There
are subtle patterns of life that
go unnoticed, and which defy our normal perceptions
of logic,
cause and effect, and space and time. Understanding these hiddenpatterns not only enables us to see the world
in a different way, but gives us the insight to perceive the truths that
are unfolding in the atmosphere around us. From that poise we can know
the true truth of the reality unfolding around us, giving us one leg up
on the world so that we can make the right decisions that invariably
will lead to infinitely successful results. In other
words, perceiving the subtle workings of life can lead to great
accomplishment, success, and happiness in life.
We'll
cover a variety of these subtle hidden patterns in life in the following
discussion. We'll begin with that most fundamental aspect of life, the
simple act.
THE SUBTLE SCIENCE OF ACTS
Introduction to Acts
The master word of life is
an act. When we function in the world we do so through the individual acts
we perform. Thus the act is the fundamental unit of life,much in
the same way that the atom or molecule are the fundamental units of
matter. In fact, an act is a microcosm of the
universe; i.e. the universe in miniature. All
the forces and factors that exert their influence in life
in the universe are
represented at the level of the individual act, and reveal their
characteristic role at that level. This is
particularly relevant when we consider our ability to accomplish in
life.
There
are a series of principles of life that directly relate to acts, the
most general of which is that is that the timing, sequence, quality and
intensity of an act influences its outcome. Acts that lack
any of these qualities fail to produce results,
i.e. fail to accomplish. E.g. acts that occur in the
wrong sequence, or at the wrong time, or without the necessary intensity
will not produce results.On the other hand,
acts that are positive in all of these
criteria have a
very strong propensity for accomplishment. Now
let us examine some of the more specific principles of acts, many of
which will defy our normal views of what is probable and logical,
overcoming our limited views of cause and effect, and space and time
Acts Repeat The first principle
we present about acts -- and an extraordinary one at that --
is that they tend to repeat. The
greater the intensity of the force and the more times it repeats, the
greater its capacity for further repetition. The quality and intensity
of the force express in each subsequent repetition of the act.
Here's are several example
of a repetition of an act.
In Jane Austin's
Pride and PrejudiceDarcy’s initial refusal to dance with
Eliza at the Meryton dance repeats as Eliza’s initial refusal to
dance with Darcy when he asks her during her stay at Netherfield
Hall.
"One day I was watching a TV program. In the middle of
the show I received a phone call from a friend of mine. While listening to my friend I
sensed that there was some connection between her and the program I was just watching.
Months passed, and I found myself watching a rerun of this same program. What was
incredible was that I noticed that I received a call from this same friend at the exact
same moment I was watching the identical scene on television from that person. There was
more to it, however. I noticed that my friend on the phone was having problems with an
individual who had the exact same rather complex Asian name as the person on the
show."
As we begin to see
how acts repeat in our lives-- defying our normal perceptions of how life unfolds -- we can begin to benefit from our observations . E.g. we can learn to perceive when to take, or not take, actions
based on a pervious occurrence of the act.
That is, if you know the
pattern of a repetition of an act, especially a negative one, you can overcome its ability to
repeat in the future. So if a man who becomes ill every five years, can note
its frequency, assume that the illness is likely to repeat in another
years, and take precautions to prevent its reoccurrence when the next
iteration rolls around. He can say "ah here it is coming on again. I am
over-stressed again in this cycle, which is what ordinarily brings on
the repetition. I will take actions to prevent such reoccurrence." Now as
a result of perceiving the coming repetition, this individual has
changed the course of his life.
Consider
oneother real life experience, where an individual saw a repetition
of an act that expressed negatively, and
then was able to avoid it the second time, i.e.
when it would have normally repeated:
A computer consultant
worked on a consulting project for a number of hours and days only to
find out that he could not do the project because of his limiting
skills. It was clear from the onset that he might not be able to do it.
In fact, as it turned out he was unable to do it for the client,
honestly explained it to the client, who were grateful of his honesty,
and had now found a company who could do it. On the other hand the
consultant wasted a lot of time. As it turned out the project was later
completed by the other consulting company in fine order. A few months
later the consultant was asked if he could help the same client with another
project. Again it was an area out just out of his expertise, even though
he had had a little experience with the program many years before. This
time remembering that acts repeat, he knew that he would likely be
wasting a lot of time if he were to take it on. He firmly decided not to
take on the project because of the likelihood that the current situation
was likely to be a repetition of the same situation that happened
initially.
Thus from pattern recognition of the repetition
of acts one has the insight to change, i.e. to negate or reinforce, the
future. It is a miracle of insight into the workings of life, including
understandings of the true, subtle nature of space of time. If we
are conscious we will be able to recognize the patterns; if we are not,
the likelihood of seeing the patterns and reversing them is very
limited. In summary then there are at least two ways to prevent a repetition. The first is an action or will
on our part related to the act that is more powerful than the force that
wants to repeat. The other is our recognition of the pattern in the first
place, which has the power to cancel the next iteration. In other words we
can be aware of life's patterns of repetitions of acts, and then we can
consciously control the next repetition. We have that conscious power in
life.
