Power within Thoughts - Part I
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)
Imagination is that vibrant, magnetic doorway with in man's subtler being to vast creative realms. To which, if we are sensitive and receptive, through listening-in can speak and lead us unerringly to seek and fulfill our higher purposes.
It is truly awesome when one thinks of the myriad fascinating sensing faculties that God has built within each of us, awaiting discovery, development and focus toward higher calling. Our imagining faculty can be defined as a process by which we create mental pictures in our mind's eye. In fact , the process by which we envision and formulate goals within, long before they are actually achieved, is the play of our controlled imagination.
Our entire thought processes and feelings are in fact a series of photographic images which flow through the mind. As you read these ideas, images are formed in your mind. All that we do, say, read, write, dream or feel, evolve as thoughts in the mind. Thoughts form mental pictures on our inner screens. We produce and direct the pictures that run through our mind. These pictures govern our attitudes and performance. The ability to choose, control and discipline one's imagination positively is our greatest creative power.
One truth that I've come upon, is to keep uppermost in consciousness a vivid picture of circumstances as you actually want them to be. We often do just the reverse.
Imagination is that magical theater with in your inner space where you can fashion, mould and bring alive your grander dreams. Even as Van Gogh first set alight the creative spark from deep with in as an intangible thought and let this feeling envelop and flow through him till it became a flaming need, that he could give it tangible, visible expression as dazzling sunflowers or breathtaking irises.
Or bring to mind the stupendous magnitude of the mission within the inspired physicist Stephen Hawking, who, in spite of a crippling nerve disorder, continues to unravel the mysteries of our universe, though permanently confined to special wheel chair.
Or remember Thomas Edison who, when young, was removed from school, his teacher pronouncing he had an addled brain. Much later, this mind converted ten thousand experiments into the birth of incandescent lamp.
Or Beethoven who transmuted deafness into grand symphonies which transport many into flights of sheer rapture.
Through time, inventors, scientists, captains of industry, explorers, artists, philosophers, poets and the common man have at some point in their lives become inspired with an ideal, and have fine tuned it into a higher plane of consciousness, by holding steadfast to their vision. They were guided and graced in time, to present humanity with great works, which have illumined the hearts of many down the centuries. Positively such achievers applied the wise counsel of Victor Hugo's famed words "Nothing is powerful than an idea whose time has come." The work of such achievers always live on as a grand testimony and tribute for generations to awaken in their hearts even some part of that indomitable missionary frontier zeal and fiery spirit which dared reach for even the sun.
What factors influenced their minds to become magnetized toward an all consuming ideal? Do beings of such stature breathe a different air, pray to another God? or does thicker blood course through their veins? What gave the gumption, strength of character and enthusiasm to press on and convert setbacks into great opportunities? And transform near impossible odds into platforms for higher accomplishment.
It was Thomas Carlyle who said that, "Obstacles in the pathway of the weak becoming stepping stones on the pathway of the strong." Here one is reminded of the oyster in the ocean depths who silently transforms pain, through effort, when a grain of sand enters into a lustrous pearl. Or when miniscule ants go on to build towering structures many times their size. Or the industrious bee who engineers quite ingeniously intricate honeycombs. Never do oysters, ants or bees, ever attend any advanced training courses of seminars to perfect the work they do.
While all our traits come inbuilt within each of our unique DNA codes, I believe that a positively primed imagination dynamic will and the latent power within the subconscious when awakened, hold a major part of the answers to the earlier questions raised. Yet the greater part of the answers by far will reveal that such achievers have that certain ability to channel into a higher power source by becoming attuned and receptive to the creative cosmic energy. And allowing its free flow through their entire being.
Take for instance the brilliant French Chemist Dr.Emile Coue who, in 1910, shook the world when he said that, " When the will and imagination are in conflict it is always the imagination that wins." Here is a simple example to vividly portray the upper hand of imagination which enables it to overrule will power. If asked to walk across a bridge, you would do so easily enough. But if asked to walk in a narrow twelve inch beam, forty feet high, stretched across two buildings the answer would be different. As even if your will power may urge you to take on the challenge should your imagination visualize or picture you falling, then despite the promptings from your will, you will not even attempt that walk. How clearly this illustrates Dr.Coue's valuable finding. Virtually everything you do is a result of the thought image, held in mind before attempting it.
Along with your will, had you formulated a clear image of your successful unencumbered walk across, then you would have surely succeeded. When the forces of dynamic will and positive imagination coincide, as one in harmony, you generate tremendous power, culminating in peak performance, consistently.
