Plateau Point - Part 1

Source/licence: Wikimedia/Daniel Mayers

What is the the Plateau Point?

It is a point in your life where no matter what you do, things just don't seem to be going your way. This can, although not always, happen at all three causal levels - physical, mental and spiritual. They are inter-related. It can even feel as though you are spinning your wheels backwards, or losing ground.

Why does the Plateau Point happen?

Basically, it is the end of an upcycle in your life. In everything, there is balance, and life does not move in a straight line - there are upcycles and downcycles. The upwards thrust before it may have been a period of phenomenal growth, or it may have been just a gentle upward movement. The end of the upcycle is marked by the consolidation phase of the Plateau Point (PP). The consolidation may be followed by a downcycle, further upwards movement, or stagnation.

What can I do about it?

Understand firstly what is the primary cause for your personal PP, and then the appropriate reaction will become clear.

What are the causes of the Plateau Point?

- Self-sabotage/conflicting purposes within yourself.
- A natural ending phase in the physical phenomenal world.
- Spreading yourself too thin mentally and spiritually, leading to a lack of focus and/or conflicting purposes.
- A lack of clarity in what you want.
- Limiting beliefs and experiences.
- A lack of energising focus and power.
- Inadequate physical strategies leading to suboptimal performance.
- Failure to adapt to change.
- Being too easily influenced by others.
- No staying power, flexibility and resilience.
- Issues around guilt, fear and deservingness.
- A lack of confidence.

Surrender Process

Source/licence: Wikimedia

1. Imagine the purest, highest and most powerful level of unconditional love that you can.
2. Double that in intensity so that nothing can withstand its presence except the highest level of love and acceptance.
3. Imagine yourself being drawn into that energy and merging into it.
4. All blockages, worries and conflicting energies are completely neutralised by this pure energy.
5. If you get distracted, dissociate yourself from the light again and repeat, doubling and doubling the energies again until it is so brilliant that you cannot bear to look upon it.
6. Merge into the energies again, surrendering all the concepts and thoughts of control into it.
7. Abide in that energy, allowing it to purify your energies completely in whatever way it sees fit in its wisdom.

The Flame Activating Breath for Achieving Goals

Source/licence: Wikimedia/Mila Zinkova

The breath must be one of the most overlooked tools in the human potential arsenal. When we see something unusual, we "catch our breath". We describe views such as the one above as "breathtaking". There is a definite mind-body correlation that can be demonstrated by the breath. Win Wenger, I believe, says that we stop breathing properly just as we encounter a problem - just at the very moment when breathing evenly and smoothly would create the oxygen flow and stimulus that we are seeking.

I offer the activating breath here, for the purposes of activating the mind's self-piloting system towards goal-achievement. The Activating Breath is easy:

• Breath in to the count of 4 at the speed of 1 count per second. As you inhale, expand your abdomen/diaphragm to its full potential.
  
• Exhale to the count of 4 at the speed of 1 count per second. As you exhale, relax the abdominal muscles.
  

This is the basic breath used in many processes, such as pranic healing and Quantum Touch. Practise doing it a few times until it flows smoothly and evenly for you.

Now for the Flame part. Imagine you have a candle in front of you. If it helps at first, actually light a candle and put it in front of you so you have an image of the flame. Blink your eyes twice and use the afterimage of the flame. Inside the flame, there is an image of your goal as it looks like when it is fully accomplished. This is the flame of blissful energy, energising and empowering your goal. Make sure you add all the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic components of the success image.

As you visualise it, start doing the Activating Breath. As you inhale, the flaming image becomes brighter and brighter, and more colourful. As you exhale, the image becomes more real and more solidified. Practice doing this - visualise the image becoming more colourful and bright as you inhale, until it becomes automatic. On each exhale, practice making the image so powerful and materialised that you believe beyond doubt that it will definitely happen.

As you inhale, imagine the sounds becoming clearer and louder. As you exhale, imagine the image materialised even more.

As you inhale, imagine the sensations and feelings becoming even more distinct. As you exhale, imagine the image so materialised that it is a given that it will occur. On each inhale, enhance the sense of gratitude and appreciation for the image.

Keep doing this for 10 minutes a day for each big image goal. Keep breathing at all times! You can switch periodically between the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic components, or do all three at the same time. Experiment and find out what works best for you. If you feel your attention starting to lag, always go back to the breath counting and try changing the modality i.e. if you were doing visual, then switch to auditory. The brain needs constant change to provide stimulus for attention, so provide it with that, and it will obligingly imprint the image of your success deep within you.

At the end of the session, with a deep sense of gratitude, place the whole image and energy into your heart and release it to your highest good.

Two Selves

Source: Wikimedia

There are two selves that we can switch between. One is the relative self, and the other the absolute self. We really need both to function in the world. The absolute self is free of limitations, but the relative self allows us to experience, well, relativity.

The balanced approach has to do with maintaining a balance between these two selves, I think. If we reside wholly in the self that experiences emptiness and absolute bliss, there is a tendency to withdraw from the world into ourselves. While it is blissful in a sense, there is a rejection of the world. The relative self goes out into the world, but relies almost exclusively on the push-pull fear motivations to function, which is again not an ideal situation.

The trick is to be able to switch between the two smoothly and fluidly.

Dare You Plunge in the Knife?

Don't worry - in spite of the picture, I don't mean to kill yourself. I am referring to those times of deep emotional upheaval - when a loved one lies ill or dying, when a child is lost, when a lover goes, when dreams die, when hopes are killed. If you're lucky, you will never have to face those situations in life, but unfortunately most of us do. And it is better to know how to deal with it BEFORE we actually get into that situation.