Instead of Repeating, Acts
Reverse As each act is
a force, it has a tendency to repeat. However, when the force of the
act is insufficient for repetition or meets an obstacle that
prevents it from accomplishing in a particular direction, the energy
of the act may reverse course and express in a direction opposite to
the original act.
Examples:
-In Pride and Prejudice
Eliza
facetiously asks Collins whether it would be appropriate for him to attend
the Netherfield ball. Her intention is to discourage him from attending. He
responds by asking her for the first two dances, which she had hoped to
reserve for Wickham. “Her liveliness had never been worse timed.” Her clever
comment is insufficient to discourage Collins who sees the dance as an
opportunity to promote his courtship with her, so it provides him with an
unexpected opening to further his plan. Her cleverness backfires.
-In
Pride and Prejudice
Darcy
conceals Jane’s presence in London from Bingley. At Rosings Fitzwilliam
unintentionally reveals to Eliza Darcy’s interference between Jane and
Bingley. The original act of intentional concealment gets reversed as an act
of unintentional disclosure.
Initial Occurrence Portents Repetitions, Final Outcome Arelated phenomenon we have experienced is how
the initial occurrence of an event is often an
indicator of how that thing
will end up in the end. Here's an example:
A company could not afford to pay a
trainer a reasonable fee in the beginning of their relationship. The trainer, though not
completely happy with the arrangement, accepted the fee, continued to work with the
company, and eventually begin to receive higher fees through hard work. At the end of the
relationship, however, the training company went through some problems, and had to cut the
trainer's income back to the original lower level. Despite changes along the way, the
initial occurrence indicated the final outcome.
Here's another example where the initial
occurrence portended the final outcome:
A man was eager to have a first meeting
with the owners of a small company. He spoke to one of the principles who gave him
directions to get to the location. When he arrived in the general vicinity of the
business, he got lost based on the directions or perhaps on his own lack of following the
directions. He went round and round in circles for twenty minutes. This
really upset him since this meeting was one of the key turning points in the young man's
life.
Finally he found the place, and had a
good meeting. As a result of the meeting he established a relationship with the
company. A few years later he established his own company a distributor of the
products of the other company. After an initial few years of success, his company
faltered, and in a few years ended in bankruptcy.
Finally, here's one other dramatic
examplewhere the nature of the result of a work
can be seen in the first step:
A consultant was on his way to meet with
a Fortune 500 company for the first time to discuss the organization of its accounting
systems. He was to meet with his contact, and then meet with the client. Just after he
parked his car in a downtown garage, he heard and saw a huge explosion that turned into a
fireball 10 stories high just one block from the clients office building! It
startled him and many on the street. A moment later he found out that the explosion
was part of a Hollywood movie stunt, and therefore did no harm. Still he was shaking
when he arrived at the client.
Knowing that an event such as this could
be a sign of other things, he asked his contact after the meeting if there were things he
should know about that were going on behind the scenes between the contact and the
client. The contact then admitted that in fact things had gotten bad with the
client; that he was in the process of losing the account, and he had hoped that the
consultants involvement could improve the situation. In the end the consultant never
got the work. Somehow, given the events of the day (i.e. the explosion), he was not
surprised. (Update Months later another situation involved a client in a
nearby location, which turned out also to be troubled and also did not work out.)
Coincidence? These are examples of one interesting
life law. There are many other interesting generally unseen laws of life. We say
that these seemingly logic-defying happenings are random occurrences, or that they are
"chance" or "coincidence." Our own observations and experiences
has been the opposite. We believe that these are in fact hidden laws of life,
including these phenomenon of cycles and repetitions, that occur with great precision and
regularity. What is responsible for these cycles and phenomenon of life remains a
mystery, but the fact that they occur is a certainty.
Most importantly we can learn from these occurrences. By observing life closely we
can gain clues to help us make decisions on what to do (or not to do), or how to respond
to a person or events. In other words, this "inner" knowledge, if applied
correctly, can help us achieve and succeed at higher levels in life.
Predecessor Events Indicate Main Event Another fascinating phenomenon of life is that anything good or bad
that is going to happen to you is already indicated by something that
occurred earlier to you. E.g. the day before a woman gets terrible news
that her sister has eloped with a scoundrel in the military, she was
deeply
bothered when hearing that the scoundrel's military outfit may have left
town. In this way the previous day's occurrence is a predecessor of the major event
that is to follow.
You can study any
work of fiction and see how any major event was foreshadowed by a
negative circumstance earlier. It is also absolutely true for the real
world as well, It is a major rule of the working of life, and there are no
exceptions!
If we are vigilant, we can thus see the signs of major
coming events. Also, if we can learn to avoid negative situations in the
first place that might for the forerunners of the successor event. We
can even use spiritual means to overcome the successor event if we can
identify our negative behavior or action in the first place and offer it
to the Divine.
