Chapter 5 Project If The Shoe Fits: Fill & Download for Free

Sometimes I see a picture. Sometimes in a fashion magazine or on a billboard. Last night at about 3am I went walking up 5th Avenue here in Manhattan—-it was a nice cool to warm night—-and I was on the hunt for shrimp and a slice of beef for a Mongolian beef recipe. Anywho….I like to stroll by the store windows, look at the clothing, the styles, the colors and at that hour there’s about 5 other people and police cars every other block so it’s safe. I get to mentally shop. I personally love Saks as just a store but I also love their store windows. It’s about shoes, mainly for men this week but it’s a whole production for Christmas. Other stores have mannequins and the whole monochromatic beige look is coming on big. But then I’ll see something like the above picture.There’s actually another picture that I’ve had for years, maybe I can find it to add below but when I see something striking—-I start thinking about “her”. I think about what the image is projecting and what that would be like as a character.Katerine.Catriona.Caterine.Sabine.I find a name for that look then I think to myself up or down?—-am I creating from her being the “level” she looks or is she occupying this level as a facade or through effort?Huh.Then maybe the name Catriona or Caterine was really Catherine…but she changed it. She changed it, now that’s interesting.Where did she start out as?That’s a sharp New York City look so if she’s learned how to look like the above then she started out somewhere else. Pennsylvania? A farm? Scranton? I’ve been to Scranton. Scranton is like a town-city that built up then stagnated and isn’t growing as we think of city growth. The steel mills-money is gone so places like Scranton haven’t recovered from that industry shifting.Catherine started out in Scranton. And Scranton sounds like scrapple meat or Spam kind of town so we can now imagine that she would never want to share that place as her origin because of how it sounds to the ear.Scranton. Low class. Crass. Sharp. Poor.Bushkill. Hmm. Now that has an odd but tony sound to it. I lived there so I know it well enough to describe in a chapter about the class levels present there. A more affluent mountain community that has both an edge and upper crust sound to it.Caterine could say she comes from Bushkill. The combination of her name, that suit and the word Bushkill and her White skin would convey, superficially, that she’s Upper Class.But this only matters based upon her motivations.I have Armani male suits so that women’s suit, medium range, let’s say she gets it off of EBay, lucks out. $500 and it’s worth or retails about $2500 off the sales rack at Saks. She takes good care of it and she’s smart so she buys it in black and switches out $20 blouses sometimes or maybe, even more distractedly she wears lace bustiers or bras. Men/people are distracted by this sly sexuality so that they don’t note it’s the same suit everyday. She takes it to her local cleaners and has it custom fitted to her so it doesn’t look in any way off the rack. These are the kinds of suits Caterine wears.Again, we’re back to motivation but what we have a very deep insight into is the fact that Caterine is not only aware and conscious of how people see her but she makes efforts to control it. Which tells us something about her.I would open Chapter 1 with Caterine in her room somewhere, maybe in Harlem or Inwood, upper Manhattan, doing something strategic. Painting the bottoms of her shoes red and comparing them to pictures of Christian Louboutin heels. The shoes have to be as close as possible replicas before she applies the red paint. She lets it dry then she uses sandpaper with a little plant dirt to scuff the bottom of the shoe. Only a fool wants glistening red bottoms, she wants to look like expensive is easy for her but common to her. She, Caterine, is often wearing expensive stuff.Now next to her stuff she also happens to have a book “How To Kill Anyone…And Get Away With It”.Oooh, now it’s getting interesting to the reader.Caterine also has a bottle of metallic auburn formula that she’s dyed her hair. I would draw out in that first chapter her application of her make-up, her nails, getting dressed. We start to see her clothing as a costume and in some ways an armor. She carefully gathers all of her stuff, her trash and the reader is told that the book is Amazon sent. And it was sent to Maria Perez, who used to live in the room—-Caterine purposefully used this name, more distancing between her and her true identity.She checks her ID and it all says Caterine. She checks her map of NYC again. Confirms the address she’s going to and looks at a picture of a man. But she doesn’t describe for the reader’s eyes what the man looks like in the picture. But we know her target is a man.She goes out the door.Now we shift perspectives to a police detective who is tracking mob hit men. They’ve had several victims and they can’t catch up to the hit man. We have several chapters of them going through the mechanics of victims and crimes and then in the next to last chapter, we have them catch the hit man. It’s this guy Vito who’s been doing this for 20 years. He confesses and the detective is a celebrated hero and goes home.Wait, the reader is thinking—-I thought Caterine was the hit man—?—-and the detective is pushed off the subway platform in front of speeding train and as the crowd gathers in horror a French woman explains to people that she saw a man do it, who ran that way. The police run up and on this woman's shrieks, run down the platform, after the man.And Caterine walks in the opposite direction having killed the detective, the hero.Our last chapter is Catherine back home in Scranton and now we get the answer as to why she would kill a police detective. Her hair is back to mousy brown, she’s in jeans and a sweatshirt. She’s a student.What did the detective do?Now that could be 1–10 chapters and the reader in chapter 11 is introduced to another detective who is actually the protagonist who has to unwind if it was the mob who killed the detective and then realizing it wasn’t and tracking Caterine/Catherine down and unraveling her tale of why she would kill him.The construction of Caterine is done in that first chapter. That first chapter up until we get the book title she’s reading is open to a billion possibilities, of who this person is and what she’s going to do. The book is our Rubicon, where we cross the line and reveal something diabolical is going to happen. I would take my time in the first chapter—-I would try to get it to last at least 10 pages typed going into minute details so that you concretely see her, her space, her actions so that she’s a lingering character as you move on to the first detective.Then I would distract the reader by having quite a few chapters about this mob hitman investigation so that the reader after the first detective dies sees that Caterine was always after the detective and this has nothing to do with the mob.But maybe the mob doesn’t believe that.What if Caterine has inadvertently started a mob war and the second detective realizes that it’s not the mob but Caterine at the center of this all and both forces are racing towards Caterine…and the final answer to why she killed this detective?With deft construction from just an image, you can create a tapestry of false paths for the reader who stays attached to the story trying to figure out what is going on, what’s really going on and what’s really really going on.#KylePhoenix#TheKylePhoenixShow