This post reflects the heart of this favourite saying in Buddhism:

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Those situations which I have described do happen. Even if they don't, everyone will have some experience of a personal fear. And when the time comes for reality and dreams to go at loggerheads, reality always wins.

So what's the solution?

Jump into the tidal wave of emotion completely. Give yourself up to it. Don't try to use justification or thought to turn it around. Experience the grief and the pain, but do not think about it. Just experience it. You will know you are turning it into a story if you suddenly feel like the victim. Or if you feel like blaming someone, or even life. Or if you feel you can't bear the pain, because while the pain may be real, the story that you can't bear it isn't.

Most stop right at the point of really plunging in the knife. It's conditioning, and I can understand it. But folks, seriously, quit being wimps. It's like holding a knife and testing the sharpness and cutting yourself slightly and saying I don't think I can do this. And we can get really upset doing it. It is the resistance that is really causing the suffering. If we plunge the knife straight in, we find that it is healing, for it cuts through the dreams and illusions, and free us from our cages of thought. Painful? Yes. But if you can hold to the pain of the experience and resist the temptation to think about it, to avoid it somehow, then you have played a trick on death. You will have cheated it of its power to cause suffering, for in embracing it it has no more power to threaten you.

It is conditioning that prevents us from doing this, but consider: In situations of extreme grief, most people use thought, conscious or unconscious, to avoid the pain. No one ever thinks of using the pain to avoid thought. And thought, by a long, long shot, is the one that will cause the most suffering. You go into the emotion, it disperses, and you move on. You go into the thought, it anchors, and congratulations, you get to carry it for the rest of your life. Apparently horrific, but that's the way it goes.

Dare you plunge in the knife?

The Paradox of Manifestation

It may seem somewhat surprising for me to tackle a topic like this just after completing a 13-part series on the subject. The series was designed to look at the mechanics of it. However, it was noted in the 13th post that the height of manifestative skills comes when one is not interested in it. Let's take a closer look at that. I propose that to pursue manifestation is a reflex to an initial impulse which actually takes the focus off in a completely misleading direction. The impulse, used in a completely counterintuitive way, would produce vastly different results.

For that, I'm going to refer to my all-time hero in Buddhism - Chogyam Trungpa. See book below.


I found his exposition of the kleshas, conflicting emotions that lead to suffering, particularly interesting. The kleshas themselves are nothing new - there have been tons of exposition on the six main conflicting emotions - desire, anger, pride, ignorance, doubt and opinion.

According to Trungpa, kleshas are one of two kunjung, or origins of suffering - the other one being the kunjung of karma. The kunjung of kleshas could be considered the birth of the kunjung of karma. They are the initial point, the starting of karma, one could say. So understanding kleshas is a good place to stop creating the kunjung of karma. In English: If you stop the emotions fast and early, they don't develop into patterns engraved into the mind stream, or karma.

The most fascinating thing is that the kleshas themselves arise out of a basic stupidity, or bewilderment. This, in my interpretation, is that there is a basic non-awareness about self and states (i.e. reality), of not knowing what to do, which is independently existent. We go about in this state, not really knowing what to do. There is an uncertainty about it, but not quite outright confusion. Then, there is a "sudden flickering of thought", according to Trungpa. It makes you very passionate and lustful. (Note the interesting fact here - passion is actually a function of suffering in this model.)

Hence, desire is born. Unfulfilled desire leads to anger. Anger and desire fuel pride as a self-preservation mechanism. Ignorance then arises as a strategy to continue, to close one's eyes to things that are contrary to the world view. Ignorance then develops into doubt - the avoidance of alternatives and advice. Finally, it forms a full-fledged opinion. In terms of the manifestation, the conscious awareness is now well and truly rooted in a fixed energy pattern.

What does this have to do with manifestation? Consider that manifestation is basically a topic about fulfilling one's desires. By engaging it, one jumpstarts the whole process of the kunjung of the kleshas. See the paradox?

Surfing Emptiness - The Psychological Part

Emptiness is about space - basic creation and phenomenal space. Emptiness is about the realisation of this space. Realisation arises through insight, awareness and experience of this as fundamental reality. That is basically what the whole process is, when described from the larger viewpoint.

Getting there is another matter.

The initial process is about loosening the bonds of egoic identity, the inadvertent jail of conscious awareness. This has to do with generating acceptance, with developing an understanding for the reality of the world, and with developing a love affair with it. There is a sense of hopelessness, of connecting with the fact that we really cannot do that much about the world - it will go on its own merry way. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that. This is not to deny the validity of action, but to create the detachment from the result, so that the gesture of action is empty of any force rooted in egoic resistance.

This hopelessness is very freeing - it frees us from worry. It says,"Do what must be done, but don't get upset if things don't go your way." It also allows us to react smoothly to whatever arises. There is a hopelessness, but without bleakness or bitterness. It is a very subtle difference. If we are bleak or bitter, then we are not really hopeless. We have not really accepted the hopelessness of the whole situation. There is a sense of internal resistance. So what we are really going for is fully accepted hopelessness. Then it is painless. It becomes a statement of reality.

The statement is this:

"Don't go about expecting the world to always go your way - it probably won't."

Where does that leave us? It leaves us free to explore, to tinker with the world. It opens a whole new plethora of behaviours we would not otherwise be able to engage in, in our fear and worry. So, it is actually a very freeing conception. We do our best and move on. That is the heart of the basic message. We take joy in what comes our way, and lovingly accept the stuff that doesn't as par for the course. We may even find a way to fall in love with that. It is a falling in love with reality. This is the heart of the Hinayana path. There is nothing particularly magical about it, in the sense of something out of the ordinary occurring. The practice is largely about examining the stuff arising in conscious awareness and freeing the resistance where it becomes apparent.