One's Speech Indicates Coming Event A
corollary of this phenomenon of predecessor to main events is that whatever you
speak in one moment announces in some fashion what is to come in
the next
moment.This is especially
obvious true when you fell or express something negative.
A
woman in a somewhat negative tone suggested to another that her mother doesn't like
exuberant children, and therefore spends the day upstairs. After expressing this she
reads a letter indicating a negative elopement with one of those children
her mother liked to avoid.
The lesson? be
careful of your negative tone; you might be attracting sudden negative
fortune your way.
Simultaneity
A related
phenomenon we have witnessed is that acts and events that occur at the
same time are related, no matter how unconnected they appear on the
surface. In fact, the
relation sometimes reveals itself later on as a physical connection
between people or events.
A consultant was working with his
client to develop a software program. While discussing its distribution
and marketing an affiliate partner of the client called the client, at
which point the client explained to the affiliate of the client about
the work the consultant was doing on the new software program. The affiliate
didn't know about the program. A number of months later when the
marketing of the program came up again at the location of the client,
the affiliate of the client was there too. This was remarkable since the
consultant was rarely at the clients location; nor the affiliate. Yet
there they were all discussing the marketing of the product, just as the
initial phone call occurrence.
Whenever acts and events occur at the
same time, no matter how far apart, or how seemingly unrelated on the
surface, they are related at a level of life, which will often later show
itself at some physical level. In addition, this phenomenon often
represents a psychological parallel between the thoughts or attitudes of
different people who are involved.
A man received
an email from a friend, at the same time that an order came in from
a client. These were the only two emails. It turns out that the
client's organization had the same ethical and spiritual interests
as the friend's.
So the next time you see a number of
things that happen at the same time, not the relationship between
the people and the circumstance under which it occurs. It is likely to
repeat sometime in the future, perhaps as a physical connection amongst
the people as it relates to the same area.
Signs & Portents Most of us have seen an interesting connection between two events and have brushed it off
as mere coincidence. Our own experience is that many of the things that we
half-consciously associate as being related are in fact very much related. Often life is
presenting signs and portents of things to come, or things that are happening out of site.
A man was having problems in his
relationship with his relatives. One day he walked out his door and saw cat excrement at
his doorstep, something that he rarely if ever saw before in years of living at his
residence. A moment later he went to his mailbox and got a letter from his relative that was filled with anger. He half noted the connection. He received only two or three
letters from these relatives in the next decade, but each time he received the letter
there was animal excrement in front of his door, the only times he ever had the
excrement at his door!
In this example we are not only witnessing a portent but we
are seeing an example of a life repetition, the topic we discussed earlier. We can see
signs of ill will through signs and portents just as we can see signs of good will and
positive occurrences. (For example just before a particular individual calls there is a
feeling of calm and well-being). In either case through a sign a portent we are given a
glimpse of things to come.
Often in literature as in life we see
relationships between physical occurrences in nature and events happening
in the lives of the characters in the story. While some of us might
attribute this to poetic license our research indicates that these correspondences
are pretty indicative of what happens in real life. In King Lear the king
begins to go mad as he deals with his limiting attitudes toward his
beloved daughter where the background is a raging storm with lightning,
wind and rain. On the other hand in Pride and
Prejudice Eliza, formerly
reluctant to visit a man of good character and great wealth, gives up her
limiting attitude and meet him at his estate on an utterly perfect spring-like
day in England. Her new openness to a vaster level of accomplishment in her
life is mirrored in nature's corresponding glory. Just to take one example
in real life. At the end of 1996 and the start of 1997 a man in California
was in the midst of a great project that offered great, unprecedented
opportunity in his life. On the first day of 1997 it rained harder in
California that any day in recorded history. Rain is often seen as a
symbol of grace or good fortune. This was especially so for this man.
Just as our conscious daily lives can
reveal signs and portents so can our semi or unconscious existence reveal the same. For
example, dreams can on occasion be signs and portents. Our research suggests that
although dreams are most often projections of complex conscious and subconscious thoughts
and feelings, with no direct relationship to the actual outcomes of current or future
events, sometimes they are in fact real indicators of things to come. (Again we say this
with restraint, however, because our research indicates that 90% of dreams are not
premonitions of anything, and are merely one's descent into unconscious parts of our
being.)
Here's an example of where an individual benefited from a dream:
A man noticed that every time he had a
dream where there was great confusion at work, the next day the computer equipment didn't
work properly or there were other technical problems. At first he didn't connect the two,
and whenever the computer equipment went out (which happened not very frequently) he along
with others became annoyed and agitated about the situation.
However, after another occurrence of the
dream he was determined not to get upset if the equipment went out that day. And so, of
course (!), the equipment went out that day of the dream. As before, others were still
annoyed and agitated at the situation. Fortunately the man was able to quickly aid in the
solution of the technical problem. A few moments after a few of the people there asked him
how he could remain so calm under the circumstance. He couldn't tell them his secret!