Dear Concerned,The moment i chanced upon this enlightened question of yours i knew, only i can answer this query in detail. Finally we have a genuine entrepreneur like you among us, who has taken a professional approach towards Guruhood. With my vast knowledge and experience of this Indian Spiritual Industry, I’ll explain you how to make it big in this Indian Guru Market.First you should decide what kind of an Indian Guru you wish to be. Broadly that depends on your target audience/disciples. Never make the mistake of trying to become an Indian Guru acceptable to all classes. It is sure to misfire. Because of so much diversity in our social structure , we can't even agree on a one fits for all Indian Guru.On a macro level there are three kind of target audiences/ disciples in Indian context. In the text below, i’ll define each one of them and will guide you through the process to achieve your Guruhood of the specified target audience/ disciples.Lower Middle Class Audience/ DisciplesMiddle Class Audience/ DisciplesUpper Middle Class Audience/ DisciplesI have not mentioned lower class and upper class as they usually don't go looking for Gurus. Simple reason is, they don't need one. The people at the lowest level of our society are too busy trying to feed their families to listen to your gyaan. Neither they have any spare money whatsoever to put in your investment bank even though your promised return rate will make Apple Inc. shy. Hence they are out of question.The upper class, the rich ones, usually don't have time for this stuff. No matter what gyaan you try to sell them, they don't have time to listen to you, Neither they are so ignorant that they’ll volunteer to make you rich. Few of them who are really interested in spiritual stuff, they reach out to the real guys through their well placed connections.It is a general trend I have observed, however exceptions are always there.How to become an Indian Guru of Lower Middle Class Target Audience/ Disciples :Understanding Your Target Audience :The most important aspect of this business is understanding your target audience. You should have thorough knowledge of their social, economical and spiritual behaviour. In this case your target audience is lower middle class. This audience leads a struggling life trying to make ends meet. They don't have scope for luxuries. Saving a little money every month is their only investment target which they usually fail to achieve. They have small day to day problems and have small dreams. For a person from this audience, seeing his daughter or son getting a government job is like a dream coming true. If someone gets sick in his family, he talks less to the doctor and more to his Guru. What this audience need is a face with whom they can put their trust with. They don't get into what is God and what not. Our earlier middlemen of God have ruthlessly kept them away from God for centuries. They have lost trust in temples where they were not even allowed to enter. What they need is a face they can see whenever they want to, they need a voice they can hear, they need a hand they can touch. They need a person who has an aura around himself, no matter how fake that is, but they need to associate themselves with a person of worth in their eyes. They want to be associated with someone who tells them that come to me and i’ll remove all your problems and will lead you to a path of happiness. They want someone who can promise them prosperity, health and security in lieu of their small offerings. From their side also it is a simple business. They want a hill out of a mole but with justified spiritual reasoning of their own making. They don't have plenty of spare money. But for this pursuit of promised life they’ll even sacrifice whatever little they have saved.This target audience has almost no knowledge of any scripture old or new. They don't understand even a word of Sanskrit. Their perception of Dhyaan and Gyaan is what you tell them. They are not even interested in heaven or hell. They don't care where one goes after death. Their journey is all about their struggling everyday life. You can't sell them tickets to heaven, they won't buy it. They are only interested in making this life easier for themselves.All this information will help you in crafting your content part. Content here is not a problem at all. The people who’ll gather to listen to your sermons are not coming to listen to what you say, they are coming to see you, listen to your voice, to be a part of a cult they can call their own. They don't need God, they’ll make you their God.2. Area of Operations :This is the easiest feat to achieve with minimal amount of background work to be done. All the more it will fetch you with maximum number of disciples which means maximum revenue with minimum investment. Competition is tough here but this class is so huge in India that there is always a scope for a newcomer. You should be stationed at either of the following states, Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan. All these states should be your operations area. This is where the real show happens. People have recently got to know two names from the existing Indian Gurus from this area when one was arrested for 6 murders in his premises and the other was convicted of raping his disciples recently. But what people are not aware of commonly, and you should be aware of is that there are at least 20–30 big Indian Gurus more who operate in this area with huge following among masses.3. Your Name and Your Look :Keep your title and name simple for this audience. In my experience, a simple ‘Baba’ works the best. Don't worry much about fancy titles initially, your disciples will give you many themselves later. You can use your real name also but it should be a common North Indian Rural Hindi name like Ramesh, Suresh, Rampal, Satpal. In case you have a modern name like Rohan, Kunal, Kartik etc. change it to kind of a name i suggested above.First of all, one thing that matters the most is your look. You should have long hair with beard. Black or white doesn't matter. Get yourself stitched 10–15 fancy bright colour Kurta Pyjamas with embroidery on the neck. You should also wear some fake big stone necklaces. Later you’ll have to go for a different dress for each of your sermons and real stones necklaces but here I am just trying to minimise your initial investment.4. Your Content :You should read 4–5 common books like , Kabeer scriptures, Rahim scriptures, Bulle Shah scriptures, Baba Ghulam Fareed scriptures. Don't read any scripture which is even remotely related to Hindu Gods. This is much study is more than enough for you to impress this audience. But kindly be noted that you need to find your niche, these books will only be used for references in between your sermons. Once this is done, you are all ready to impart knowledge to your target audience/ disciples.It doesn't matter what you preach, you can preach anything. For example if you start telling people that by eating 250 grams pakodas on a Monday they will become rich, its completely fine. None of them will ever question your authority on the subject. The key is whatever you say, say it with confidence. Be philosophical sometimes, start talking about Aatma and Parmatma, whatever comes to your mind with these words. Trust me your audience will listen to it with pin drop silence. Just be a good orator. The content doesn't matter with this target audience the thing that matters is , for how many hours can you keep on giving sermons. Talk about things you don't have a clue about confidently because neither your audience has a clue what you are talking. Remember this most important word, ‘Dhyaan’ and weave a story around it. Give it some common Hindi name which a commoner with no knowledge of Sanskrit or English can recite easily like Maha Dhyaan, Jagrati Dyaan, Divya Dyaan etc. This will be your USP. Just ask people to close their eyes and start thinking of you, rest of the Dhyaan techniques they will develop themselves .Never ever try to preach your target audience about Hindu Gods like Ram, Krishn, Shiv etc. Your target audience wants none of them. They are fed up with them that’s the whole reason they have come to you. Create