Julian continued to use Yogi Raman's mystical fable as the
cornerstone for the wisdom he was sharing with me. I had learned
of the garden within my mind, a storehouse of power and
potential. Through the symbol of the lighthouse, I had learned of
the over-riding importance of a definite purpose in life and the
effectiveness of goal-setting. By the example of the nine-foot-tall,
nine-hundred-pound Japanese sumo wrestler, I had received
instruction on the timeless concept of kaizen and the bountiful
benefits that self-mastery would bring. Little did I know that the
best was still to come."You will recall that our friend the sumo wrestler was stark
naked."
"Except for the pink wire cable covering his private parts," I
interjected gamely.
"Right," applauded Julian. "The pink wire cable will serve to
remind you of the power of self-control and discipline in building a
richer, happier and more enlightened life. My teachers in Sivana
were undoubtedly the most healthy, contented and serene people I
have ever met. They were also the most disciplined. These sages
taught me that the virtue of self-discipline was like a wire cable.
Have you ever really taken the time to study a wire cable, John?"
"It hasn't been high on my priority list," I confessed with a
quick grin.
"Well, have a look at one sometime. You will see that it consists
of many thin, tiny wires placed one on top of the other. Alone, each
one is flimsy and weak. But, together, their sum is much greater
than their constituent parts and the cable becomes tougher than
iron. Self-control and willpower are similar to this. To build a will
of iron, it is essential to take small, tiny acts in tribute to the virtue
of personal discipline. Routinely performed, the little acts pile one
on top of another to eventually produce an abundance of inner
strength. Perhaps the old African proverb says it best: 'When
spider webs unite, they tie up a lion.' When you liberate your
willpower, you become the master of your personal world. When
you continually practice the ancient art of self-government, there
will be no hurdle too high for you to overcome, no challenge too
tough for you to surmount and no crisis too hot for you to cool
down. Self-discipline will provide you with the mental reserves
required to persevere when life throws you one of its little curves."
"I must also alert you to the fact that the lack of willpower is amental disease," Julian added surprisingly. "If you suffer from this
weakness, make it a priority to stamp it out quickly. An abundance
of willpower and discipline is one of the chief attributes of all those
with strong characters and wonderful lives. Willpower allows you
to do what you said you would do, when you said you would do it.
It is willpower that allows you to get up at five in the morning to
cultivate your mind through meditation, or to feed your spirit by a
walk in the woods when a cozy bed beckons you on a cold winter's
day. It is willpower that allows you to hold your tongue when a less-
actualized person insults you or does something you disagree with.
It is willpower that pushes your dreams forward when the odds
appear to be insurmountable. It is willpower that offers you the
inner power to keep your commitments to others, and, perhaps
even more importantly, to yourself."
"Is it really that important?"
"Most certainly, my friend. It is the essential virtue of every
person who has created a life rich with passion, possibility and
peace."
Julian then reached into his robe and pulled out a shiny silver
locket, the kind you might see in a museum exhibit on ancient
Egypt.
"You shouldn't have," I joked.
"The Sages of Sivana gave this gift to me on my last evening
with them. It was a joyous, loving celebration between members of
a family who lived life to the fullest. It was one of the greatest, and
saddest nights of my life. I didn't want to leave the Nirvana of
Sivana. It was my sanctuary, an oasis of all that was good in this
world. The sages had become my spiritual brothers and sisters. I
left part of myself high in the Himalayas that evening." Julian said,
his voice growing soft."What are the words engraved on the locket?"
"Here, I'll read them to you. Never forget them, John. They
have really helped me when times got tough. I pray that they also
bathe you in comfort during times of difficulty. They say:
Through the steel of discipline, you will forge a character
rich with courage and peace. Through the virtue of Will,
you are destined to rise to life's highest ideal and live
within a heavenly mansion filled with all that is good,
joyful and vital. Without them, you are lost like a
mariner without a compass, one who eventually sinks
with his ship.
"I have never really thought about the importance of self-
control, although there have been many times I've wished I had
more discipline," I admitted. "Are you saying that I can actually
build discipline, the way my teenage son builds his biceps at the
local gym?"
"The analogy is an excellent one. You condition your
willpower just as your son conditions his body at the gym.
Anyone, no matter how weak or lethargic they might currently
be, can grow disciplined within a relatively short time. Mahatma
Gandhi is a good example. When most people think of this
modern-day saint they remember a man who could go weeks
without food in the pursuit of his cause, and endure tremendous
pain for the sake of his convictions. But when you study
Gandhi's life, you will see that he was not always a master of
self-control."