There are times when dreams are
indicators of future events, which when understood in their proper light, can help us
better cope with events as they unfold.
There are endless signs
and portents that occur in life that we can be observant of. For example,
if we have a power outage and then receive a letter from someone with bad
will, we can see a correlation. Or the opposite, where there is a feeling
of happiness or richness, and we receive a letter thereafter from someone
with good with and positive feeling toward us. There are endless
variations of such a phenomenon.
You can also learn to
read the other person's intention through signs and portents. An example
of this is a marketing person who calls you on the phone at precisely the
wrong moment in the day. You might be about to have your dinner or do
something else enjoyable or important, and you get the call at just the
wrong moment. You know that this person calling is completely out of tune
with your intentions. This is because their job pretty much entails being uncaring of your
need for peace and quiet focusing rather on their need to sell you
something even if it is at the most inconvenient moment. This indicates an
intent that has negative forces in it. The call comes exactly when it
shouldn't. There are many instances of this. For example, someone calls,
and asks for a person who has just left. The originator of the call is
somehow out of balance, perhaps being too rushed or impulsive. You can of course see this same
phenomenon in other areas of life beyond phone calls; in letters, in
emails, and others. And of course you are doing it to others as well,
except from your side you are unconscious of it!
Subtle Awareness of Outer Life If you watch the unfolding of life around you very closely,
you will see at any
moment an indication of what is right and what is wrong; of what is
problematic and how it will stay so in the future. It is an inner
awareness and perception that enables you to make right decisions and take
right actions. It is a marvel to behold.
A man was trying to
decide which computer to purchase. He thought of a number of different
approaches, and then began to pursue them. Each time he tried to act, he
was met by a resistance in the market; e.g. the salesperson in one store
was inattentive to him, the system he wanted was out of stock, he didn't
have his photo ID to complete another sale, and on and on! This was truly
an indication that his actions would not be fruitful; that life was
pointing him in another direction. (It was also an indicator of his
original confusion and indecision, but that is another story.) He finally
realized, as a result of his observations of the "negative" results in the
environment around him, that a second computer he already had would be his
new computer. All worked out well from that point on.
Moving to Depths
to Develop Subtle Sense
The best way to develop this subtle sense is to live less at the surface
of life, and more in the depths within yourself. As your consciousness
moves deeper within, not overwhelmed y the tumult of the surface, you
develop a calm as well as a better awareness of things occurring around
you, including the subtle sense of what is unfolding, what is the right
and wrong things to do, etc.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOUR
CONSCIOUSNESS & WHAT OCCURS IN THE WORLD
What You Sow is What You Reap
(i.e. Law of Karma) The energy we give out comes back to
us. Life never fails to return good for good, bad for bad, truth for
truth, and falsehood for falsehood—in its own time and manner. This
principle is otherwise known and often misunderstood as karma.
Karma in Sanskrit means ‘work’. Every act represents an energy
directed toward some purpose or goal. The nature of the energy expressed
in an act is defined not only by the physical action, but more
essentially, by the motive, attitude, idea and intention expressed in the
action.
Inner-Outer Correspondence Has it ever occurred to you
that whatever is happening to you on the outside is a direct reflection of
your attitudes, beliefs, and feelings that you have within you? If you
take any situation where something difficult or bad has been happening to
you, if you look deeper you will be able to find a related limited
quality on your part. Even if there doesn't seem to be any
obvious direct cause of
your involvement, if you look deeper, you will find a corresponding
weakness within yourself that relates to the negative situation. Though
this sees to defy logic, laws of rationality, and
our normal notions of cause and effect, our
experience is that this phenomenon of "inner-outer correspondence" is
nevertheless true. Consider this real life example:
An instructor noticed that
he had not secured enough work for the upcoming Christmas/New Year
season. He tried in a limited way to secure some additional work, but
nothing seemed to come out of it. During this quiet period he had the
opportunity to learn a new software technology. He was half-hearted into
it, focusing more of his energy on the fact that there wasn't enough
work.
He then decided to change
his feelings and committed himself to learning the new software
technology, and plunged into it. The next day he got a call with work
filing up virtually the entire holiday season!
The instructor had a
negative situation on his hand. He saw that there was not work coming his
way. He then (consciously or subconsciously) identified a negative quality
of his own, the reluctance to take up the learning of the new technology.
When he made the effort to overcome his reluctance (i.e. he acted
on it), life instantly responded in kind, and in a corresponding
very positive manner.
What we experience on the
outside is a reflection of what is inside; i.e. there is a correspondence
between our character and the actions that happen around us, even if we
cannot fathom the connection. We have seen that this phenomenon works in
ways that defy all logic and common sense, and even defies the normal laws
of space and time. Yet whatever its logic, there is no denying the fact of
its reality.