a new God, give him the qualities your audience wants Him to have. Give your audience a simpler access to Him through yourself. Rab, Parmatma, Parampita, use these kind of words for Him. And He should never have a face or body, he should be Nirakar. Otherwise you are digging your own grave. People will slowly start putting their faith in That Face than yours.Arrange for a Bhajan Mandali. Get some bhajans written by any mediocre poetic disciple of yours praising your newly created God and get them sung at the end of your sermons on a daily basis with music. You’ll be amazed to see your audience dancing on these bhajans having no clue about what do they mean.Never say no to any person who wants to meet you initially. Remember, initially with almost no finances and without a PR agency, you need people to spread your words. Meet anyone and everyone on a daily basis, meet as many people as you can. They’ll all come for solutions of their everyday problems for which you have no cure but bless everyone. This is very important, even if someone wishes to spend a night on moon, bless him. By the law of probability and going by a very conservative estimate, out of 100 people you’ll bless, 5 people will get their wishes fulfilled. Now these five people will bring you 500 more. Trust me, 90% of the rest 95 will blame themselves not you for having their wishes unfulfilled.After you are established a bit, immediately start a local school or a hospital. This’ll give you a great PR. If anybody raises a question at you, you’ll have something to flaunt around. I can understand it will be a burden upon you early in your career but trust me, you need it.Will all this content i firmly believe you’ll become a successful Indian Guru in 4–5 years time. Break even should happen in the first year itself. For the start, this much is enough.5. Revenue Model :This business can be started with only an INR 10K investment. All you need initially are your designer Kurta Pyjamas and fake big stone necklaces. Now money will be hard to come by initially but very soon you’ll have enough for luxuries.Don't take donations initially, i mean never ask anyone to pay a single rupee for any purpose whatsoever. Put a simple ‘Daan Paatra’ at all the locations where your disciple is supposed to spend a minute or two. For example put one near the shoe stall. Put the biggest one just below the platform where you’ll be giving your sermons. If anyone insists on a donation to you or to your organisation, refuse politely. If someone insists even more and even after your polite refusal wants to make a contribution, direct him to your bigger Daan Paatra. Offerings will be small initially but they’ll be steady and will grow with your footfall.For the next stage, launch a free food for all scheme. A permanent Langar. Now for this, you don't need to spend a penny. Once you start it, your disciples will automatically provide for all the ingredients needed and you’ll also get ample unpaid manual labour ready to do sewa in your Langar. It is a very popular and time tested scheme successfully implemented by our many Indian Gurus. The person who comes for free food is not the person who doesn't have money to buy food. These will be the people who’ll eat their meals at your langar as a ritual. Its a complete social day out package where a family spends its time in the company of their Guru, listening to his bhajans, eating at his langar and go home after this spiritual picnic. Now when they eat your free food, they feel guilty of having eaten your food without paying for it. And be rest assured, if a person eats a meal worth INR 50, he’ll put at least INR 200 in your Daan Paatra.Once you grow more, you’ll start receiving lands as gifts from your disciples. These will be the lands where in the owner doesn't have a heir or if the land is disputed among many shareholders, one of them will sell you the land taking his share only and other holders will be too weak to take on you. Remember, you are a Respected Indian Guru now and nobody can touch you and you‘ll receive plenty of them. You can open your branches on these lands , start farming on these lands and you’ll grow your empire even more.Eventually, you can also enter into FMCG products business with your branding, which many of our famous Indian Gurus have pioneered. But you should always stick to basic everyday use products with cheap quality and 5% less price from the branded ones in economic segment. Trust me, sky is the limit.6. Political Patronage :No empire can survive without political patronage and with your kind of target audience you need it the most. Once you are established, you’ll start receiving politicians at your door. No they don't have any spiritual inclination neither they think you are any great, they simply know who you actually are and how you can influence voters in your area of expertise.The key is, don't get emotionally attached to any of the political party. Meet everyone, bless everyone publicly and when the time of election comes, decide for yourself which party is of maximum use to you. Be ruthless about it. With your target audience you have the luxury of openly telling your herd, which party they should vote for. If you wish, change your party affiliation to the other party, it won't affect your credibility in any way.What you’ll receive in return is, you’ll get a z plus security detail for free which will further inspire your target audience to be around you. You’ll receive government land for 99 years lease on a pittance where you can open any commercial establishment of your choice. You’ll have an upper hand against your adversaries and competitors. Trust me you need it.Do’s :a. Promote vegetarianismb. Special focus on drug deaddictionc. Only use Hindi in all your sermons, that too local slang.Dont’s :a. Do not accept any donations initiallyb. Stay away from wine and womanc. Don't eat non vegetarian foodd. Never criticise any other competitorAll the best my upcoming Indian Guru !How to become an Indian Guru of Middle Class Target Audience/ DiscipleUnderstanding Your Target Audience :Now this is the toughest nut to crack. This middle class target audience will be your real test, reason being of all the classes i defined above, this target audience has been fed this spiritual dose for thousands of years. They have an ear for it. Most of our past and present day Indian Gurus are the inventions of this class only.This class has reasonable amount of spare money however not abundant. And as part of their budgeting they keep certain amount separately for buying tickets to heaven. This is the most populous target audience and here you’ll find your toughest competitors. Starting from a neighbourhood temple priest to well organised billionaire Indian Gurus like the ones you aspire to become one day. And trust me there are at least a million of them if not more. Categories are different depending upon the IQ level of individuals but they are all selling these tickets to heaven and most of this target audience is buying it from one source or the other.With this class you must understand that they love their Gods. Whatever web you weave must be woven around all these Gods only. And you can't be choosey about the choice of a God. Unlike the earlier case, here you need to take every God and His followers with you. Only then you can think of becoming a True Indian Guru with mass following.This is the target audience which is most fearful of God. Most of these people have temples at their homes where they do their morning and evening rituals and also they are the ones who frequent temples in hordes. They don't do pooja because of their love for God, they do it because they are afraid, if the God doesn't get His daily quota of light, praise, incense and food, He is bound to punish them. A new entrant to this audience starts with praying for favours from his/her favourite God