As we become more free, we can afford to be more generous and compassionate. We recognise our own hang-ups and transcend them, and then we have all this attention freed up, which in turn expands our awareness. And we become aware of the suffering of others, of their hang ups and how they mess up their lives. And then we can afford to be affectionate, because we have no particular agenda. We take refuge in the hopelessness, or more accurately, the reality of what is. We become very realistic, rooted in the moment. There is no worry about the future, because we know that the hopelessness will enable us to deal with anything that comes. We also become much less inclined to control, since we are able to face whatever situation may arise anyway.

It's all very boring, really, this hopelessness. Because there is nothing to do. There is nothing to face, no fear, no worry. Then you have nothing to discover. So we become cosmic meddlers. We observe others' hang ups and see if they wouldn't like a little help with that too. Not that we care at a personal level whether they overcome them or not - it's all hopeless anyway. But it becomes interesting to prod them on their journey. We feel their pain, and because we are rooted in reality, we know the pointlessness of pain, but they have chosen it. So we are there, saying,"Can I help you?" And when they are ready, they take that help. That is the the great compassion path - the Mahayana path. It is not just about developing compassion because we "should" somehow. It is just a naturally arising phenomenon from the Hinayana.

Compassion has a sneaky quality - it takes our attention away from our own hang-ups. It can be considered another way of relating to reality. When we discover how small our problems are compared to those of others, we almost shame ourselves into letting go of dwelling on them. When we consider issues of world hunger, for example, we suddenly become grateful for what we have. Thus, compassion is a double-edged sword. It cuts away hang-ups for others, but it also cuts away our own hang-ups. It also begins to take the focus away from self. Whereas Hinayana kills the ego and then leaves us hanging in undefined direction, Mahayana is very efficient. It takes a different route, and then cuts up the need for body and mind to be used for self-serving gains. It makes us look at the world with a magnifying glass, giving us a perspective of how small we are. That perspective helps us to get over ourselves.

It also develops gratitude. This develops a sense of appreciation for our situation, that may or may not have been present with Hinayana. With Hinayana, as we develop fully accepted hopelessness, we may fall in love with reality, and begin to just enjoy the ride. With Mahayana, as we develop compassion, the compassion perspective encourages gratitude, and humility. Both Mahayana and Hinayana encourage humility, in fact, by putting things in a perspective of us being infinitely small in relation to everything else. It is this perspective upon which everything else is built, in particular the realisation of emptiness.

The Hinayana version of emptiness is basically that phenomena comes and goes - the wheel turns and turns, and if you don't like it, it will go away - eventually. That is the shunyata principle. Reality is empty in that sense. The Mahayana perspective says it is all empty, and you get this realisation by meditating deeper on the illusion of suffering, on how we create pain unnecessarily in our lives. The sense of giving is very key to both paths. In Hinayana, it is giving up the struggle by considering cyclicity. In Mahayana, it is in giving to others, by focussing on others' hang-ups. In both situations, we are giving to something that is bigger than our perceived self, and in doing that eventually coming to realise self's inherent empty nature.



Both Mahayana and Hinayana have the sense of reduction, or seeing things in a certain setting that leads to the breaking down of ego. It is very structured, very guided. Hinayana takes it lessons from the pain of personal reality. The cure is acceptance/hopelessness. Mahayana roots its learning in the larger picture. The cure is compassion/service. Tantra, or Vajrayana, is another path to Rome. Tantra does not use a different perspective, such as pain or large-scale suffering, to take someone out of delusion. Instead, it uses the delusion itself, dives right to its core and neutralises it there.

So tantra is very tricky, very subtle. It is also the most dangerous because it chooses to play ego's game, and win. You either come out enlightened, or demonised. In fact, I would go so far as to say without some basic Hinayana experience at least, the chances of things going very wrong are pretty high. Unlike the other paths, tantra uses what it has. So, if you have a fascination for a certain energy, a certain persona, tantra uses that attraction as a meditation point. If you have a desire or lust, tantra uses that. If you are prone to anger, tantra uses that. So, tantra takes the resonating point with your egoic identity and then gets you to meditate on it.

Where does that all lead?

Without divulging secret practises, tantra largely has to do with identification with an yidam deity, a personal deity one feels a connection with. (Gross simplification) It is a game of pretend. Pretend you are this deity. The danger is apparent - if the ego is not reined in, you literally behave like a spoilt child in God's shoes. However, if it is, then you realise that you are not really playing pretend at all, but actually discovering your true form. Even the deity is a projection within emptiness. So where does this lead? It leads to the enjoyment body. Every deity will have certain benificient qualities. So, it uses the meditation on the attractive quality to each person to lure him into meditating on the beneficial use of this quality.

It is the ultimate teaching ploy. This is like getting a child to watch Barney the purple dinosaur, and then getting Barney sneaking in the educational parts. Here, it is worse - you pretend you are Barney, so you have to actually do the education!

The pretend is also the means by which personal inhibitions are temporarily bypassed. Say someone wants long life. They meditate on White Tara, one of the long life goddesses. In imagining themselves to be one with the goddess, they also create a mental and emotional space to experience the quality of long life. In normal waking awareness, they do not allow themselves the benefit of this enjoyment, and so do not allow themselves to attract or engage with this energy form. The pretend helps them visualise this.

It is like telling someone - imagine you're overwhelmingly rich. You can say, "Well, that's easy for you, you're Bill Gates!" The response of tantra is, "Okay, then imagine you are me!"