The reason that this
phenomenon exists is because everything in the universe is related in
energy and consciousness. All existence, seen or unseen, forms a unity of
relation, association, and purpose. So that what is outside of us is
related to what is inside of us. There is not the division that we would
normally associate. This oneness of the outside to the inside, or from
ourselves to others is rooted in this spiritual oneness of life, rooted in
the spiritual substance and conscious force that underlies all existence.
We can use this knowledge of
inner-outer correspondence to our benefit; to right any wrong, as well as
to accomplish to a greater degree in life. For example, we can follow this
simple technique: If we experience any negativity in our lives, we can
immediately try to link it to something that is wanting in our being or an
action that was wanting in the past, be it the immediate past or
relatively distant past. If we reverse the corresponding attribute in
ourselves, the negativity will begin to evaporate, or it will not repeat.
Consider these true life experiences:
-A
man’s computer system is suddenly not working properly. He takes the
approach that he is going to associate the outer problem, with some inner
attitude on his part. He notices that he has been irritable in the last
few minutes dues to fatigues, etc. He decides to stop that behaviour. He
even mildly consecrates the situation. Thereafter the computer starts
functioning properly, even better than it normally should at that point in
its daily use.
-A woman's child is acting irritable. She associates the
behaviour with her
own attitude toward the child at that moment. The child's behaviour
suddenly reverses, and becomes subdued.
The same holds true for
positive experiences. If we see positive things happening in our lives,
then we can tie these occurrences to a positive qualities (attitudes,
beliefs, decisions, actions, etc.) inside ourselves. Then we can learn to
reinforce that quality so that even greater positive results can occur in
the future.
From this perspective we can begin to look at life in a whole different
way. When we
encounter an external obstacle in life, rather than recoiling from life we
can look within ourselves and discover an opportunity for inner growth.
When we take the effort to make that growth, outer problems dissolve and
new opportunities open up for us. Life responds
in kind. We open the gates for great accomplishment and success in
our
lives. We also learn the deeper spiritual truth of the correspondence
between ourselves and the environment; of the oneness of life.
-- Falsehoods Return as
Negative Experiences By falsehood we mean a negative expression in life such as anger,
jealousy, meanness, ill-will, wrong action, lack of knowledge, and so
forth. Our observation is that when a falsehood, i.e. a negativity is
expressed by someone it returns sooner or later to that individual or
related individuals as a negative experience. Here are some examples of
this phenomenon:
-A
teases B about B’s capacity to always complement other people. B may
not be conscious that A's intends a mild insult. After C’s elopement,
B has the satisfaction of writing a letter of condolences to the whole
family (that A is the head) of reaps full revenge for their earlier
mocking. (In other words, A's negativity returns on him later on.)
-A trainer was about to do training in
a new software application. He went through the materials and found them
very difficult to work with. Instead of adjusting to the materials as he
had done in previous situations he rejected the materials and suggested
to the training company that they go with a different materials. When he
sent the email to this effect, the email was lost. When a second email
was sent the proposal was rejected. (In other words, instead of the instructor
working with what he had, he became reluctant, a falsehood. When he
acted on the falsehood it retuned in the form of lost emails and a
rejection.)
-- Truths Return
as Positive Experiences If falsehoods attract an equal negative response to the initiator of the
falsehood somewhere down the line, the opposite is also true. A positive
act, i.e. a truth attracts a positive response of life to the individual.
For example, let's see how the above trainer reversed is negative attitude
and turned it into a positive and attracted a positive response from life.
-The trainer decided to
reverse his negative feelings about the difficult to use materials. He
went through the book again to organize himself for an upcoming class,
and restrained his feelings from in any way being negative. When he
performed the class, he was astounded when one of his students remarked
how incredibly well put together the materials were! He had never in ten
years of training ever heard a student in the course of a class ever
mention the materials in any way like that! By the way, the class went
near flawlessly.
Truth attracts positive experiences
sooner or later to the individual who initiates it; often in ways that
seem to burst out from life in ways that defy all common sense and logic.
A truth can be in the form of a reversal of a negative attitude or any
other falsehood, as well as from an original generally positive attitude, goodwill,
gratitude, and a positive general attitude amongst others. For example,
here is an example of how goodwill generates a positive response to the
issuer of the goodwill:
In the book Pride and Prejudice
Eliza is energetic, cheerful, and expansive with intense goodwill for
her sister Jane, and has an eagerness to see her sister marries well.
Jane gets Bingley, a man with an excellent income. (Eliza's goodwill returns
in the form of Jan's good fortune). Likewise because Jane is positive
toward Eliza and receives her support with goodwill, Eliza gets Darcy
with a great income. (Jane's goodwill returns in the form of Eliza's
good fortune).
The Power of Speech Negative Expression
Speech generates
a powerful vibration that can actually pass from one person to another.
For example, if a person is angry and expresses it, that anger can get
expressed by another person who may not even have been there when the
original anger was expressed.