and after that he/she prays so that that favours remains throughout and more favours come his/her way.The key is to play on their fear of God. Since time immemorial most of our Indian Gurus have done the same and they are still doing the same. It is a time tested weapon against this target audience.This target audience needs an Agent between them and their God, as their God doesn't talk to them. To send their letters of requests to Him, they need a good post man who can duly deliver the message. This is the vacuum you are supposed to fill.Never try to become their God like in the earlier case. These people know their God more than you can ever imagine. They know what flower He likes, what colour He likes, what clothes He wear, they even know for sure that He is a vegetarian. This target audience also know what does their God do in His spare time. Well.. He runs ponzi schemes for his devotees with a guaranteed 125000 times return over investment in His free time. You must have heard this famous saying ‘ TU EK RUPYA DEGA, WO SAWAA LAAKH DEGA’ ‘ IF YOU SPEND ONE RUPEE ON HIM, HE IS BOUND TO GIVE YOU HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND RUPEES TO YOU. Never try to put any sense into their thoughts, they don't need any. Go for the real thing, they are here to buy their tickets to heaven and you as God’s favourite ticketing agent directly from the hidden caves of Himalayas are here on His order to sell them those tickets.2. Area of Operations :For this target audience your area of operations becomes wider. You can operate from either of the following states, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana anywhere in the Central and North India. In this case your disciples will be spread over a vast area, they won't be found in a particular zone like in the earlier case.Once you start moving up the ladder of this business of Spirituality, competition becomes thin but the competitor becomes stronger. Select a location where your competitor doesn't have his head office. For example if he is a Gujarat based competitor, you choose Maharashtra. As of now Uttar Pradesh seems to be the best choice. It is the most populous state with no tall standing competitor of yours.You must be assuming why i didn't talk about entire India as your would be covered area. There is a reason to it. This target audience exists in huge numbers in every part of India but their languages are different. They have their own Regional Indian Gurus who speak their native language and you’ll never be able to win over them.3. Your Name and Your Look :Name again plays a big role here. Understand you are dealing with a slightly more educated target audience here. They may have never read Ramayan or Geeta but they have seen all the episodes of Ramayana, Mahabharta, Devon ke Dev Mahadev, Shri Krishna etc. Most of them have read common scriptures like Ramcharitmanas and others. These audiences like their Gurus to be Munis and Rishis. Or at least to look and speak like them as they have seen in all those mythological dramas on TV. The best titles for you will be Muni …. , Rishi…, Maharshi…. Yogi…..Brahamrishi… Swami…This audience likes Sanskrit in your title and name. No matter if they can't understand even a line of Sanskrit but if you have Sanskrit in your name, you are most likely to be accepted as a Genuine Indian Guru at the first stroke. They like whatever is old apart from wine. So choose a name which has a bit of Sanskrit in it. It is also advisable if you have a suffix to your name with a prefix. Anand and Nath are the most common suffixes these days. Your name could be like Maharshi Anekanand Nath, Muni Aghdanand Saraswati. Choose these kinds of a name.As you move up the ladder, your look becomes simpler. You should look more saintly. Have long hair and a flowing beard. You can score some extra points with white hair and beard but well, that is not in our hands.The luxury of flaunting those designer Kurta Pyjamas is gone. Here you need to wear a Lungi and a Simple Shawl on your upper part. This comes with only two colour options, Saffron or White. You can wear any of these colours, different shades of these colours will also do. Also the necklace material can't be the same. No more colourful stones. You should wear two necklaces one of Sphatic and one of Rudraksh. Try wearing Khadau instead of shoes or sandals for bonus points at least in public.4. Your Content :In this case your content will matter a bit but don't worry its not that difficult. For this you need to read books like Ramcharitmanas, Shiv Mahapuran, Srimad Bhagwat, Sadhak Sanhita, Guru Geeta, at least 10–15 of them. It doesn't matter if you can't understand a word of them. Just go through the Hindi translation of each of these books and rote whatever you can of them. Also rote some 40–50 Sanskrit Shlokas. 50 % of them should be commonly known and rest should be hard or impossible to find by a common disciple of yours.At this juncture you’ll have two choices. One, you can focus on the stories from our mythology and religious texts and create your web around it. Keep on explaining them to your audience who however have listened to them 100 times before but still love to listen to them. You need to be a star stage performer for that. You should laugh hysterically without a joke while orating , sometimes cry so loudly that the crowd also start crying whenever you are telling any sad part of a mythological story, even dance sometimes in ecstasy whenever you reach a joyful moment in your tale and be rest assured the public will also dance with you and will keep on dancing even after you have moved on to another chapter. A good Kurta Pyjama clad religious looking music band is a must for this path. In the 90s it was in popular fashion. There is a city called Vrindavan where the whole city is into this business only for the past 200 years.Many famous Indian Gurus followed this path and became successful. However for the last decade or so, this path has been unable to attract masses.Two, you create your own niche in a more Sanskrit based and difficult to understand theory. You never create a unique theory here, you simply confuse your audience with a new similar theory every time to the point they stop using their already tired brains looking for any meaning into it. The theory should always revolve around their Gods. It gives weight to your theory. Keep on adding the Spice of a Sanskrit Shloka after every 20–30 lines or so of your sermon. Never try to be too creative with this target audience. They don't like changes much. Just offer your recipe with one or two spices here and there and you’ll find millions of takers.The key here is the language and your pronunciation. Here you’ll have to speak Pure Hindi/ Shuddh Hindi mixed with Sanskrit phrases here and there. Do it with the perfect look i advised for this audience and you will win these masses. It’ll take you some good homework to reach at this level but with practice you’ll be able to converse in this Unique 90 % Pure Hindi + 10% Sanskrit Mix. Do not worry at all if you utter a Shloka incorrectly or if you forget the other line. The people you’ll be facing have no clue what are you talking about. But don't make mistakes in the Hindi part of your sermon. people will judge it easily.This interesting target audiences love to bribe their Gods in lieu of favours. Provoke them to bribe more but only through you as you are the only sovereign guardian of their money. The more they’ll bribe the more influence you’ll have. Slowly and steadily nurture their nature of bribing. It only makes the ticket to heaven costlier and gets you more money.You’ll need more than a Bhajan Mandli from here to grow further. Get a stage performance troupe of your own. They’ll do the Arti with slow dance moves and will further inspire the audience to dance in ecstasy with them later in the meditational part of your