbalah sees God as the ultimate reality and the universe is from God. The universe is the imagination of God, and the physical is unreal but god is real. Our universe is like a movie, an illusion caused by the motion of still images, and our universe is an illusion that comes from the reality of the divine. In Hellenistic Judaism as developed by the first century Alexandrian Jew Philo, the Grecian notion of Logos is unacceptable, because for Jewish God created the universe and transcends it. Logos is thought of as God creating the plan of the universe, the mind of God in the act of creation.
Philo synthesized Jewish and Grecian thought. Philo believed the logos of God was ‘inscribed and engraved upon the constitution of all things.’ The logos is ‘the tiller by which the pilot of the universe steers all things’. ‘The logos is the high priest which sets the soul before god’, the bridge between God and man.
This is why the Christian identification with Jesus as messiah and logos is at once comforting to a Christian and controversial to one who is not. By being called logos Christians claim the Messiah (or Christ, it’s the same meaning) is Gods creative power come to men. He is the word (logos) of knowledge and the word of power. He is claimed to be the mind of god. Word (logos) is an expression of thought and Jesus is gods perfect expression of gods thought to men. However, this thought was not initially given universal acceptance. Philo’s notion that the logos was created but not preexistent — son but not father created a fight over the question of Jesus being God or a creation of God. That would be settled at the Council of Nicea in 325 that declared Jesus and God the same.
Ecstatically Accepting the Present
Islam introduced many scientific and mathematical advances to the west. When most thought the earth was flat, Islamic scientists had taken into account the earth curvature so that the faithful could correctly pray in the direction of Mecca (the qibla, or “sacred direction”). The use of Arabic numerals replaced the clumsy roman number system and concepts such as zero and infinity added greatly to our ability to comprehend abstract concepts. Many of these concepts are now used to comprehend quantum mechanics, which many link to the Law of Attraction.
I know too little of Islam to fairly comment on it here, so I would like to narrow my focus to the 13th century Sufi Mohammad Jalal al-Din al-Balkhi al-Rumi from whom the Mevlevi Order and the Whirling Dirvishes derive. Rumi describes his desire for Allah in the most intimate of terms, as is his longing for the beloved.
Professor of Persian & Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis , Fatemeh Keshavarz, noted that although Rumi lived in a patriarchal world, and doesn't see him as a feminist but a person who has surpassed issues of gender. Because Rumi can place himself in the shoes of another, she says, he could transcend the mundane and live with the ambiguity of smallness and godliness that exists in each human. Rumi would poetically describe his pain for what he wants to tell people as a breast feeding mother whose breasts are so full with milk that they hurt.
He describes his being separated from the divine as a reed turned into a flute:
“Listen to the story told by the reed of being separated. Since I was cut from the reed bed, I have made this crying sound. Anyone apart from someone he loves understands what I say. Anyone pulled from a source longs to go back. At any gathering, I'm there, lingering and laughing and grieving, a friend to each, but few will hear the secrets hidden within the notes. No ears for that. Body flowing out of spirit, spirit out from body, no concealing that mixing. But it's not given us to see, so the reed flute is fire, not wind. Leave that empty. “The Reed Flute's Song.
Rumi describes a longing over the separation of the divine in both our human and spiritual life. For Rumi spirituality is an ecstatic love of god and of life. ‘Sadness is a thief, it steals your energy’ he said.
In Rumi, human love and divine love are metaphorically linked in ways perhaps foreign to formal Western church life.
Wrote Rumi: “If anyone asks you about the houris, show your face, say: like this. If anyone asks you about the moon, climb up on the roof, say: "Like this." If anyone seeks a fairy, let them see your countenance. If anyone talks about the aroma of musk, untie your hair and say: "Like this." If anyone asks: "How do the clouds uncover the moon?" untie the front of your robe, knot by knot, say: "Like this." If anyone asks: "How did Jesus raise the dead?' kiss me on the lips, say: "Like this." If anyone asks: "What are those killed by love like?" direct him to me, say: "Like this." If anyone kindly asks you how tall I am, show him your arched eyebrows, say: "Like this."