Likewise if anger is expressed about a
subject it can actually have negative circumstances that vibrate out in
the real world. For example, two individuals have a quarrel about
something. One person expresses great anger and outrage about their
relationship. She later finds out that two people she wanted to see
together have now cancelled their engagement.
In yet another instant the frustration of
wrong-headed someone about another person not only doesn't convince the
person to change their point of view but causes the vibration of expressed
frustration in the world to go out and impact circumstances, that cause
even more frustration for person who verbalized the initial frustration.
For example, a mother is exasperated by the fact that her daughter doesn't
want to marry a man who is obviously not suited for. She tells her
daughter that she'll never find anyone. This vibration goes out into the
world and has some effect such that she finds out the next day that her
other daughter's marriage has been cancelled.
Finally, speech can cancel a positive
circumstance or outcome. For example, a man thinks he's got a new job, and
gets drunk and boasts about it. the next morning he finds out that the
owner has changed his mind and found someone more suitable for the job.
Soft Speech & Silent Will On the opposite of the coin we can see
how restraining speech can bring about great positive results in life. If
speaking expresses an energy or a force, the refusal to speak restrains
the energy or force. It is an act that builds up the energy and increases
its power and force for accomplishment.We
have already mentioned the power of soft speech and speaking fewer words
as a way to bring about a positive response from life. For example, a man
who was on the verge of bankruptcy was asked to change his level of
speech, and within a few months his entire financial and job situation completely
turned around for the better.
In a similar vein we have noticed that is a
person restrains themselves from talking, the other person will actually
say what he had on our mind. For example, a man is tying to persuade
another man for an appointment. Instead of trying hard to convince him, he
withdraws his argument, and controls his desires, and after a few moments
the other person verbalizes and agrees to the very thing desired in the
first place. Likewise by restraining from talking one can elicit a
positive response from life. For example, a woman wants a particular man
whom she meets. Rather than express it intensely she practices silent will
and restrains from verbalizing her feelings. The object of her affection
comes forward and proposes to her within three days. We address this
subject in more detail in the topic Silent
Will Power.
In the final analysis quieter speech,
fewer words when speaking, and restraining speech altogether when
appropriate (i.e. silent will) lead to positive results in life. Negative
verbal expressions, such as anger, frustration, and premature expressions
create negative results for one's self for others, or cancels positive
results.
HUMAN ACCOMPLISHMENT & THE
HIDDEN PATTERNS OF LIFE
Wanting Delays The Things Wanted
Here's another life law that we have noticed that some of you have
experienced in one form or another. We have noticed that
if
you want something too much in an impatient or restless manner, it tends
to delay the thing from coming; or even cancels it.
For example, you might notice that the more you want something to come in the mail (e.g. a
check or an acceptance), the less likely it is to appear in the mail. The opposite is
also true, if you forget about something important that is coming (e.g. in the mail), and
focus on the tasks and work at hand, the item in the mail comes, (and often you
are surprised when it does arrive because your mind is no longer focused on it!).
There are endless examples of the phenomenon. Here's one:
A man very much wanted to get a
prize. A selection committee unanimously chose to give him the prize he was
seeking. He got excited about this turn of even. Suddenly the recommendation of the
committee was ignored, and another man received the prize. The man forgot the prize
and immersed himself in his work. One day he stayed awake well into the night attending to
his work. A second man knocked at his door and announced that the prize had been now
in fact given to the first man, and that he had come at that hour in his eagerness to
convey the good news.
Here's another example of
how giving up eagerness to gain something by taking care of what was
essential, leads to success:
A man was watching his
favorite sports teams on television. It was an important game for all
the teams since they were close to winning their division championships.
Obviously he wanted them to do well, though up to that moment that day
they were doing only fair. At the same time he needed to take care
of other things in his life, such as bathing, etc. As he continued to
watch he noted that the his teams continued to go down hill. He
remembered the idea of taking care of the essentials first, so he bathed
and took care of other essentials. When he turned on the TV all of his
teams had dramatically advanced their cause for the better.
Anticipating a Thing By Speaking It,
Cancels It Here's a related phenomenon that we have witnessed.
Verbally expressing a wish for a positive
outcome in a situation has the power to cancel any chance for its success.
For example, some sportscasters have the tendency to anticipate a positive
outcome to an unfolding of the play involving the home team. They make a
statement to this effect at critical moments in the play, rather than
holding their tongue. Invariably the outcome is always the opposite of
their verbalization.
This is similar tendency of anticipating
anything, such as anticipating a check in the mail, which has the effect
of negating any possibility of its arrival. When one forgets it instead of
anticipating the chance for its arrival is enhanced. This is of course
tied into the falsehoods, and negative life responses (or at least
non-positive life responses) that
come as a result of desire.
(These tendencies bring out one of the
overall weaknesses of the vital/emotional plane of human
consciousness, its tendency to desire, which is one of the great
falsehoods of the vital. (For more on the limitations of the vital
plane of individuals, click
here.))