sermon. Don't focus too much on meditation here with this audience, a good number of them must have had attended a course in meditation from somewhere. They didn't find it interesting enough that’s one of the reasons they are here.The point to focus upon is this word ‘Sanyam’ ‘ celibacy’ . These target audiences love to know that their Indian Guru is a Brahmachari/ Celibate and he practices and preaches celibacy. It gives more confidence and a sense of security to your female audiences. Furthermore In India, people love this concept of celibacy while we have sex more than any other nation in the world. We are world’s fastest growing population by the way. But never say it.. just tell them what feats can they achieve by refraining from sex. And Oh ! don't worry about the future of your disciple’s, they in any case are not going to follow this part of your sermon. But you still need to say it emphatically if you wish to become a Real Big Indian Guru here.You also need to celebrate all indian festivals related to North and Central Indian Gods like Shivratri, Janmashtami, Navratr and so on with great pomp and show. Understand you are dealing with people who believe in different Gods and you as their common Indian Guru can't differentiate. This almost monthly exercise serves two purposes. One, You’ll have a better connect with your audience on a personal level as you’ll be meeting them almost on a monthly basis. Two, you’ll receive a lot of revenue in the form of donations during these festivals. See, your audiences bribe their God more on certain dates.Bless them all alike initially like in the previous case. Never promise anything but also never refuse to bless anyone. If some jerk comes later to you claiming that your blessings didn't work, tell him calmly that his heart is not pure. Give him some more gyaan on Sanyam/ Celibacy and he’ll never come back to you.Now its time for you to start a fortnightly or monthly magazine for your disciples. It again serves two purposes, one, you don't let them forget about you. You keep on knocking on their doors every other weekend. It’s about keeping your herd together. Moreover you get the access to other new potential audience as well. Magazines are not only read by their buyers, specially a spiritual looking one. They are distributed like Prasad to everyone the native thinks, he can enlighten after getting enlightened through it. Keep it a low cost affair. Ideally do it on no profit no loss basis. Its after benefits are huge. Do not worry too much about its content. Simply google a spiritual topic and cut copy paste. The original writer must be a nobody, this thing should be kept in mind while selecting the content. Pick at least 20 such contents for every edition of your publication. Moreover carefully insert at least 10 stories under fake names of your disciples thanking you for the ‘Chamatkaar’/ ‘Miracle’ they experienced after being blessed by you.You just need these fake stories only for initial 2–3 editions, after that people will themselves start sending you these stories in hundreds. Out of them choose stories where your disciple got seriously ill with a life threatening disease and after your blessing became fine. Also select the stories where your disciple got broke and after your blessing became a king again. That’s it. You are home.Start some charity now. Don't worry, you don't need to invest a single rupee from your pocket for that. These are all self sustaining drives, you’ll instead end up making money out of your charity projects through donations.The more intelligent of your followers don't like to give donations directly. They have this notion that you are already rich and why should they make you even richer. But they love to donate for social causes. By providing them an outlet where they can donate without guilt makes both of you happy. Your kind of person needs two types of charities, one , which are fixed assets, like a hospital, a residential school all completely free for everyone, two, charities which are movable like an eye surgery camp every 15 days, a blood donation camp etc etc. As your covered area is huge, you can't have a fixed charitable institution everywhere at least initially. So movable charity projects are a good idea for your brand promotion.Do the stuff as i have described and you are home.5. Revenue Model :With this target audience your coffers need to be really big. You’ll have multiple revenue sources and you’ll have to have a good teams of auditors and chartered accountants to handle your money wisely.First and the biggest liquid cash source will be donations. Your target audience loves to donate in one form of the other. Put Daan Patras at strategic locations initially as described in the earlier scenario and they’ll fill up in no time. Later remove Daan Patras and have specific offices instead at all your locations where your audiences also get a receipt for the donation made. It’ll give more legitimacy to your empire. Don't worry about the taxation part of it, a receipt is only a piece of paper for audience’s mental satisfaction. Fan this theory of Gupt Daan in your sermons and you’ll be even more safe.Run Free Food scheme for all as mentioned in earlier case at all your centres and your revenues will be sky rocketed.You’ll receive lands in form of donations more with this audience. However the difference will be that you won't receive big chunks of agriculture land as in earlier case. Remember, your target audience is urban now. You’ll receive smaller plots and houses but in bulk. You can go for an ashram in almost all districts of your area of influence in no time with the bigger plots you receive. For smaller plots and houses, when you have a good number of them from one location, sell them all and tell your audience that you’ll be buying a big land from all those earnings to set up a bigger ashram in that area. Now buy land near the biggest of the plot you have received and set up an ashram there. It’ll leave you with enough cash to spare even after buying all the nearby land.From all your charity centres you’ll receive enough revenues.After you are established, you should immediately go for FMCG products under your brand name. Don't go for clothes and stuff , focus only on FMCG. Remember, you already have a big consumer base who trusts you more than anyone else. This is a sure shot way to success.6. Political Patronage :For this target audience you need to play your political card wisely. You can't simply issue a voting appeal for a particular political party. Remember, you have a hug following which votes for different political parties as per their different regional aspirations. You meet every politician publicly without any discrimination. You wont get the same milage as you’ll receive in earlier case. May be a y security detail at the most but this’ll have hidden benefits. The politicians will help you manage your fairly gotten money with the help of their already established businessmen friends, obviously for a little cut. Also suppose if tomorrow you want to enter into Ayurvedic Medicine venture, just name it like Jambudweep Ayurveda Research Centre and you don't need to worry about its land cost anymore. The government will give you land for free. Just be cautious never to reveal your political preferences.Do’s :a. Preach Vegetarianism minus Onion and Garlic. Declare them Tamsik.b. Promote Cow Protection, open Few Gaushalasc. Remember and Preach your Golden Word ‘ Sanyam’ and Mention it in all Your Sermons, it Saves You from any Initial Scrutiny.Dont’s :a. Abstain from Wine and Woman till the time you want your Empire to remain Intact.b. Never Criticise any of your Competitorsc. Stay away from any Controversy.How to become an Indian Guru of Upper Middle Class Target Audience/ Disciples :1.Area of Operations :Your area of operations is pan India now. Your language of communication is