By the very act of imagination, the hang-ups are circumvented. As the identification become stronger and stronger, the new personality literally is used to push out the old one. That is, of course, dependent on the ability of the meditator to surrender the old viewpoint. Drawing from the training of Hinayana and Mahayana would undoubtedly help, as a fallback, because there is more structure, more fixed perspective. If one practised tantra alone, it is easy to get lost in the colourful nature of the method.

The ultimate realisation of all three paths is emptiness. If one practised just shamatha/shinay (calm abiding) and vipassana (insight) meditation, one would eventually realise the emptiness of reality. (Hinayana) If one practised giving and compassion, in giving until there was no more self to give, one would also spontaneously realise emptiness. (Mahayana) If one meditated on the identification of the deity, one is both the giver and receiver, and subject and object become one. Suddenly it becomes a cosmic joke, because you realise neither really exists, in the bigger picture. (Tantrayana/Vajrayana)

Nothing impossibly difficult, really, from an intellectual perspective. At least in the psychological sense. Real life practice is a completely different matter. And the energy aspects of these three paths are completely different. Another story for another time.

Manifestation Series Part 13: A Summary Discussion of Sorts

Basic Creation Space and the Manifestation Equation

Kaye:

If you imagine a basic space called the emptiness, and in this floats all the energies that exist and all our realities - that's the basic creation space.

The model for manifestation is

Manifestation, M = M(C,A)

C is the law of creation

A is the law of attraction

They are not really laws per se. They simply identify the main phenomena involved in manifesting a reality.

The law of attraction is simple. It's a magnetic principle. You get more of what you resonate with. The idea is that energies go on the principle of birds of a feather flock together. So manifestation is largely about resonating to the right tone. Easier said than done, of course.

At the magnetising level, you have to be rid of all unconscious and conscious blocks which are magnetising to the contrary. It's a matter of optimising the attractive power.

So if you're trying to quit smoking for example, what stops you is the hidden benefit. This is pretty much the same.You need to discover and pull out the hidden benefits to the contrary.

The law of creation is more drastic because it says you need to re-create yourself. You are resonating to a basic energy level that is native to you. Water finds its own level, so to speak.

So if you want to permanently automate manifestation, you have to change the level, which will involve changing key aspects of what you identify yourself to be. This changes your identity, your karma, as it were. And when you do, different potentialities will emerge.

The level of change will determine how large a change in the potentialities there are. For example, to change a work situation will require much less work than if you chose to change dna. Probably nothing short of death and rebirth would do that.

Make sense so far? That's the bare mechanics of it.

YF:

I get the gist, although some of the examples of what you've mentioned I don't quite get.

"So if you're trying to quit smoking for example, what stops you is the hidden benefit. This is pretty much the same. You need to discover and pull out the hidden benefits to the contrary."

I didn't get this hidden benefit aspect.

Kaye:

You don't stop smoking because to continue to smoke benefits you in some way. Similarly, you fail to manifest because failing to manifest benefits you in some way. Somehow, you position it within your mind and consciousness that something needs to be protected. So although you may be intending one thing, there is a push-pull going on.

YF:

Ok, got it. Go on.

The Effectiveness Quotient

Kaye:

The next equation is really building detail into this model.

I suppose you could call it an Effectiveness Quotient:

EQ = EQ(Push, Pull)

Pull is the drag you get from the countervailing inner thoughts and inadequacies (usually subconscious) that you have. So for example, if you wanted a relationship, but you are inside somehow unconsciously afraid that it will jeopardise your family relationships, then that becomes a blocking energy, or a pull factor.

Push is well, not a pull. It has to do with lack of faith and trust. Even though you may eliminate pull factors from your awareness, impatience develops. This has to do with needing to see the desire fully manifestaed in physical form. There is a certain uncertainty to this, a lack of trust in the process. The uncertainty is what attracts the drag factors. The expression "you're pushing it" is somewhat unconsciously reflecting this phenomenon.

YF:

In this regards, is push a positive or negative factor for manifestation?

Kaye:

Negative, not in that it is bad, but in that it pushes away that which you desire.

Consider what you are saying:

"I desire a car."

Push turns that into "I want a car now."

And then "I want a car and I don't see it right now. I want it now!"

You see how easily the desperation accelerates? There is a fear in it, no matter how subtle.

It is that fear that is drawing in countervailing energies. You are creating the pattern of attracting a car with one part of your conscious awareness, and at the same time holding it back with another by latching onto a counter-energy.

I will elaborate on the EQ, because there are several layers to that equation, but for now if you get that I'd like to move onto the engine of the whole process.

YF:

Ok - move on.

The Transformation Equation

Kaye:

Both equations so far have been descriptive. The first describes the current state you experience, as a result of the unconscious use of the laws of creation and attraction in tandem. The second describes the friction, if you like, the resistance to change. The third is really a dynamic version of the first.

We can say that transformation leading towards new manifestation is T.

T = T(new awareness, new focus, new resting state)

Or T = T(new awareness, masculine principle, feminine principle)

We are constantly swimming in that basic creation space of emptiness. So transformation is basically becoming aware of and activating different patterns in the template. That's where new awareness comes in. It is the process of being open to new things, new realities. It causes conscious awareness to become softer, more malleable, and therefore more able to sail within the sea of awareness that is the emptiness.

It is guided by a very light intention, almost an idle curiosity. Anything stronger than that will cause the frictional push and pull factors in equation 2 to kick in. So we wipe the template clean temporarily, and then engage the search for new resonance. The intention is the masculine principle.

As we become aware of it, we allow ourselves to resonate with it, allowing it to permeate every aspect of our awareness and transforming any countervailing frictional pull factors. So we basically become a new person.

T itself is dependent on quieting push-pull factors enough so that the conscious awareness can at least gain temporary freedom. That is what is meant by "new awareness".

Does that make sense? This equation is pretty crucial.

