Why do we suffer pain by recreating it moment to moment?

Thought creates energy. If thought is negative, then energy is negative and that creates pain. A hurt body looks at the world through pain. A hurt body will try its best to sustain pain. It is a matter of survival. So, it loves to attract pain and sustain pain. It will use logic to protect it. Look at unhappy people. They will convince you to be miserable.

All that you can do is to create a bliss body in you. There are five layers in you: the physical body, the pranic body, the breath body, the mental body, the intellectual body and the bliss body.

All these layers in us have energies. It is in potential form. Just as there is latent fire in wood and by rubbing the wood it is invoked. In the same way you have to awaken the physical body through exercise, yoga, dance and a balanced diet. Keep the body alive and enthusiastic. You will then kindle a happy energy through the body.

The pranic or breath body has to be awakened. Breathe deeply by doing pranayama and find a different kind of joy surfacing in you. Shallow breathing creates lower energy field while deep breathing enhances one’s aliveness. The mental body can be awakened if you keep your mind calm. A calm mind has a different joy; a noisy mind is an avenue for energy leakage. When your intellect is open and receptive, yet another dimension of blissful energy arises. One who is open and receptive is always learning. That’s why children learn very fast. In deep sleep, the bliss body opens up naturally. In the waking state, if one is committed to be happy and learns to look at life as a celebration, the bliss centre will be awakened.

The Right (and Left) Stuff

"Our brains are extraordinary. Yet for all the brain’s complexity,its broad topography is simple and symmetrical. Scientists have long known that a neurological Mason-Dixon Line divides the brain into two regions.And until surprisingly recently,the scientific establishment considered the two regions separate but unequal.The left side,the theory went,was the crucial half,the half that made us human. The right side was subsidiary — the remnant,some argued,of an earlier stage of development. The left hemisphere was rational,analytic and logical. The right hemisphere was mute,nonlinear and instinctive — a vestige that nature had designed for a purpose that humans had outgrown.

This view prevailed for much of the next century —until a soft-spoken Caltech professor named Robert W.Sperry reshaped our understanding of our brains and ourselves. In the late 1950s,Sperry studied patients who had epileptic seizures that had required removal of the corpus callosum,the thick bundle of some 300 million nerve fibers that connects the brain’s two hemispheres.In a set of experiments on these “split-brain”patients,Sperry discovered that the established view was flawed.Yes,our brains were divided into two halves. But as he put it,“The so-called subordinate or minor hemisphere,which we had formerly supposed to be illiterate and mentally retarded and thought by some authorities to not even be conscious,was found to be in fact the superior cerebral member when it came to performing certain kinds of mental tasks.”In other words,the right wasn’t inferior to the left. It was just different.

Thanks to Sperry’s pioneering research and the advent of technologies like the fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) that allow researchers to watch the brain in action,the right hemisphere today has achieved a measure of legitimacy. It’s real. It’s important. It helps make us human. No neuroscientist worth his or her Ph.D. ever disputes that. Yet beyond the neuro-science labs and brain-imaging clinics,two misconceptions about the right side of the brain persist."

A Whole New Mind - Introduction

"The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind — computer programmers who could crank code,lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind — creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people — artists,inventors,designers,storytellers,care-givers,consolers,big-picture thinkers — will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.

There is a seismic — though as yet undetected — shift now under way in much of the advanced world. We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical,linear computer-like capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age. This summary is for anyone who wants to survive and thrive in this emerging world — people uneasy in their careers or dissatisfied with their lives,entrepreneurs and business leaders eager to stay ahead of the next wave,parents who want to equip their children for the future,and the legions of emotionally astute and creatively adroit people whose distinctive abilities the Information Age has often overlooked and undervalued.

Six Senses
There are six essential aptitudes—“the six senses”—on which professional success and personal satisfaction increasingly will depend:Design,Story,Symphony,Empathy,Play and Meaning. These are fundamentally human abilities that everyone can master.