English mostly now. Your target audience understands english no matter from which part of India they are from. You’ll also get some percentage of international audiences also but they are byproducts of your marketing exercise. You focus should be on this english speaking Indian upper middle class.2. Understanding Your Target AudienceNow this on is tricky. You really need to understand everything about their behaviours before you even think of becoming their Guru. This audience has money, property, self respect. They are not even afraid of their Gods. They know its too middle class to light a deepak every morning and evening in front of a Godly picture. They are educated and not interested in rites and rituals. They think these are all old orthodox systems invented by primitive people. They are philosophers in their own sense. This is younger crowd, mostly self made. They’ll only stay with you for a short duration, at the most 4–5 years, after that they’ll get too busy with their lives and will have no time for your gyaan, 80% of them. Rest 20 % will stay with you forever but don't worry every year you’ll receive fresh supply of your disciples. You can call them Spiritual Tourists. Remember that dialogue from movie Deewar, Mere paas bungalow hai, gaadi hai, bank balance hai, tumhare pass kya hai ? They want to fill this gap. This audience wants to scream , mere paas bunglow hai, gaadi hai, bank balance hai, aur Guru bhi hai.Remember, this is the audience which will make you stand in the company of Billionaire Indian Gurus. They won't be really big in numbers as in earlier cases but they have deep pockets with an irresistible desire of buying your spiritual knowledge. They have a consumer mindset, thanks to your predecessors who have taught them that they can buy enlightenment for a little pricy mrp tag.Most of them have read Sigmund Freud, George Bernard Shaw, Khalil Gibran, Rumi and so on and almost all of them have read Linda Gudman’s Love Signs at some point in their lives. Almost all of them have tried their hands on this or that technique of meditation as defined by your western competitors. Everyone of them comes with an individual world and spiritual view. They already know that there exists something called Healing, Emotional Healing, Pranic Healing, Reiki etc and people can be sent their healing quota through vibrations from thousands of miles away. I know it sounds weird but what can you do for that .They are yoga enthusiasts, they know the basis cardiac exercises taught to them in the name of yoga.They speak fluent english unlike the previous audiences. They won't go for any Indian Guru even remotely associated with a Religious Tag. They are looking for deep spiritual stuff which their predecessors had no clue about, armed with their recently acquired knowledge.They think inside a limited scientific sphere. Their spiritual shopping should happen within this scientific shopping mall of theirs. Every theory or practical they want to know or experiment should remain limited to this cocoon only.3. Your Name and Look :Understand you are not only an Indian Guru here, you are a Spiritual Entrepreneur . You’ll need an angel investor before you even start this journey towards Modern Sainthood unless you have saved enough for this spiritual business venture.Name part is easy. Focus on a name with a touch of Sanskrit with a modern outlook. Sanskrit names suggested in the earlier case won't do here, they are too middle-class for this audience. You can still use prefixes like Mahrishi, Brahmrishi and Guru and suffixes like Yogi, Brahmyogi etc. But your middle name should be contemporary with a touch of Sanskrit. Something like Mahrishi Anant Yogi, Shri Adwait Bhaskar Brahmyogi. Think of these kind of names.Your look will matter a lot, really a lot to this audience. remember its an audience with a consumer mindset. Your packaging will attract your disciples more than anything at the first sight. You must have long hair and a beard. This audience wants a traditional appealing face with a modern outlook. You should go for whites only now, Saffron may do also but white is my preference for you. The material of your upper shawl and your lungi should be of the finest quality. Try Belgium linen and Egyptian cotton.You should always look youthful. You’ll need a team of good make up artists all the time with you. Remember carefully, never ever step out even of your restroom without having that glowing face. This is not asking for too much keeping in mind that you are out to made a billion dollar empire.4. Your Content :Content is your weapon with this audience. You’ll have to do at least 2–3 years of rigorous homework before you even put your first step on this journey. It may take you even longer depending on your IQ level. But without it you won't survive even for a day in this market.English should be your preferred language. Remember, you are dealing with an audience who knows Hindi or any other regional language but prefers to communicate in English. Read and rote all works of Sigmund Freud, Bernard Shaw, Khalil Gibran, Rumi, Vedas, Upanishads, Shastras, Guru Yog Vashistha, all Samhitas and most importantly Geeta. You must learn Geeta by heart so that you can fix any of its shloka anywhere between your theory. It’ll give you immense legitimacy.Your theory has to be carefully crafted taking elements of ancient Indian knowledge and mixing them with its half baked versions written by the western authors. Read all the books written by our most famous 1970’s sex Guru. He had already researched a lot and derived his own unique theory based upon the synthesis i described above. Don't copy it as it is, this is only a reference material. Two biggest competitors of yours are already using his research in their respective unique theories. Just carefully weave your web taking elements from here and there. See, the key is to keep the theory complex to keep our audience confused. And you need a huge theory so that it becomes impossible for your target audience to understand what to make out of it unless they research it over the years and realise that there is nothing one can make out of it . Don't be scared, this is not gonna happen ever. Even if someone devotes his life to understand your theory and realise after wasting ten years go his life that you were just playing with words, even then he can't do any harm to you because there will be millions others who will still be under your influence to ward off that negative being. You are dealing with an audience who will remain under your influence for a shorter period of time. They are not even interested in transforming their lives using your theory. They are willing to get validated, what have they been thinking for years after reading the kinds of books i described above. You validate their own versions with authority and they are happy.The first most important word for you to spellbound your target audience is ‘Technique’. It comes with two names, one is ‘Kriya’ the other is ‘Yog’. Your audiences here are not lethargic, neither they can keeping on reading and debating your theory. They need activity. This is the most important part of your content.So you invent a Kriya or Yog by mixing a basic yoga exercise with a basic pranayam and give it a unique fancy name like Tatvdarshan Kriya or Vishuddh Yog. The key is that one set of this kriya or yog should atleast go on for 2–3 mins. You don't need any deep knowledge or research for it. Just a fancy name with any permutation and combination of basic yoga and pranayam will do. Add any impossible to find but easy to recite mantra to it and it’ll become your deadliest weapon. This Kriya or Yog will be your fastest selling off the shelf product and the basic source of your income initially. Later you can also add on different courses for different time durations adding your sermon lesson and your Kriya or Yog