You see that the three factors affecting T need to be constantly balanced. We are opening up and softening conscious awareness, but need the masculine principle in the form of some kind of intention to drive the vehicle, yet using the feminine principle to create the awareness, the receptivity to new realities, and the ability to slide into them. It is the feminine principle that automates the process once it is all complete. The masculine principle is based on attention, and so is draining to use all the time, although that is how traditional manifestation is taught.

You could almost say that new awareness itself is a combination of the right balance of masculine and feminine factors. So the equation is more accurately written:

T = T(new awareness)

T = T(masculine principle, feminine principle); New awareness being a function of the balanced use of masculine and feminine

YF:

Ok. Anyway, go on. From that, I could see what you were onto.

Aspects of the EQ Equation

Kaye:

This is the grandest version of manifestation I have cared to outline so far. So it is a pretty big step. I have not seriously talked about the topic since 2005 It's only because of the recent events in my life that I've had reason to re-examine the topic. And interestingly enough, much detail has filled in over the years.

The mechanical part is largely over. What remains is to paint in the EQ details. Once that is done then the structural part of the model is done.

I have described EQ so far as being push-pull factors, but different people have coded it differently. Lester Levenson of the Sedona Method, could have been said to have formulated the equation thus:

EQ = EQ(wanting control, wanting approval, wanting survival)

It gives you some insight into the nature of conscious awareness. Because if you look at each push-pull factor closely, it is really a facade expressing one of these three wants.

This is the master list of insecurities, if you like. All push-pull factors have to do with insecurities.

Or incoherent desires. So to continue an earlier example, if you want a relationship but somehow believe that it will cause problems with your family, the wanting approval from the family becomes a countervailing energy. And you will find with some experimentation that all countervailing energies are premised on one of those three wants.

YF:

Go on.

Kaye:

Right then. I have 2 more versions of EQ to go through, and then we're on the mechanics.

The first is by Gay Hendricks, and second is my own. Neither is really better, but each highlights the issue from a slightly different perspective.

Hendricks' version of the equation would be something like this:

EQ = EQ(feeling fundamentally flawed, disloyalty and abandonment, viewing success of manifestation as an additional burden, fear of outshining someone else)

Four factors:

Fundamentally flawed basically relates to beliefs around deserving and capability.

Disloyalty and abandonment has to do with upholding a history or a past. It has to do with an innate reluctance to make a clean break with history. An object at rest tends to stay at rest, so to speak.

Additional burdens of success, whether on you or others, will also create pull factors. This has to do with perception, not what actually is, since that is what is being created and sustained in conscious awareness.

Fear of outshining has to do with guilt.

You can take the same example I gave, about relationships and family, and you will see that factor 2 on disloyalty and abandonment will feature in it. Possibly factor 3 on additional burdens features as well. The other factors may be in the background, but may not be immediately clear.

Do you see how viewing it through multiple lenses adds perspective to it?

YF:

Yep. Not the typical economist route, which aims at simplifying the model as much as possible to the main factors, but more of a scientific approach to try to encorporate all the factors.

Kaye:

My approach has always been to attempt to globalise factors, but I don't think it is the case in this situation. I'm just giving several different snapshots of the same thing. My own version of the EQ equation is much more elegant, if I do say so myself.

YF:

Globalise? What does that mean in this context?

Kaye:

I usually attempt to cover everything there is to cover, as you said of the scientific approach.

YF:

EQ=EQ(fear)

Kaye:

Very close.

EQ = EQ (sense of inadequacy)

Even the fear is an effect. I am gunning for the cause. And the cause is this: you can only create all the push-pull factors, including fear, if you have a sense of inadequacy.

There is a higher order version of this:

EQ = EQ(ego identity)

If there is no identity, no sense of self to be threatened, inadequacy can never develop,

and that bypasses all of it.

The Paradox of Manifestation and The Pure X Sub-Equation

YF:

Here's another question along the same lines - would manifestation occur if there was no sense of inadequecy, if someone saw no need to better himself? If you were perfect, why manifest?

Kaye:

Exactly. There you have a paradox. Your powers of manifestation are at their heights when you have no particular desperation or even preference around manifesting. And that is why people fail.

That is also why I have not touched the manifestation issue for so long. It becomes a non-issue.

However, I do have an answer to your question.

You manifest out of sheer volition.

We come on to the lesser equations:

Pure X = X in normal form - desperation/fear/inadequacy

X is an attractive factor, a drawing towards a particular reality.

So X could be, amongst other things: desire, attraction, passion, admiration, appreciation, enjoyment

It flies in the face of traditional motivational theory. The carrot and the stick both don't work in manifestative phenomena because both rely on inadequacy factors. The stick relies on pain avoidance, creating pull drag. The carrot relies on trying to get something that you don't have now, which creates push drag.

It really is quite a liberating thing, because it says the ultimate manifester manifests because he truly is attracted by something, but does not need it, and is unattached to whether it comes to pass or not.

Lester Levenson would call this the state of hootlessness - where you don't give a hoot. And he was notorious for having things just happen for him. Life literally landed on his lap. Never had to work a day of it.

YF:

I know that theory. With regards to relationships, when you really want something, you try really hard, but end up barking up a tree. You're the most attractive when you're trying not to impress i.e. when you're not interested at all and are completely natural

When trying to attract, one immediately becomes less attractive himself/herself

Kaye:

That's an expression of what we are describing, yes. Although I am coming at this from a spiritual/metaphysical angle, it also works at the physical level.

YF:

Yep.

Hootlessness and The Optimisation Equation

Kaye:

I think this is a more sensible framework to see the whole process within.