The whole poem is a description of the physical beauty of the lover, for Rumi, In the end, all human beings can get to that candle of purity and reach God.
Perhaps you noticed that, although strictly Muslim, Rumi’s universalism allowed himself to use Jesus as part of his metaphor. Strikingly he takes the pregnancy of Mary with Jesus as a metaphor for for our developing of our spirituality.
According to Keshavarz, the vision of Rumi is that "all humanity is pregnant with God."
‘we are all pregnant with Jesus, but we must let the pregnancy take full term, discipline and if we can let the pregnancy go full tem then we give birth to our god. God does not come in packaged form but we must take responsibility for allowing our god to grow. ,,, You must realize the smallness to realize the greatness, …. Where you can live with an oxymoron where you can live with paradox and live with it comfortably because it opens up your horizons.’
Hope is a way to hell and a way to success. “The goal is to keep on going, for god is infinite’ there is always more. God embraces all there is nothing that is not part of him already.
‘The most important tool [Rumi] has, which is hope, is what we need to nurture in ourselves. And hope, the energy to move, the energy to go, to never think that this is not worth it or I am done, I am tired, that's what he's given me” wrote professor Keshavarz.
“You must seek anything you want to find” wrote Rumi. “Not so with a friend. You begin to seek after you find him.’ The journey begins when one finds a lover, for then the eternal search for the ever revealing qualities of the lover develops in earnest. In the same way, Rumi wants us to become a participant in the divine, seeking ever loving the search for meaning.
With characteristic dramatic flair Rumi says: "I am fire. If you have doubts about that, bring your hands forth." That is 'Bring your hands forth, touch me, and I'll tell you what I'm about.'
Do we have that same fiery zeal for life?
Are we participants in the divine – or if you don’t like religious terms – participate in the whole life. Do we use our whole person, both the creative right and logical left brain to enhance our lives. Do we offer our whole creative and logical side to humanity?
Rumi’s ecstasy for the divine seems relevant to modern men trying to find relief from our painfully compartmentalized world.
Those who live with passion and seek to be open to inspiration in their iives attract success.
The most successful people of history were both creative and logical. They came to know something of higher principles – even if they did not understand them in those terms. Infact many only knew of these principle incompletely, which is why some great people were also flawed. It is also why success principles were hidden by those in power in the past.
Today, in a highly secular world and it is common to hear people ascribe qualities to nature or to the quantum field that were once used of god. The god described by philosopher Baruch Spinoza, an impersonal intelligence, was the god of Einstein and is the divinity of many religious scientists today. Australian scientist Paul Davies, in his award winning book “The Mind of God’ argues that god is not a personality yet states "the existence of mind in some organism on some planet in the universe is surely a fact of fundamental significance. Through conscious beings the universe has generated self-awareness. This can be no trivial detail, no minor byproduct of mindless, purposeless forces. We are truly meant to be here."
Today, the mention of religious scripture is frowned upon and the law of attraction, for all its power for good, can just as easily draw undesirable consequences on us if we do not have clear values in our lives. A form of social democratic censorship encourages us to be rightly be aware of the sensitivities of others, while almost wrongly denying our own right to have an opinion. Having opinions is not a problem, as long as we respect in another his right to disagree.
A religionist may teach that the purpose of man is to give God glory. Whereas, the humanist explains mans purpose is to enjoy the maximum range of experience possible. I would argue that when one sees God as a loving parent, there is no contradiction. All of us have seen a loving father excitedly enjoy the successes of his children. Cheering on a daughter’s sporting achievements or a son’s financial success. Likewise, Jesus said ‘Let your light shine before men, that they may see your fine works and give glory to father who is in the heavens’ (Mt 5:16).