Just think about the fact, that no matter what your circumstances, the manner in which you think and react to them within, is an intangible area, over which you can exercise total control. To my mind this will always be the mightiest lever which professionals can further hone.
The quality of picture images that we choose to paint and run within the deeper recesses of our minds, is the actual software source from which originate the blueprint that later actualize into experiences in the external world. Our outer experiences are only a reflection of what we habitually develop and hold firm within. You are the producer, director and actor of the pictures that run through the mind. All inner thoughts, which are in fact causes, mature and transform into outer effects of what we know as circumstances. Effects always have have root centers embedded in a cause. Thomas Carlyle put it aptly when he said, "Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstances, say that man is the architect of circumstances."
For professionals to achieve outstanding success in the upper echelons in any field of human endeavor, it is imperative to first tap the incredible dormant creative energy forces within the subconscious. Today, a thorough understanding of the creative power and the laws which govern its smooth operation will enable professionals to blaze trails of an altogether new awareness. And spur teams in fulfilling corporate needs head on, with added dynamic impact and enhanced effectiveness. As Emerson said, "Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is triumph of enthusiasm."
When the imagination is trained with belief, desire and heightened expectancy, where you can visualize and feel your goals as if they had already materialised, then you will attain your objective. Two outstanding illustrations are found in the stories of Alexander the Great, and Napoleon Bonaparte. In Alexander's day an oracle proclaimed that whoever unloosened the Gordian Knot would rule all Asia. Many tried the conventional way, but to no avail. Alexander with one stroke of his sword cut the knot, and rose to great power. Napoleon when a child was given a star sapphire, with the prophecy that it would make him emperor of France. The power of repeated suggestion and the courage to act on your convictions are formidable forces within us, that lead to accomplishment.
The only limitations in our minds, are the blocks that we see there. The single biggest damper to the creative flow of ideas is the negative thought pattern of fear. To overcome this irrational feeling, using the 'as if' principle is of inestimable value. To activate this dynamic principle, act 'as if' you already are so, and you will become exactly that. Theodore Roosevelt once said, "There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, But by acting as if I was not afraid, I gradually ceased to be afraid."
The surest method to overcome fear is to go ahead and do the very thing you fear, and you will have conquered it. Woodrow Wilson was so right in stating " We have nothing to fear, but the feeling of fear itself." Fear is a negative picture image in the mind. If you switch the negative with a more positive picture, you can eliminate fear.
Our world is propelled harmoniously by exacting natural laws. There are laws governing the flow of atoms, photons and waves.We have laws that govern physics and mathematics. The mind also operates on incredibly exacting, scientific laws.
Try focusing on the following thoughts and principles. The first is that nothing in our world is more magnetic, more powerful than an intensified, focused thought. A single clarified thought from your mind contains within it unsurpassed power when linked to a specific purpose. Thought is the fountainhead from which all the higher powers of your mind flow. We all are the direct result of a thought. We relate to everything on our planet through thoughts.You cannot so much as have a feeling, without first having a thought. Thoughts are much more than something that you do. Thought is in fact 'who' and 'what' you are. Just try not thinking for a while and you will see that thought is something we are inextricably linked to. It is not what is in the world that determines the quality of our lives, but how we choose to process our world via our thoughts. Our circumstances only reveal the kind of images we have chosen until now. The mind stores away all the images that we elect. All knowledge and thoughts achieve dynamic impact when acted upon.
This is where thoughts get converted into 'things'. How fascinating to realize that all things have to be first accomplished within our minds . For a moment, if you put aside the planets, the oceans of all nature, then whatever else is left in our world will be as a direct result of thoughts from our minds. So astounding is the power within thoughts, I like the way Sir James Jeans put it, " The universe begins to look more like a great thought, than a great machine." Benjamin Disraeli's stirring message to us was ,"Nurture great thoughts, for you will never go higher than your thoughts." And Shakespeare sums it so aptly, " There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
The second thought concerns the visible world of form, and the invisible world of the formless. Think about our eyes, which even when wide open, can only see up to a limited extent. If you, at this moment, covered your eyes with your palm, you would be unable to continue reading this article. And yet with our eyes shut during sleep, we perceive things so clearly through our inner vision. Look at the gigantic forces in electricity, gravity or sound waves, all of which go undetected by the human eye, only because they are vibrating at rapid frequencies faster than visible light.
( To be Concluded..., )
This is a Three part series written by Cyrus. The writer is a consultant in motivation and creative imagination, Pune.