Of course, the experience of it is completely different. What we have seen so far is really the cold-blooded version of it. I have come as close to creating structural equations for the process as possible, I think, without making it unnecessarily rigid.

So I have a couple more things to throw out regarding the push-pull factors, if you would?

YF:

Go on.

Kaye:

We are onto the "lesser" equations. Lesser not in the sense that they are smaller, but lesser in that they have multiple interpretations.

What we looked at earlier was the immutable, the structure, except, of course for the Pure X equation. As we move closer to experience, we have different labels for the impulsive forces.

So we are forced to become a lot more flexible, and accept the fact that it is impossible to quantify all the lesser factors.

There are simply too many permutations. The lesser equations have to do with the transformation equation and also the EQ equation.

In reality, we do not always walk around in states of hootlessness. In fact, we often do give a hoot. That's what starts the whole process of manifestation.

So, it is then a process of refining our vibration so that it becomes hootless. The lesser equations are about this refinement. And we may ultimately find that in the refinement we didn't really want what we wished for. It is the push-pull thing that curses when we get what we wish for, because we find that it is so incongruent with our inadequacies that we often wish we hadn't gotten it.

Mostly, fortunately enough, this does not happen. The universe only reacts to true manifestations, on balance.

So we begin by examining the impulse.

Optimisation of the attractive impulse X, O = O(resonance increasing factors)

Where O = increasing the navigator function of conscious awareness in the sea of awareness

Resonance factors basically involve sympathetic resonance with the desired reality. They are basically the same list as X: desire, appreciation, attraction, admiration, etc.

All the equation says is, if you wish to optimise your attractive impulse of your desired reality, enjoy it more!

Or, you could also say that using all the factors of X increases the likelihood of locating it in the sea of awareness.

Some people actually start by running away from something, which is to say that X is completely zero. They just would rather be anywhere than where they are. You end up with being nowhere, because there is no directing attraction, really. The result is the mish-mash of messy factors in the masculine and feminine forces involved.

YF:

Makes sense.

Push/Pull Neutralisation Equations

Kaye:

Okay we'll continue then. I want to cover the neutralising strategies of push and pull.

From this point I am going to carry on more in the vein of my personal experience, because pure objectivity isn't going to help much.

In terms of optimising the X factor, even to use that equation, or perhaps even to be aware of it, is in itself a push factor. That's because we are at some level still attempting to manipulate the universe. So we are talking about neutralising the drag from the push and pull factors.

You can say there are local and global strategies for neutralising these factors. Local strategies only neutralise specific inadequacies in specific forms. Global strategies take a wipe-out approach and basically clean the slate.

If we talk about local strategies we could plumb the depths of my 15 years in the field, so we'll stick to global.

The global neutralisation equation for pull factors is as follows:

Npull = Npull(Acceptance/Release/Hopelessness)

I use / because those are really facets of the same thing.

Acceptance of reality as it is will neutralise all pull factors, and actually all push factors as well.

Letting go of wanting to create change will do the same.

Hopelessness is a weaker form, but one I advocate quite a bit. It says to lose any hope of fighting reality, and so to accept it.

You could reduce all that to

Npull = Npull(Peace)

So really, finding inner peace is the end of suffering. This could be said to be the root aim of Buddhism. It also happens to be easiest way to automatically cut through all the hidden automated blocks, thus enabling access to the wider sea of awareness.

Questions?

YF:

One question which springs to mind is when you're formulating your equations, to what purpose are you doing it?

Because that would affect the end result.

Kaye:

The equations cannot be used in the way you would use scientific equations. They are meant as pacemakers than anything else. Ultimately everyone has to come up with what works best for them, but they highlight the pitfalls. One particular problem plaguing the industry is the use of methods with no regard to push and pull factors, and so a lot of methods, even though useable if you knew about them, create wildly different results between people.

Shall I move on to pull?

YF:

Yep

Kaye:

Pull is interesting. In a sense, it would be neutralised by the exact same factors as push.

In fact, I think I will use the same equation and express it as

Npush = Npull = N(Peace)

The Resonance Equation and Enjoyment

Kaye:

However, there is one other aspect to this.

We can consider it the resonance factor.

Resonance, R = R(enjoyment)

You could say this is the same as X, but it is slightly different. X has to do with what you find attractive in the desired manifestation. Resonance is the same quality, only you find it in yourself.

In other words, you enjoy the very qualities you find attractive in the desired reality without waiting for it to manifest. The Buddhists would call this the enjoyment body, sambhogakaya. To not allow yourself to experience this enjoyment or bliss would in itself be a push factor, because you push or lock it away into the desired manifestation, imagining that you will receive it when it is attained.

However, it is the very lack of resonance that hinders the manifestation, as it lowers the energetic attraction.

YF:

Yep. My advice to ppl who are feeling down: "follow the fun".

Kaye:

"Follow your bliss" is another apt description, because passion is also an X factor.

YF:

Which is basically acknowledging the enjoyment of certain things.

Kaye:

Ah the key here is enjoyment for the sake of enjoyment.

YF:

Yep

Kaye:

It is like saying you don't have to own a garden to smell the flowers.

Everything else in manifestation is a strategy operating on these basic grounds. It has parallels in mind-programming, manifestation, laws of attraction, quantum physics, you name it.

Even the deity invocation is a strategy.

You basically place your identity in something else, so it is easier to create detachment.

YF:

Sometimes the universe will just pass those things which you enjoy your way, and without being receptive to those gifts, the gifts will just float on by without ever having been appreciated or taken advantage of to lead onto better opportunities (...which is basically the premise of The Alchemist)

Kaye:

Yes, you can see it as a perceptual theory as well. You see only what you are ready to see.