Negative Influences When One Tries to
Ascend One interesting phenomenon we have witnessed is that when an
individual tries to make a significant progress for improvement in life,
often there appears on the scene a negative influence
or obstacle to prevent that ascent.
However, if
the person has the required energy and
force of character, they can overcome this
negative influence, and move on to
thathigher level. If they don't,they will be brought down, and their
imitative will fail. Mother's Service Society
explains:
Every accomplishment in life is
vulnerable to interference or destruction by negative influences. The
higher the accomplishment is with respect to previous levels of
achievement, the greater the vulnerability. The character of a negative
influence can be seen from the nature of events that occur when its
approaches or leaves the atmosphere.
In the book Pride and Prejudice
we can see excellent examples of this phenomenon,
with negative and the positive results.
-The Bennet family is aspiring the
marriage of their daughters to a higher level of prosperity. Lydia is
one of the daughters, She is energetic and good-natured, but is wild,
crude, and unconstrained. Darcy and Bingley are the well to do suitors
for the Bennet daughters. However, the great good fortune coming to the
Bennet family through the approach of Bingley and Darcy is undermined by
Lydia’s low behavior. She is the weak link in the family through which
disaster strikes and almost cancels great good fortune. It is a response
of the lower portion of the family to the higher opportunity that has
opened for the family. The weakest link breaks when the strongest
contemplates an upward initiative at times of great opportunity.
-Eliza, the heroine of the story is one
of the Bennet daughters. She is on her way to a movement upward in her
life through her potential emerging connection with Darcy, the hero of
the story. however, along the way she gets involved with Wickham, a
handsome, yet treacherous man, whose treachery she is completely blind
to because of her physical attraction. Her involvement with this
individual at a time when she is beginning to move to a higher level of
accomplishment almost ruins her. (Her weakness is not that she met a
treacherous man that she didn't know about; but that she got caught up
in her desires and physical attraction, an experience of weakness and
falsehood common in life. Ultimately, however her strength of character
pulls her through, and she overcomes this setback.)
Here's one final example of how
negative influences try to undermine the ascentof an individual to
the next highest level of life.
A consultant was given a project to
develop a software program for a consortium of electronic retail stores.
It was a significant project with opportunities far beyond the initial
phase of the project, and offered initial money that could have taken
the consultant to the next level in his living situation. he was under
intense pressure to finish the project as well as fulfill his other commitments.
Just near the very end of the project, he was kept awake for nights by
an unruly, rowdy, and bullying neighbor. One night when the pressure and
noise became so great he went to confront the neighbor. The neighbor
physically struck the consultant, and seriously injured him. Though the
project was completed and delivered on time, the consultant had to use
the money compensation for his work to support himself during his
rehabilitation since he could not work for a period of months. he never
had the money to get a better living situation.
Human Initiative that Leads to
Success or Failure When we try to accomplish something in life through our initiative, it
may or may not succeed. We have already indicated
negative forces that might rise in opposition. Here are some
other the subtle workings
of life that affect the success
or failure of any initiative.
1. When the social atmosphere is
positive with regard to an initiative, the atmosphere fosters
success. When the atmosphere is negative, the initiative will fail,
unless the individual is able
overcome the resistance of the atmosphere.
(Example) In a community there is a very positive feeling towards
improving the education in the community. An individual begins an
initiative to improve the quality of the courseware. On the surface
she initially fails; yet the initiative is taken up by another
person and succeeds with it. That is because there is a positive
atmosphere in the community as it relates to education. (If there
were a negative atmosphere toward education, the initiative would
have failed all around.)
(Example) (As indicated in the book The Three Musketeers) "Whatever the liberality of the day, the story takes place in an age
when the belief in good is quite pervasive and religious issues
dominate society. In fact, if one law seems to express throughout the
story, it is the resistance to illicit love at higher levels of
society. Buckingham's advances to Anne lead to his death. Constance's
two attempts to unite with D’Artagnan are frustrated, the first by
her arrest, the second by her death. Even Milady's passion for de
Wardes is frustrated by D’Artagnan. Aramis returns to religion, not
to his aristocratic lover. Only Porthos who seeks money, not love, and
stoops to the level of the proprietress succeeds, and that too by
marriage. There is no instance of illicit love prospering in the story."
(MSS)
2. Initiatives
fail when taken outside one’s field of influence, authority or
control.
(Example) A man tries to create a higher sense of moral authority
in the community. He is in fact a man who is lacking in some of
those areas of morality himself. His initiative to bring
about moral authority ultimately fails.
In the novel
The
Vicar of Wakefield, (a book by Goldsmith) the Vicar by his birth,
upbringing, profession and character is of a high moral plane. Those
moral values enshrine humility and modesty and idealism. But along
with his morality, the Vicar has a streak of foolish assertion and
arrogance. The expression of this trait cancels whatever positive
things he may otherwise merit from life. The Vicar's life is
comfortable and successful until he asserts his foolishness over the
issue of monogamy at his son's betrothal, raising the issue of which
George's future wife's father is most vulnerable because of his plans
to remarry. The Vicar asserts that he holds truth higher than his
fortune and news quickly comes that his fortune is lost followed by
news that the marriage into a wealthy family is also lost.