exercise. You need to have a very good first hand literature on how this Kriya and Yog can transform lives of the human race. The reader should feel that without this Kriya/Yog in his/her daily life, he/she would die like an ignorant being and the only thing which can save him/her from dying without enlightenment is this Kriya/ Yog. Again you create a complex web of a theory around it which claims to enhance the recipient’s energy level and takes him/her towards the ultimate realisation.The most important point with this product is, never sell it for free. Keep a pricy tag attached to it. So that whosoever buys it, he/she receives the energy associated with it. If you keep it free, people will complain that it doesn't help achieving anything but the moment they buy it for a high price, they’ll start telling themselves that ‘it works’. This’ll keep your disciples satisfied and will bring you more of them.The second most important word for you is ‘Energy’. You talk energy, you walk energy, you eat energy, you shit energy. Remember, everything is energy. Your competitors are using this word on a daily basis but it is still not oversold. Just change the theory around it a bit and it’ll work for you.Remove this word ‘ Sanyam/ Celibacy’ from your dictionary if you wish to be a True Indian Guru for this audience. If you utter this word even once in front of your target audience, they’ll all run away and will never come back. Refrain from chancing upon this topic everyday in your sermons. Invent a new fancy phrase for sex like Sacred Union of Two Energies. Just drop this hint in few of your sermons that its a spiritual process contaminated by our ignorance about the philosophical aspect of it.Write 15–20 books on diverse topics including the Sacred Union of two Energies. You don't require a lot of content for that. These will be 100 pages books , each dealing with a different aspect of your spiritual knowledge. 50% content of all your books will remain the same, rest you’ll have to juggle out.Create your own festivals. Celebrating Indian festivals will make you one from the crowd. Create your own festivals at your ease and celebrate them with all pomp and show. Invite the politicians and government of the time to it and you’ll get their support in organising it. It’ll also make you loads of money as here to this target audience, you sell everything. Nothing comes for free. Entry fees, accommodation charges, food bills everything will fetch you money. Target for at least half a million attendees and stretch it for 3–4 days to get the max out of it.Remember, at this stage you’ll be invited as a guest speaker for lots of events where you’ll have to give a moving speech about your movement. Well, that’s not a problem for you. The problem will be if they have live question answer session between their attendees and you. I am sure with the bag of knowledge you carry, you’ll easily silence the questioner but what if some jerk asks you an intelligent question which you have no clue about ? Trick of the trade is, dodge that question with a smile. Watch a lot of youtube videos of your current competitors doing it every now and then and master the art.For marketing purposes you’ll receive enough well educated unpaid manual labour who’ll take offs from their offices and will distribute your fliers in local markets trying to enlighten others. On weekends you’ll receive so many applications for this unpaid manual labour pending in front of you that your fliers supply will not be enough for the day.Once you are established, go for paid advertisement. Try youtube, Facebook, national newspapers, any media you can get your hands on. English Channels will sell you their airtime for a spiritual discourse on a discount as they are also aware how you are spending your hard earned money just to enlighten this society. Trust me, no-one will ever doubt your good intentions.Give your organisation names like Knowledge centre, xyz foundation, abc mission. Never ever call it an Ashram or Sanstha, that’s too middle class for your audience.Do charity that appeals to the class not the mass. With your newly found money, by big farms, produce only organic stuff and sell it to the same well educated free of cost manual labour who have toiled hard in your fields to make it grow on 10 times profit. Go for luxury Ayurveda products range and sell this one too on a 10 times margin and trust me no one will question you about your margins as no one knows what goes inside it.Open a huge school and a huge multi speciality hospital and keep it free for all and it’ll work wonders for your PR. Your PR agency will make sure that you are photographed enough with patients to maintain your saintly image. Lot of other PR exercises will be suggested to you if you go for a good agency. Follow their professional advice and you’ll be home.5. Revenue Model :Donations will never be a major part of your spiritual business empire. Your empire will work more like a corporate company selling spiritual remedies and products. In most of your products, there is no raw material cost involved. Your more influenced disciples/customers will teach your Kriya/Yog techniques to your new disciples/customers for free at your centres across the country but these new disciples/customers will pay you few thousand rupees in fees for a 3–4 hours class. No other industry can work on these margins in this world other than yours.Product sales from organic, ayurvedic stuff will also be a significant part of your revenue generation.You’ll work on franchise model for expansion. Where in you’ll give the license to open your spiritual shop/centre to a wealthy and influenced channel partner for a nonrefundable sum. Even if you keep it refundable to satisfy a skeptic channel partner, you can easily enjoy annual interest on the deposit made for good 4–5 years.Sales from your literature and audio/video will never be a significant part of your revenue generation. These are more for PR exercise.If we look at the numbers of your would be disciples and the margin you’ll be charging, in 2–3 years time, you’ll enter the club of Billionaire Indian Gurus.6. Political Patronage :In this case you won't receive any serious political patronage and trust me you don't need any. You just invite the ones in power and in opposition equally to your festivals and functions and that would be enough. Understand you are pan India now, and you should be seen as a person who is above all this little realities of life like politics. Now you would be attending world spiritual events, some foreign assemblies will also invite you to enlighten them.Remember, you are beyond the boundaries of nation, religion, caste and creed now. And your sole purpose is to spread peace and harmony among humankind.Do’s :a. Spread Vegetarianism with no likes or dislikes for Onion and Garlic.b. Promote Organic way of lifec. Quote from various scriptures but never tread on the Religious PathDont’s :a. Stay away from controversies and political alignmentb. Never criticise any competitorSo, my dear Upcoming Indian Guru Sensation, take your pick from any of these options available and i assure you, you’ll make a wonderful Indian Guru. I have summarised my answer to your query in this ‘ pocketbook for making it big in Indian Guru Market’PS : This piece is a work of satire written in a light hearted manner . I am not against any Spiritual Organisation or any Guru or its disciples or followers. Above stated work of literature is based upon my keen observation for the past 15 years of our Indian Spiritual Industry and on my many one to one clandestine conversations with most of the past and current Big Indian Gurus.RegardsAghor Bhadra