A change of such magnitude is complex. But the argument at the heart of this summary is simple. For nearly a century,Western society in general,and American society in particular,has been dominated by a form of thinking and an approach to life that is narrowly reductive and deeply analytical. Ours has been the age of the “knowledge worker,”the well-educated manipulator of information and deployer of expertise. But that is changing.Thanks to an array of forces — material abundance that is deepening our non material yearnings, globalization that is shipping white-collar work overseas,and powerful technologies that are eliminating certain kinds of work altogether — we are entering a new age. It is an age animated by a different form of thinking and a new approach to life — one that prizes “high concept”and “high touch”aptitudes. High concept involves the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities,to create artistic and emotional beauty,to craft a satisfying narrative,and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new. High touch involves the ability to empathize with others,to understand the subtleties of human interaction,to find joyin one’s self and to elicit it in others,and to stretch beyond the quotidian in pursuit of purpose and meaning.

Two Hemispheres
There’s something that encapsulates the change —and it’s right inside your head. Our brains are divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere is sequential,logical and analytical. The right hemisphere is nonlinear,intuitive and holistic.

We enlist both halves of our brains for even the simplest tasks. But the well-established differences between the two hemispheres of the brain yield a powerful metaphor for interpreting our present and guiding our future. Today,the defining skills of the previous era — the “left brain”capabilities that powered the Information Age — are necessary but no longer sufficient. And the capabilities we once disdained or thought frivolous — the “right brain”qualities of inventiveness,empathy,joyfulness and meaning — increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders. For individuals,families and organizations,professional success and personal fulfillment now require a whole new mind."

'Megaliving' Introduction excerpts

...You can make your world the bed of roses that you have always dreamed of, the decision is yours alone. If you want this kind of a magical existence,the golden key is to remember that your mind is the sole author of your success. If you master your thoughts, you master your mind. Once you master your mind, you master your life and when you master your life you master your destiny.

Past experiences, failures or trouble spots have nothing to do with the potential that exists within you. If anything, past failure has made you far wiser and stronger than you would have been without the benefit of the experience. Pain is a teacher. Today, and every day, take complete charge and responsibility for your life and all that is in it. If you don’t have enough money and want more, decide to make changes and take determined action to realize your dreams. If you want better health and more energy, make a decision from your very core to achieve greater vitality. If you want ideal relationships, dedicate yourself to becoming the kind of person that sustains such bonds. But it will not just come to you by chance. If you keep doing the same things every day, you are certain to get the same results every day. Winners are no different from less successful people, they have just learned to do different things that give them their fabulous results.

... Small victories lead to large victories. Once you start feeling more vital and energetic, you will start achieving even more because you cannot do good unless you feel good. This leads to another primary principle of successful living:
we are happiest when we are growing and feeling that we are contributing in some way. The purpose of life is a life of purpose and we all, deep down,want to leave a legacy of some form or another. When you dedicate yourself to tapping into the extraordinary potential of your mind, body and spirit, you set powerful forces into play and things start to happen in every aspect of your life. And when you know that you are improving, your confidence and enthusiasm starts to blossom. And when your enthusiasm starts to blossom, your passion and energy blooms. And when your energy starts to explode you start to create opportunity after opportunity for success in your life. Perhaps the great philosopher of India, Patanjali said it best: “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds, your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in anew great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

The Power of Limitless Living

One of the most essential truths to recognize is the fact that the only limits on what we can achieve in life are those we create and place on ourselves. Circumstances are the creation of people and not the other way around. Peak performers, as opposed to the weak performers, have trained themselves to shape the events of their lives rather than being shaped by them. Think of the current limitations in your life, the obstacles preventing you from attaining your dreams and that state of bliss you so much desire. You have interpreted each one of these circumstances to be a roadblock or negative element in your life when this is not the case.