Had the Vicar really been above money, his words may have brought a
different response. But he has chosen to offend a thing which he and
his family really cherish as a boast of higher idealism. Life forces
him to live up to that higher idealism by depriving him of everything
-- money, position, reputation, freedom, health -- he ever had. When
he finally rises to the level of that idealism i.e. becomes stronger
than life at that point, not only the original wealth returns and the
original marriage arrangement, but abundant wealth from all sides
comes.
(Example) A man tries to create a higher sense of moral
authority in the community. The community has actually transcended
his morality with an openness to new ideas that the individual
cannot fathom. His initiative to bring about moral authority fails.
3. Initiatives
from lower levels of life do not have power for accomplishment at
higher levels of life.
(Example)
A consultant was asked to investigate the development of tool to allow
for online student training evaluations. He worked on it for months
without ever clarifying with his superior the pay he would
receive as well as the timeframe on the project. Ultimately the project failed completely, and the
consultant wasted months of his time.
(Example) X tries to influence Y's opinion about Z. X’s efforts to influence Y’s opinion of Z fail
because X is stationed at a lower level of the social hierarchy than
Y. It is the higher station that sets the standards for what is or
is not acceptable or fashionable.
4. On the other
hand, initiatives
by those in a higher plane of life (i.e. with greater wealth, status
or power) toward those in a lower plane tend to be readily and
richly fulfilled, provided the lower is a willing recipient and does
not raise obstacles or resistance to receiving. This principle acts
in the same manner as water flowing downhill.
(Example) A manager of a training company wanted to have
her instructors do training on a new software program Many happily
agreed to it, and received basic knowledge on the program from the
training company. After a number of months the training by the
instructors went very well for the training company's clients, and
even led to additional profitable training on related new products.
5. Initiatives
may receive unexpected support from life when they are aligned with
new movements in life that are gaining momentum. On the other hand,
initiatives may meet with
unexpected resistance when they are aligned with movements that are
passing out of existence.
(Example) X’s efforts to marry her daughter Y to Z for
social purposes meet with resistance and ultimately fail. X seeks to
capitalize on the mutual pledge of her sister and herself that their
children should marry, a practice whose value is passing out of
existence. The light in Y’s eyes that X feels is enough to
overcome the best-laid plans of the older generation to perpetuate
itself in the old style.
6. Initiatives
succeed when taken with sufficient energy and capacity to reverse
previous actions that failed as the result of an inappropriate
attitude or behavior.
(Example) A man tries to break up the marriage of his child,
and succeeds for a time. After a change of heart he decides that his
decision was very foolish and he tries to patch things up.. The
success of his initiative to change will only occur if he has
sufficient vigor to do so and
if he gains to agreement of the parties who were initially involved.
(Example) A man tries to create a higher sense of moral
authority in the community. The community has actually transcended
his morality with an openness to new ideas that the individual
cannot fathom. His initiative to bring about moral authority fails.
These are
then some of the
major forces at play that affect the success or failure of any
initiative that a person takes in life.
Social
Determinants on Individual's Destiny When we interact with the world we see it from our own perspective. At
another level there is often a broader purpose and unfolding taking place.
For example, both Romeo and Juliet looked at their lives in terms of their
attraction and passion. However they were far less conscious of the
unfolding of the conflict between two social forces, the Montague and
Capulet clans, and how their lives were so intertwined in the greater
conflict of these two clans. After the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet unfolds
the two clans are in the end shocked into realization that their disputes
must be settled, otherwise more tragedies like Rome's and Juliet's would
take place.
The point here is that
life often seems to be working out a higher purpose than the individual
participants may understand. The undertow of currents can overwhelm our
"small intentions." It could even be argued that life itself
is a conscious force that is unfolding in the world and uses
individuals for its greater purpose. Therefore the outcome of
initiatives is driven by greater forces that have their own intention
and energy as they unfold in the world. In our own lives life's higher
purposes are also playing themselves out in some fashion.
There is a subconscious
social will that is at play that works through individual characters and
events. For us to be aware of these social forces at play can help us be
more in tune with the temper of our times and thereby help us achieve at a
greater level than if we were mere puppets in the social play that we are
always a part of.
----------------
The examples of hidden patterns of life that we have addressed in this
topic are part of a vast network of patterns that are occurring in life. If you are
observant you too can experience them, enabling you to see the
deeper movements of life at work, which if properly understood can help you make
better decisions and
take better actions to help you be more successful and happy in
life.
Keep in mind that our
knowledge of these patterns is not yet complete. Consider it a work in
progress; a science with new possibilities, discoveries and vistas. We
hope the information we have provided is a good starting point to help
understand planes of life that have been for the most part hidden
from view.
For additional
Growth Online thoughts on how life works, click
here.