Manifestation Series Part 12: The Laws of Energy and Conscious Awareness

Time to move this series back to basics. Let's cover what actually makes manifestation possible. In other words, let's talk about energy and conscious awareness. They are:

1. Energy follows conscious awareness. This is far more subtle than the idea that energy follows thought, or energy follows attention. Yes, both are true, but I think my version is more complete. Thought is not the only thing that directs energy. It is a form of projection of conscious awareness. Attention is likewise a director of energy, but so is unconscious attention. Conscious attention is a masculine principle thing, mostly. Unconscious attention is a feminine principle thing. So although "energy follows attention" is an acceptable proposition, it is insufficiently clear.

2. Where energy flows, manifestation follows. Yes, it is ultimately true. It manifests because like energy has the property of attracting like energy. There is no push energy, really. It is all pull. However, some manifestations do not occur because other people and other forms of conscious awareness are manifesting in the opposite direction. Even if you attained a completely pure resonance, you would still be subject to the limitations of others. Unless, of course, you employ the third law.

3. Your energy flow is impacted by others only to the extent to which the energy pattern you weave and the energies you use are locked in the same paradigm as theirs. In other words, when with the sheep, you are forced to do as sheep do. If you carry a hammer, you run the risk of dropping it on your toe. If you want to avoid a hammer on your toe, avoid hammers! If you want to be immune to certain energetic effects, then don't use the energies which are linked to them. Energies are a package deal. They have certain properties. Take one, take them all. How to avoid them?

4. Within the emptiness of the sea of awareness, immunity to individual energies develop. In the sea of awareness, the conscious awareness is not attached to energies, so a certain immunity develops. It does not mean complete immunity develops. It just means that there is less impact.

5. To develop complete immunity, develop complete anchoring in the energy patterns of your choice. In other words, anchor your conscious awareness in the patterns that produce the characteristics you desire.

6. Conscious awareness can only pull, not push. Mentioned above, but here it is again as a law. Conscious awareness is attractive by nature. So where it flows, it will attract similar energies. It cannot repel, except by anchoring into a a paradigm where an energy cannot exist.

Manifestation Series Part 11: First Develop Hootlessness

Lester Levenson used to say to develop hootlessness. Things happen when you don't give a hoot. It makes sense in the structure outlined in this series. Basically when you don't give a hoot the push and pull forces no longer have any impact on you, and thus you are free to resonate fully.

I would suggest hootlessness begins with hopelessness. Lose all hope that you can affect reality one way or another. Accept it fully as it is. And I don't mean a sneaky kind of acceptance, a type that says, "Oh, if I give you this, you will give me manifestative ability." That doesn't work. As I've said before, God doesn't respond to Disney eyes. Neither does he respond to deal brokering. But give up hope, and suddenly not giving a hoot becomes easier.

The thing to develop after hootlessness is the enjoyment body. As we gain facility with a new level of flexibility in conscious awareness, we can tune into and enjoy energies without putting conditions on the physical environment. As we resonate more fully with these energies and allow them to settle into our field, we naturally engage the Law of Creation, and expand our hidden potential to create all this. So hopelessness is the base. Upon that, we develop hootlessness. And from hootlessness we develop courage. This is not courage that comes from fake bravado, but because we are genuinely not threatened. And with this comes the beauty of life's energy.

First develop hootlesness, then develop enjoyment. We've forgotten to enjoy ourselves. Even faith and trust are secondary to enjoyment. You will also see that appreciation arises from enjoyment, and gratitude from appreciation. And thus a whole list of positive resonance factors are invoked.

Manifestation Series Part 10: Observe the Purity of Intention

Source/copyright: Wikimedia, Daniel Schwen

It may seem odd to touch on this topic so late in the day, but in the context of what has been given, it will perhaps be clearer. I intend to keep this one brief, but the depths of this topic cannot be underestimated.

Basically, the purity of intentions affects the effectiveness of manifestation. There are two basic factors affecting purity of intention: Push and Pull. Why are these important? Because they will impact the effectiveness of the use of the twin laws of Creation and Attraction.

Firstly, intentions should arise out of pure volition i.e. pure desire, not those tainted by an unconscious desire to avoid something. This means were are attracted to a manifestation purely because of the beauty of the experience, not because of the beauty of the experience in comparison to something else. We are not unconsciously going, "Oh, if only this would happen, then I would not have to deal with ..." That is avoidance, and it has the Pull factor in it. Unfortunately, Pull energy is based fundamentally in inadequacy, which will attract countervailing energies to sabotage you. There is a hidden sense of fear or desperation to it. These are the locks talked about earlier which are tainting the manifestation. See earlier posts in this series. We are basically attempting to pull something in to avoid something else.

The Push factor has to do with impatience. It has to do with residing more in the physical world of phenomena than in the spiritual world of instant creation. If we were in perfect harmony with the energies, there would be no push. We would expect it, but not need it, so there is no struggle. Even when we eliminate Pull factors, there may remain a vague sense of uncertainty, of not knowing whether things will come. We are measuring our success by the manifestation in the phenomenal world. By this very act, the energies are pushed away. The impatience manifests the hidden uncertainty, and lack of trust and faith energies. So when facing this, release the impatience and allow yourself to experience the feelings you think you would experience if the intention manifested. You are pushing and postponing these feelings into the future, thinking erroneously somehow that they cannot be accessed right now. That is the essence of the push factor, and what creates that uncertainty. Trust, and have faith.

Manifestation Series Part 9: The Key to the Great Lock of Inadequacy

Source/copyright: Wikimedia; Gryffindor

In my blog, I have already detailed the fact that the resting state of our individual conscious awareness' is the pattern which determines the limit of our potential to manifest. This is, if you like, the blueprint. If it is not changed, then even if strides are made in the direction of our manifestative desires, it will resettle in the old pattern, just as if there were a magnetising force bringing everything back into order, albeit an undesired order. This is the effect of the basic harmony energy of the universe (there are three - the wisdom energy, the Light energy and the harmony energy).