"You're not going to tell me that Gandhi was a chocoholic
are you?""Not quite, John. As a young lawyer in South Africa, he was
given to passionate outbursts and the disciplines of fasting and
meditation were as foreign to him as the simple white loincloth
which eventually became his personal trademark in his later years."
"Are you saying that with the right blend of training and
preparation, I could have the same level of willpower as Mahatma
Gandhi?"
"Everyone is different. One of the fundamental principles that
Yogi Raman taught me was that truly enlightened people never
seek to be like others. Rather, they seek to be superior to their
former selves. Don't race against others. Race against yourself,"
Julian replied.
"When you have self-control, you will have the resolve to do
the things you have always wanted to do. For you, it may be
training for a marathon or mastering the art of white-water
rafting or even giving up the law to become an artist. Whatever it
is you are dreaming of, whether it is material riches or spiritual
riches, I will not be your judge. I will simply tell you that all these
things will be within your grasp when you cultivate your sleeping
reserves of willpower."
Julian added: "Building self-control and discipline into your
life will also bring you a tremendous sense of freedom. This alone
will change things."
"What do you mean?"
"Most people have liberty. They can go where they want and
do the things they feel like doing. But too many people are also
slaves to their impulses. They have grown reactive rather than
proactive, meaning that they are like seafoam pounding against a
rocky shore, going in whatever direction the tide might take them.
If they are spending time with their families and someone fromwork calls with a crisis, they hit the ground running, never
stopping to think which activity is more vital to their overall well-
being and to their life's purpose. So, after all I have observed in
my life, both here in the West and in the East, I say that such
people have liberty but lack freedom. They lack a key ingredient
to a meaningful, enlightened life: the freedom to see the forest
beyond the trees, the freedom to choose what is right over what
seems pressing."
I couldn't help but agree with Julian. Sure, I had little to
complain about. I had a great family, a cozy home and a bustling
law practice. But I really couldn't say that I had achieved freedom.
My pager was just as much an appendage as my right arm. I was
always on the run. I never seemed to have the time to
communicate deeply with Jenny, and quiet time for myself in the
foreseeable future was about as likely as me winning the Boston
Marathon. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I
had probably never even tasted the nectar of true, boundless
freedom when I was younger. I guess I really was a slave to my
weaker impulses. I always did what everyone else told me I should
be doing.
"And building willpower will offer me more freedom?"
"Freedom is like a house: you build it brick by brick. The first
brick you should lay is willpower. This quality inspires you to do
what is right in any given moment. It gives you the energy to act
with courage. It gives you the control to live the life you have
imagined rather than accepting the life that you have."
Julian also noted the many practical benefits that the
cultivation of discipline would bring.
"Believe it or not, developing the power of your will can erase
the worry habit, keep you healthy and give you far more energythan you have ever had. You see, John, self-control is really nothing
more than mind control. Will is the king of mental powers. When
you master your mind you master your life. Mental mastery starts
with being able to control every thought that you think. When you
have developed the ability to discard all weak thoughts and focus
only on those that are positive and good, positive and good actions
will follow. Soon you will start attracting all that is positive and
good into your life."
"Here's an example. Let's say one of your personal
development goals is to get up every morning at 6:00 a.m. and go
for a run around that park behind your place. Let's pretend it is
now the middle of the winter, and your alarm wakes you from a
deep, restful sleep. Your first impulse is to hit the snooze button
and return to your slumber. Perhaps you will live up to your
exercise resolution tomorrow. This pattern continues for a few
days until you decide that you are too old to change your ways and
the physical fitness goal was too unrealistic."
"You know me too well," I offered sincerely.
"Now let's consider an alternative scenario. It is still the dead
of winter. The alarm goes off and you start to think of staying in
bed. But instead of being a slave to your habits, you challenge
them with more powerful thoughts. You start to picture in your
mind's eye how you will look, feel and act when you are in peak
physical shape. You hear the many compliments your colleagues at
the office offer you as you saunter past them with a svelte, trim
physique. You focus on all that you can accomplish with the
increased energy a regular exercise program will bring. No more
nights spent in front of the television because you are too tired to
do anything else after your long day in court. Your days are filled
with vitality, enthusiasm and meaning.""But say I do this and I still feel like going back to sleep rather
than going running?"
"Initially, for the first few days, it will be a little difficult and you
will feel like going back to your old habits. But Yogi Raman believed
very strongly in one timeless principle in particular: positive always
overcomes negative. So if you continue to wage war against the
weaker thoughts that might have silently crept into the palace of
your mind over the years, eventually they will see that they are
unwanted and leave like visitors who know they are not welcome."
"You mean to tell me that thoughts are physical things?"
"Yes, and they are fully in your control. It is just as easy to
think positive thoughts as it is to think negative ones."