“It is because we don’t know who we are, because we are unaware that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, that we behave in the generally silly, the often insane, the sometimes criminal ways that are so characteristically human. We are saved, we are liberated and enlightened, by perceiving the hitherto unperceived good that is already within us, by returning to our eternal ground and remaining where, without knowing it, we have always been” wrote Aldrous Huxley in The Perennial Philosophy.
Although, many theologies teach that the Kingdom of God will influence man’s future, I think we can all agree that live by principles and love that is expressed in spirituality we will express the attitudes that will open us to be successful manifestors.
"The secret of attraction is to love yourself. Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action> They know that love is not a mere sentiment, but the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe' wrote Deepak Chopra.
"Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts' wrote Marianne Williamson.
Attempts have been made to bring these principles to fruition by people such as the Buddhist king Ashoka and Mahatma Gandhi. Sadly, the ideas of tolerance and acceptance did not last after their deaths. Their ideals failed because their success depended on a change in human consciousness. The economic policies proposed by Gandhi and Nelson Mandela failed because of the self interest of others.
Gandhi taught Ahimsa, the Indian concept of harmlessness and non violence, He added to this the ideas of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount. Indeed, Gandhi said that the whole worlds problems could be solved if the advice of this sermon and he was often compared to Jesus because of his insistence on peaceful solutions. Yet sadly the ‘Children of Midnight’, the Indian generation born at the time of India’s independence on midnight August 15, 1947, and the people of Pakistan remember the atrocities that followed the Partition of Greater India into the India and the then two Pakistans.
The Golden Rule, that is “Do unto others as you would have them to do to you” (Matthew 7:12) requires you to treat everyone, even your enemies, as an equal. Infact, Jesus commanded his followers to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) However, in practice the Golden Rule has become gilded by our acceptance our selfish human nature. .We want too fight back and challenge our opposers.
Clearly this requires a person to completely review their attitude to life.
This could be illustrated by Jesus words: “Do not resist him that is wicked; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him” (Matthew 5:39).
Consider two people who are slapped, an ancient way to insult another, One flares up and challengers the offender: “Come on, come on, I dare you hit the other cheek.” The other calmly says little or at the most seeks a peaceful solution, or simply walks away. Clearly the first is more likely to risk further injury. It is the attitude, the consciousness, of the individual that attends the action that makes all the difference. That a difference in consciousness is proposed is obvious from the context. Jesus also stated that the mere knowledge that a person has a complaint against you required you to attempt to make peace before worship god (Mt 5:23, 24) and hate was the same as murder (Mt 5:21-22).
I don’t think that criminality is being tolerated in Jesus words but the conscious, loving, spiritual mindset is. The mindset of peace and acceptance is a mindset that allows us to be at one with the divine and more successfully manifest our desires.
Remember, resistance is negative attraction. Fighting back only attracts further conflict.
We need a set off values to successfully attract what is most beneficial to us. Otherwise, the Law of Attraction can become our worst enemy.
“The Secret is full of holes because people are trying to create for themselves, through the Secret, that which never brought them any happiness in the first place. The real secret is that we are here to participate in life not to imagine ourselves the possessor of it. Because the only thing you can possess is imagined objects. Real life is consistent constant change. A fields of energy in temporary form that we become identified with so that we can have an identity as someone that owns the thing that we imagined. But we don’t think we imagined it because when the imagined comes unglued we become unglued and then find our sense of self by gluing ourselves together again” says Guy Finley.
Now, the Law of attraction works. What is problematic is that we are often unaware of our own inner insecurities and the unintended consequences of our own desires. We have all heard the saying ‘Be careful what you wish for because you might get it.’
Unless we have clear values then we risk drawing negativity to us, even unintentionally. Without clear values our focus will shift with the changing values of society rather than by our own considered consent.
For that reason, conscious awareness and spirituality, which need not necessarily include religion, needs to be a constant part of our lives. A review of the most successfully worthy achievers of history reveals that a clear search for the big questions in life propelled these people forward.
Brian
Just when you thought you knew the Secret