Identifying the blocks of this pattern, or in other words identifying the limits of one's potential, is probably the trickiest thing to do in the whole manifestative process. It requires honesty and courage - the honesty to see that you may be holding yourself back, even when you desperately wish you were right; the courage to conquer the fear patterns which are also emitted by the magnetic potential properties to drag you back the further you explore outside the current potential.

Various people have come up with various models for identifying blocks. Some are useful, some are not. I've come up with many of my own over the years. Doubtless as you explore your psyche you will notice some that may not fit the grander pattern.

The Sedona Method formulation of the magnetic locks, in equation form:

Sedona Block, B1 = B1(wanting control, wanting approval, wanting survival)

In other words, the hidden limits of the potential, or the Upper Limit Problem created by a given magnetic identity, is determined by a combination of those three things.

The Hendricks version, a la The Big Leap, could be summarised as:

Hendricks Block, B2 = B2(belief in lack of capability/deservingness, disloyalty and abandonment of past and lineage (own and others), believing greater success brings a greater burden to self and others, not wanting to outshine)

In my preference for grand underlying schemes, a carry over from my youth, my version of the block is this:

Grand Block, B3 = B3(sense of inadequacy)

If you look at all the other blocks in any other system, you will eventually see that it boils down to some form of inadequacy.

So how do you find these blocks? Study the Sedona Method or The Big Leap, or even The Work of Byron Katie. All good areas to start. Also study the Feeling Exercise of Arnold Patent. All use different tracking devices, but the essence of all these methods is to track feelings of non-harmony. It is the dissonance that arises when you go counter to the particular manifestation of harmony energies held in your awareness that causes discomfort, anger, fear, retaliation. The harmony energies is probably the most hands-on of the three basic energies, and the ordering nature is what keeps people in their place. That's great for most living, but it also means that if we do not know how to change it, then we are stuck! From a non-esoteric level, let your feelings be your guide.

A simple block tracking technique in the tradition of the masculine principle: Visualise what you desire, right now, and notice what comes up.

1. Did your visualisation lack clarity?
- Check the clarity of your intention.
- Check how well you have thought this through, especially what the successful manifestation will mean to your life and what changes will happen - to you and those around you.

2. Were you in harmony with the visualisation?
- Check how comfortable you were - if not, seek out the source of discomfort, for therein lies a lock.
- Check how congruent you were - is your life ready for this right now? If not, you may be in harmony with this, but mentally putting it on hold whilst waiting for another aspect of your life to manifest.

3. How naturally did the visualisation appear?
- Even if it were in harmony, if it did not come smoothly, it may be foreign to your energy field. Then it is a matter of stretching towards it so it is manifested. This is where it is within the field of potential, but not being activated.

The automatic release of blocks and natural attraction (a feminine principle approach):

Relax and smooth out the bumps in your awareness. Enter the state of emptiness, which is the nullification of all illusory blocks and the ultimate freeing of awareness. The emptiness naturally nullifies all thought blocks and links to limited awareness. (A master once said that meaning of the great mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum, means "enter into the emptiness, and within that discover your true self, and from that abundance follows". That is exactly what this technique accomplishes.)

Using the lightest of intentions in the sea of awareness, discover the reality of perfect harmony which you desire and are attracted to. Allow it to perfume and colour your awareness, and settle gently down into it. Allow your awareness reside in it, even as it resides and embeds itself in you. Allow this reality to re-order the nature of your energy field, and become the new blueprint. The key here is to allow. Keep your awareness very humble, very light, very malleable and very open. The key is to surrender to this new reality. The more force is being used in your intention, i.e. the harder you try to superglue it into your awareness, the more of the masculine principle is being used in the design, which takes far more energy to maintain. Far wiser to use the feminine, which will automate the harmony energies on your behalf. As you come back to waking awareness, allow this energy to reside and grow freely. Raise the levels of faith and trust energies in your system, and it will do so.

Thus the great lock is not attacked, for in attacking it it grows stronger, but completely bypassed, in the tradition of mastery.

P/S: I have not gone into it, but the Light aspect of the energies has the power to burn locks too.

Manifestation Series Part 8: The Resonance Principle

I've been harping on about the feminine principle, so here is something on the masculine principle. The ultimate masculine manifestation technique is one that basically involves the use of such intense power and energy that it sweeps through every part of the mind uniformly, transmuting and transforming everything in its path.

The method of doing this is quite simple. Simply invoke the appropriate energies/image to be manifested, and then use a 4-4 breath i.e. a 4 count inhale and a 4 count exhale to increase the attention and absorption. The inhale should expand the lungs upwards and outwards and the exhale should do the opposite. This has an interesting energising impact on the body. I suspect, but have yet to prove, that done correctly this creates gamma brainwaves, which also are the most penetrative of the brainwaves.

Given enough resonating at this pure level, the remnants of energies will begin to align and start to be coloured by this. However, on experimenting with this, I find that immediately after, one's mind descends into quiet, not unlike the quiet after imagestreaming, which makes me suspect the mind transitions to delta immediately after. This is most startling, for it says that at the height of the masculine principle is again the feminine principle, and the energy resonance ultimately has to enter a feminine form to sink in and sustain itself. Thus, it stands to reason that although the masculine principle can sweep up the blocks temporarily, it is dependent on the feminine energies to permanently transform. And the feminine energy template basically creates the limit of potential for a given energy form, what Hendricks calls the Upper Limit Problem.