"Then why do so many people worry and focus on all the
negative information in our world?"
"Because they have not learned the art of self-control and
disciplined thinking. Most people I have spoken to have no idea
that they have the power to control every single thought they
think every second of every minute of every day. They believe that
thoughts just happen and have never realized that if you don't take
the time to start controlling your thoughts, they will control you.
When you start to focus on good thoughts only, and refuse to think
the bad ones through sheer will-power, I promise you they will
shrivel up very quickly."
"So, if I want to have the inner strength to get up earlier, eat
less, read more, worry less, be more patient or be more loving, all
I have to do is exert my will to cleanse my thoughts?"
"When you control your thoughts, you control your mind.
When you control your mind, you control your life. And once you
reach the stage of being in total control of your life, you become
the master of your destiny."I needed to hear this. Through the course of this strange yet
inspiring evening I had gone from being a skeptical litigator
carefully studying a hotshot lawyer-turned yogi to a believer
whose eyes had been opened for the first time in many years. I
wished Jenny could hear all this. Actually I wished my kids could
hear this wisdom too. I knew it would affect them as it had me. I
had always planned on being a better family man and living more
fully, but I always found that I was too busy putting out all those
little brush fires of life that seemed so pressing. Maybe this was a
weakness, a lack of self-control. An inability to see the forest for
the trees, perhaps. Life was passing by so quickly. It seemed like
just yesterday that I was a young law student full of energy and
enthusiasm. I dreamed of becoming a political leader or even a
supreme court judge back then. But as time went by, I settled into
a routine. Even as a cocky litigator, Julian used to tell me that
"complacency kills." The more I thought about it, the more I
realized that I had lost my hunger. This wasn't a hunger for a
bigger house or a faster car. This was a far deeper hunger: a
hunger for living with more meaning, with more festivity and more
satisfaction.
I started to daydream while Julian continued to talk. Oblivious
to what he was now saying, I saw myself first as a fifty-year-old-
and then as a sixty-year-old-man. Would I be stuck in the same job
with the same people, facing the same struggles at that point of my
life? I dreaded that. I had always wanted to contribute to the world
in some way, and I sure wasn't doing it now. I think it was at that
moment, with Julian sitting next to me on my living room floor on
that sticky July night that I changed. The Japanese call it satori,
meaning instant awakening, and that's exactly what it was. I
resolved to fulfill my dreams and make my life far more than it hadever been. That was my first taste of real freedom, the freedom
that comes when you decide once and for all to take charge of your
life and all its constituent elements.
"I will give you a formula for developing willpower," said
Julian, who had no idea of the inner transformation I had just
experienced. "Wisdom without proper tools for its application is
no wisdom at all."
He continued. "Every day, while you are walking to work, I
would like you to repeat a few simple words."
"Is this one of those mantras you told me about earlier?" I
asked.
"Yes it is. It is one that has been in existence for over five
thousand years, although only the small band of Sivanan monks
have known about it. Yogi Raman told me that by its repetition I
would develop self-control and an indomitable will within a short
period of time. Remember, words are great influencers. Words are
the verbal embodiment of power. By filling your mind with words
of hope, you become hopeful. By filling your mind with words of
kindness, you become kind. By filling your mind with thoughts of
courage, you become courageous. Words have power," Julian
observed.
"Okay, I'm all ears."
"This is the mantra I suggest you repeat at least thirty times
a day: 'I am more than I appear to be, all the world's strength and
power rests inside me.' It will manifest profound changes in your
life. For even quicker results, blend this mantra with the practice
of creative envisioning I spoke of earlier. For example, go to a quiet
place. Sit with your eyes closed. Do not let your mind wander.
Keep your body still, as the surest sign of a weak mind is a body
that cannot rest. Now repeat the mantra aloud, over and overagain. While you do so, see yourself as a disciplined, firm person,
fully in control of your mind, your body and your spirit. Picture
yourself acting as Gandhi or Mother Teresa might act in a
challenging situation. Startling results will surely come your way,"
he promised.
"That's it?" I asked, astonished by the apparent simplicity of
this formula. "I can tap the full reserves of my willpower through
this simple exercise?"
"This technique has been taught by the spiritual teachers of
the East for centuries. It is still around today for one reason:
because it works. As always, judge by results. If you are
interested, there are a couple of other exercises I can offer you to
liberate the strength of your will and cultivate inner discipline. But
let me warn you that they might seem strange at first."
"Hey, Julian, I'm absolutely fascinated by what I've been
hearing. You're on a roll, so don't stop now."
"Okay. The first thing is to start doing the things you don't like
doing. For you it might be as simple as making your bed in the
morning or walking rather than driving to work. By getting into
the habit of exerting your will, you will cease to be a slave to your
weaker impulses."