One of the most fundamental of all strategies for success is also one of the most simple: there is no such thing as a negative circumstance, only a circumstance that you may learn from. There are no mistakes in life, only lessons which will allow you to grow and advance higher on the path of self-mastery. If you set limits on yourself such as “I am too young to be a multi-millionaire,” “I am not smart enough to be a world leader,” “I am too lazy to start my own business”or, “I don’t have enough money to do this,” your spirit will slowly die and you will fulfill your negative prophecy. Stop being a prisoner of your past - become the architect of your future. Every event happens for a special purpose. Every problem is a special challenge from which we can learn and prosper to new heights of achievement. Every moment is perfect in nature, whether you realize it or not. If you recognize this age-old truth, you will accept every experience with gratitude and you will see the opportunity in every event, no matter how challenging it might appear initially. If you don’t understand this principle, you will never realize the wonderful destiny that is yours for the taking.

The mind has immeasurable and vast potential that remains untapped in most people. It has been said that even the best conditioned thinkers use only about 25% of their minds. What happened to the remaining 75%? Indian yogis living high up in the Himalayan mountains have disciplined their minds to the point where they can control their so-called involuntary processes such as their heartbeat, digestion and nervous functioning. These wise sages of the East have been dipping their fingers into the vast pool of mental potential for over 5000 years and have refined mastery of the mind into a science. Through a combination of meditative techniques and breath control these yogis are able to withstand enormous amounts of physical pain and go for extended periods without food or sleep. Such is the power within every one of us. Mothers whose children have fallen under cars have, in the heat of the moment, lifted the vehicle to save their little ones. Seventy-year-old men have run marathons and climbed mountains. There are simply no limits for a person who accepts no limits.

Joy - The Happiness that comes from Within

Foreword

Let me first tell you an anecdote:
"My doctor insisted that I come to see you," the patient told the psychiatrist. "Goodness knows why - I am happily married, secure in my job, lots of friends, no worries..."
"Hmmm," said the psychiatrist, reaching out for a notebook, "and how long have you been like this?"

Happiness is unbelievable. It seems that man cannot be happy. If you talk about your depression, sadness, misery, everybody believes it; it seems natural. If you talk about your happiness nobody believes you-it seems unnatural.

Sigmund Freud, after forty years of research into the human mind-working with thousands of people, observing thousands of disturbed minds-came to the conclusion that happiness is a fiction: Man cannot be happy. At the most, we can make things a little more comfortable, that's all. At the most we can reduce unhappiness a little, that's all, but happy? Man cannot be.

This sounds pessimistic...but if you look at humanity, it seems to be exactly the case; it seems to be a fact. Only human beings are unhappy. Something deep down has gone wrong.

I say this to you on my own authority: Human beings can be happy, more happy than the birds, more happy than the trees, more happy than the stars - because human beings have something that no tree, no bird, no star, has. They have consciousness.

But when you have consciousness, two alternatives are possible: Either you can become happy or you can become unhappy. Then it is your choice.

Your Days Define Your Life

Big idea: Your days are your life in miniature. As you live your hours, so you create your years. As you live your days, so you craft your life. What you do today is actually creating your future. The words you speak, the thoughts you think, the food you eat and the actions you take are defining your destiny - shaping who you are becoming and what your life will stand for. Small choices lead to giant consequences - over time. There's no such thing as unimportant day.

Each one of us is called to greatness. Each one of us an exquisite power within us. Each one of us can have a significant impact on the World around us - if we so choose. But for this power that resides internally to grow, we need to use it. And the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. The more this power gets tapped, the more confident you become. Henry David Thoreau related to this point well when he wrote: "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of a human being to elevate their life by conscious endeavor." And advertising guru Donny Deutsch added a more current spin on the idea when he wrote in his book Often Wrong, Never in Doubt: "For every person with the stuff, the one out of a hundred who goes to a rarefied place is the one who says, 'why not me?' and goes for it."

The best among us are not more gifted than the rest. They just take little steps each day as they march toward their biggest life. And the days slip into weeks, the weeks into months and before they know it, they arrive at a place called Extraordinary.