Introduction
Opening the door at precisely 8 AM, Myron broke out into his pirate laugh and cheerfully welcomed me in, “Ah, good morning lad. Anticipating your promptness, I have already prepared some tea for us.” He looked up at me slyly as I entered, “How have you and Mr. Wattles been getting along?”
I sighed, “Myron, why in the hell do I need to know all this just to read this book?”
“Do you want a little cheese with that wine?” He closed the door and motioned for me to take a seat as we both took our respective places on the sofa and chair. “The truth of the matter Robert, is that what you understand to be reality is hogwash. You don’t know what you don’t know. In order to understand a book on reality in its true state, you have to know what the hell reality is. If I’d known you were looking for something easy, I would have sent you packing the first time I’d laid eyes on you. What we’re going to be doing over the next few weeks is simple but not necessarily easy. Remember, you called me. If you want to walk around with your head in the sand for the rest of your life fighting one problem after the other in your competitive world, it’s no skin off my nose. Just walk out that door and we’ll call it quits.”
Here was my opportunity to make life easy and leave. After all, I had a successful company, a good marriage and my kids liked me. But something was missing and a little voice inside was telling me that if I stuck it out with Myron I just might find out what it is.
With all the face saving energy I could muster, “You’re right Myron; I’m here to understand reality so let’s go to work. But tell me, why is “truth” or objective reality such a mystique? I mean, shouldn’t reality be obvious? Right off the bat you hit me with a concept that is so totally contrary to everything I’ve learned in school and in life.”
“Robert, there’s an old adage that when the student is ready the teacher will appear. Up until now you weren’t ready to know reality. Besides, in order to know the truth, you first have to know the lie because everything is relative. Can you write with white chalk on a white board? No. Can you distinguish the summer without winter? How about day without night? The fact that you don’t like what I’m telling you is irrelevant to me and just demonstrates the necessity for you to listen with the mind of a student with no expectations.”
“But Myron, how can you prove what this Wattle’s character is saying? You know, I’ve read his words over and over and what I got out of it was simply that creation begins with a thought and if you continue that thought you can create what you’re thinking.”
“Bravo, you’ve got it!”
“I’ve got it? I’ve got what? I’ve had high hopes and expectations as to what success was going to bring me for the last ten years; like more time with my family and the opportunity to pursue my hobbies and travel but when my dreams met reality, reality usually won out and I just kept on working harder each year.”
“Robert, let’s take it one step at a time. I think you’ll find that you yourself are the proof of what Wattles is saying. Let’s take a look at what primarily occupies your thoughts each day. Like most people, you think about what you need or what you don’t have; is that right?”
Although I didn’t care for the way he worded the question I had to agree, “I suppose.”
He leaned closer as if speaking about something that was only meant to be heard by me, “One of the tendencies of the unempowered is to link their dreams and desires with fears, doubts and insecurities about their abilities to achieve their dreams. Every time they think of something they want they subconsciously begin having corresponding feelings of doubt and insecurity about their ability to get it. Since feelings trump thoughts, their mind cuts them off in their tracks and nothing manifests other than more insecurity. Based upon what Wattles purports and science has proven, your thoughts and your focus always provide you with exactly what you focus on. As you told me the first time we met, you’re constantly dealing with maintaining market share, your competitors, shrinking margins and increasing the value of your stock. Since your mind is designed to bring you whatever it thinks you want and is totally ignorant of your intentions due to its extremely literal and simplistic interpretation, it can only bring you more competition, shrinking market share, etcetera. Once you understand how the mind works and are respectful of its power, everything will begin to change.”
“OK, I think I’m starting to get this. I see what you’re saying. So if I want to get ‘X’, then ‘X’ had better be what I focus on irrespective of my current reality,” I smiled, nodding my head in agreement and feeling a little more confident.
“Exactly,” he smiled back, like a teacher whose student was showing signs of progress.
“And what about the residual doubt and fear that I experience about my ability to get ‘X’?”
“Here, my friend is where faith comes in. Now this may seem a little odd because this is a scientific process, so why do we need faith? The answer is that in the initial stages of working with this new technology, irrespective of Wattles or science, you don’t know it works. The only way to compensate for this is through faith. Over time, you will see that this process works like gang busters and you won’t have the necessity to have ‘blind’ faith. You will, however, develop ‘true’ faith as you begin to successfully manifest what you want,” he sat back with confidence and sipped his tea.
“I have to admit, this is pretty interesting stuff,” I was now getting energized as it began to make some sense for the first time when another thought occurred to me. “But what about the real world problems and challenges that need handling every day? Should I just ignore them and focus on getting ‘X’?”
“Quite the contrary, as Ramdas says “Being-Here-Now” is the name of the game. Do all that you can do each moment to deal with the challenges of the day to the best of your ability while at the same time maintaining a positive, confident vision of what you want in the future.”
“Well, I can see that this isn’t going to be a walk in the park, but whatever it takes to master this technique, I can make it happen.”
“That’s what I like to hear. You know, people who embark upon this type of work are called warriors, in that they are constantly dealing with the conflict of perceived reality - what they have, for actual reality - what they want.”
“So is that it? Is that all there is to it?”
“Close but not quite. Being-here-now in dealing with the challenges of the day and being vigilant of your thoughts of the future is a good start, but that’s just the first of many aspects to this process. For example Robert, what do you want, what is your vision for the future?”
“You know, the usual; continued success, the ability to spend more time with my family… to be happy.”
“That’s what everybody wants, but what is your definition of success, and how much more time with your family do you want and what would you do if you had it and what exactly makes you happy? Remember the mind is simplistic and literal and you don’t want it to have to guess for you. What you want needs to be spelled out in great detail using as many of your senses as possible.”
“Then I guess I don’t have a specific, detailed vision for the future.”
“And that’s what next week assignment is all about. In preparation for that, I want you to write down what your life looks like in detail in a perfect world. This is a no holds barred description of your perfect life including where you live, who you are living with, what kind of house you live in, what kind of car you drive, what color it is, how much discretionary time do you have and how do you spend it, etcetera, etcetera. Keep it as short and concise as possible with as much detail as you can.”
“Anything I want no matter what?”
“Anything, providing 1) it’s physically possible and 2) it’s what you really want and not what somebody else wants for you and please Robert, GO BIG, and have fun with it. Don’t write down what you think you’re capable of having, write down what you want as if anything were possible and you couldn’t fail and I’ll see you next week.”
As I left Myron’s house my head was swirling. I’m amazed I have been able to accomplish as much as I have. I can’t imagine what I’m going to be able to accomplish using these tools, but I guess that’s what this week’s assignment is all about.