"Use it or lose it?"
"Exactly. To build willpower and inner strength you must first
use it. The more you exert and nurture the embryo of self-
discipline, the more quickly it will mature and give you the results
you desire. The second exercise is a favorite of Yogi Raman's. He
used to go an entire day without speaking, except in response to a
direct question."
"Kind of like a vow of silence?"
"Actually that's exactly what it was, John. The Tibetan monkswho popularized this practice believed that to hold one's tongue
for an extended period of time would have the effect of enhancing
one's discipline."
"But how?"
"Basically, by keeping silent for a day, you are conditioning
your will to do as you command it to do. Each time the urge to
speak arises, you actively curb this impulse and remain quiet. You
see, your will does not have a mind of its own. It waits for you to
give it instructions that will spur it into action. The more control
you exert over it, the more powerful it will become. The problem
is that most people don't use their willpower."
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Probably because most people believe they don't have any.
They blame everyone and everything except themselves for this
apparent weakness. Those who have a vicious temper will tell you,
'I can't help it, my father was the same way.' Those who worry too
much will tell you, 'It's not my fault, my job is too stressful.' Those
who sleep too much will say, 'What can I do? My body needs ten
hours of sleep a night.' Such people lack the self-responsibility that
comes through knowing the extraordinary potential which lies
deep within every one of us, waiting to be inspired into action.
When you come to know the timeless laws of nature, those that
govern the operation of this universe and all that lives within it,
you will also know that it is your birthright to be all that you can
be. You have the power to be more than your environment.
Similarly, you have the capacity to be more than a prisoner of your
past. To do this, you must become the master of your will."
"Sounds heavy."
"Really, it's a very practical concept. Imagine what you could
do if you doubled or tripled the amount of willpower that youcurrently have. You could get into that exercise regimen you have
dreamed of starting; you could be far more efficient with your
time; you could erase the worry habit once and for all; or you could
be the ideal husband. Using your will allows you to rekindle the
drive and energy for living that you seem to be saying you've lost.
It is a very important area to focus on."
"So the bottom line is to start using my willpower on a regular
basis?"
"Yes. Decide to do the things you know you should be doing
rather than walking the path of least resistance. Start to fight the
gravitational force of your bad habits and weaker impulses just as
a rocket rises above the force of gravity to enter the realm of the
heavens. Push yourself. Just watch what will happen in a matter of
weeks."
"And the mantra will help?"
"Yes. Repeating the mantra I gave you, along with the daily
practice of seeing yourself as you hope to be, will give you an
enormous amount of support as you create the disciplined,
principled life that will connect you to your dreams. And you need
not change your world in a day. Start off small. The thousand-mile
journey begins by taking that first step. We grow great by
degrees. Even training yourself to get up an hour earlier and
sticking to this wonderful habit will boost your self-confidence,
inspiring you to reach higher heights."
"I don't see the connection," I admitted.
"Small victories lead to large victories. You must build on the
small to achieve the great. By following through on a resolution as
simple as getting up earlier every day, you will feel the pleasure
and gratification that achievement brings. You have set a goal and
you have realized it. This feels good. The trick is to keep settingthe mark higher and raising your standards continuously. This will
then release that magical quality of momentum that will motivate
you to keep exploring your infinite potential. Do you like to ski?"
Julian questioned abruptly.
"I love skiing," I replied. "Jenny and I take the kids up to the
mountains whenever we can, which isn't very often, much to her
dismay."
"Okay. Just think of what it's like when you push off from the
top of the ski hill. At first you start off slowly. But within a minute
you are flying down the hill like there's no tomorrow. Right?"
"Just call me Ninja Skier. I love the rush of speed!"
"What gets you going so fast?"
"My aerodynamically contoured physique?" I quipped.
"Nice try." Julian laughed. "Momentum is the answer I'm
looking for. Momentum is also the secret ingredient to building
self-discipline. Like I said, you start off small, whether that means
getting up a little earlier, starting to walk around the block every
night or even just training yourself to turn off the television when
you know you have had enough. These small victories create the
momentum that excites you to take larger steps along the path to
your highest self. Soon you are doing things that you never knew
you were capable of doing with a vigor and energy that you never
thought you had. It's a delightful process, John, it really is. And
the pink wire cable in Yogi Raman's magical fable will always
remind you of the power of your will."
Just as Julian finished revealing his thoughts on the subject of
discipline, I noticed the first rays of the sun peeking into the living
room, pushing away the darkness like a child pushes away an
unwanted bedcover. "This will be a great day," I thought. "The
first day of the rest of my life."