Weekly Success Tip

Last week, we discussed that Success has nothing to do with what you do, but how you do it! Your Ultimate Path is in the pursuit of perfection and full concentration in whatever you are doing now, a technique known as Karmayoga.

All the greatest sages, enlightened beings and meditation masters had one thing in common, regardless of the age and culture they lived in: they treated their whole life as a work of art.

Regardless of the life path and lifestyle you choose, you can make it a work of art. You do not need to be an artist in the traditional sense of the word. You can be anything: a road sweeper, a salesman, a painter, a computer operator, a miner, an entrepreneur, a nursing mother, a banker or a cook... or any other occupation whatsoever.

You will find that only by making your life a work of art will it be truly satisfying. If you miss this point, you may miss the whole thing.

In India, this way of life is known as Karmayoga. Yoga means to integrate with your highest essence. Karma means actions. So Karmayoga means to use actions as the way to integrate with your highest essence or consciousness.

To enter into higher states and to bring out the whole potential of your mind, you have to strengthen everything, particularly your will. A weak will is a useless tool. It will, in fact, drag you down to a very paltry experience of life.

There are two ways to strengthen your will power. The first is through traditional internal meditation, which you can learn from a competent teacher, and secondly, through the activity of Karmayoga.

For our purposes, Karmayoga is described as follows:

The unbroken concentration in the present, through the actions that you are taking.

It does not matter how mundane the actions are, anything is appropriate: cooking, driving the car, exercising, cleaning, getting dressed, playing with the kids, brushing your teeth or having a shower. You can choose any activity whatsoever as long as it involves physical actions. Thought and image based activities are not appropriate for this exercise. The simpler the action, the better, when you are starting.

All you do is concentrate on the physical actions of your chosen activity to the exclusion of all else. This means you do not pay attention to thoughts or other external events and circumstances. So, if you are cooking you do not think 'I am picking up a carrot and cutting it with a knife' or anything at all. These thoughts may flash into your mind, but you observe and let them go, you do not get involved or lost in the thoughts. You merely continue to concentrate on the physical actions.

If you are cooking put all your attention into your hands. Really feel the food in your hand, the pressure of the knife and plates as you pick them up. Watch what is happening, feel the water as you rinse the vegetables, concentrating only on what you are doing. Do not have the radio or any music playing. Do not enter into conversation with anyone else. Let nothing distract you. Do this for at least fifteen minutes.

If you are doing something else which takes a shorter time, such as getting dressed, then merely use the normal time that it takes. Do not extend it unnecessarily. The key to the whole thing is to continue to pay attention to the actions you are taking to the exclusion of all else. Obviously if an emergency arises, then you behave as you normally would. Otherwise avoid all other things which would normally distract you.

You may wish to inform those you live with what you are doing or do this exercise when they are not around.

It is really very simple, but you will be amazed at just how much your mind grabs and fights for your attention. Some people misunderstand what this technique is. They believe it is something to do with stopping your mind or stopping thinking. It is not; it is to do with transcending the thinking mind. You can't stop the mind; you can only rise above it. Don't waste your time trying to stop thoughts. Just pay attention to something other than your thoughts, i.e. the actions you are taking with your chosen activity.

Life is about concentrated attention. What you concentrate on grows.

If you can repeat this process regularly, you'll be in for some unexpected surprises and vastly increased personal power.