The following picture contains the final portion of diagrams used to convey parallel reality shifting & utilizing what I call “The Primal Choice” to totally restructure every aspect of your life… The decriptions of the diagram will be conveyed in the final publication. Also, almost every section of the book within this post has been edited or completely rewritten. Find the link to discover it.…As of Jan 26th 2017: I am not updating this post directly with edits. This individual post is getting so big that it is lagging. I am moving my continued edits of the full book to an Evernote account. Part 1: The Foundations of Clarity is provided below. Thank you!I started meditating when I was 21, and I’m 29 now. So, I generally have 8 years of experience, but half of those years were intensive retreats. I hope this helps you and inspires you stick with it. It is rather lengthy, but I go through a whole process with exactly what to do and how to do it. I’ve yet to read a book that is as concise as what I am giving freely, so this is a book in the making. (Started: Jan 8th 2017) And we begin!(In the proceeding index, not all of the content is added yet to this post, but you can find some in the answers to my other questions.)Effective Meditation: A Self-Realization Empowerment GuideTable of Contents:Part 1: The Foundations of ClarityPrologue: Revealing a Plan of UnderstandingChapter 1: Clarifying the Objective.Chapter 2: Understanding Understanding.Chapter 3: Practicing the Stillness of the Body.Chapter 4: Practicing the Stillness of Emotions.Chapter 5: Practicing the Stillness of the Mind.Chapter 6: Overcoming the Initial Challenges.Chapter 7: Understanding - A Lifestyle Choice.Chapter 8: Specific Meditation GuidesBreath ConcentrationDo Nothing MeditationMindfulness MeditationInsight MeditationManifestation MeditationChapter 9: Beyond the Basics of MeditationPart 2: Self-Conflict ResolutionsAnxiety & FearNon-CommitmentArgumentsBrain FogPart 3: Beyond Effective MeditationUnderstanding the School of IncarnationKarma - An indepth, yet simplified approach.Uprooting Desire - A Complete UnderstandingRemoving Character FlawsEmbodying Character VirtuesRelationship Perspectives - “If we are not growing together, we are growing apart.”Part 4: Pointers for Daily Self-RealizationsThe Primal Choice : The Number One Most Life Transformactive Experience You Will Continually HaveThose who know don’t talk. Those who talk don’t know.” -(experiential knowing vs intellectual knowing) & why?Self-Guide: The Novice is Within the MasterPart 5: Misperceptions of Reality“That’s common sense!”“You can’t plant a garden if the weeds have all the soil.”Prologue: Revealing a Plan of UnderstandingThe plan is simple: Seek understanding.If at any time throughout this practice you feel stuck, irritated, frustrated, stressed or any combination of undesirable experiences, please remember the golden rule: seek understanding. Understanding is the backbone of all things done well. Of everything that exists, nothing of worth can exist without a firm understanding of how to do it well, period. Before you can do this well, you need a firm, solid, unshakable understanding. You gain this understanding by proving what works best for you and what makes your practice truly effective.By saying this, I am addressing a misperception before you have the opportunity to misperceive the purpose of this book. My advice is in no way ment to prove anything to you or for you. I am simply explaining what I have discovered and describing what has worked best for me. Throughout the contents of this book, I am speaking directly to YOU with a lot of “you” statements, because this book is first and foremost my manual for meditating effectively. Even though I am the author, this book is writing itself. My body is simply the instrument of its expression while my personal experiences remain the blueprint for its construction. So, I am actually speaking to Oneself.Now, taking this into consideration, is is likely that some or most of the guidance I offer will work, provided you give it your sincerest attempts and follow the guidance from your Self. My words, advice or guidance is not meant to convey the feeling of “this is how it is and this is the only way it is”. My guidance is not a one shoe fits all, but a generalize blueprint that can be adjusted, as needed, so that you can discover what works best for you. Depending on how simliar you are to me will determine how much you may need to adjust, because this book is made to fit me, not you. In order to discover what works best for you, you must stop agreeing with your assumptions just because you suddenly like or dislike what is conveyed on face value.If I allowed you to proceed without first making it clear to not agree with your assumptions, I would be setting the stage for you to become just another follower. The world has plenty of followers, and I do not need any. I need you to be a leader and take responsibility for what you choose to agree with or choose to disagree with. I am asking you to inspect what you believe to be true and assess the validity of such statements continuously. Even if you find a great interest in what I have to say and you wish to incorporate it into your life immediately, do not even think about it! Do not follow any advice proscribed in this book until you have examined it to the core! You must be sure of your sureness every step of the way. That is how you build an unshakable understanding!Throughout this process, I will be taking you step by step through the layers of your physical, emotional and mental psychology as this applies to the labyrinth within. While this task may seem like an impossible undertaking, it has been my experience that if you explore every corner and walk every path, the maze soon becomes familiar. Once you become familiar with what is really going on inside your inner world, the fundamental dynamics of how this maze operates will begin to reveal itself to you. Surprisingly, when this information begins to dawn on you, you will be amazed at how simple, obvious, intelligent and amusing your human being really is.If you give this practice your sincere attention and apply your efforts with a firm understanding, your progress will expedite you into a new world of your own creation. While it took me many years to come to these conclusions, the purpose of this book is so that you can experience zero delay in your ability to see results, provided you learn to follow your own guidance along the way. While it is my intent that I leave you with no stone unturned, if you have any questions, feel free to message me. EnjoyChapter 1: Clarifying the ObjectiveMany call the act of any sitting contemplation - meditation, but not everyone knows or understands how to meditate effectively. An effective meditation almost guarantees you are going to walk away and learn something significant. An ineffective meditation may reveal nothing of importance to you, yet you keep sitting and trying, but not really understanding what you are doing, not doing, or how it can affect the effectiveness of your ongoing practice. A practitioner can practice for years without ever truly understanding or achieving anything significant. I know this to be true, because I spent many years practicing meditation fruitlessly. It wasn’t until I fully realized how to meditate effectively, did I begin to witness regular, life changing results.I will admit, before I learned how to do this, my practice was hit and miss. It actually took me a quite while to get it right, because most of the information in the public domain is watered down and passed around as regurgitated knowledge. This is most likely due to an honest desire to share this valuable information, but never really experiencing these lessons for oneself. The result is a society of misinformed “meditators” that are not utilizing their resources to the fullest potential. In a very real sense, there are people out there that are really trying to improve their quality of life, but are going absolutely no where in comparison to what each person is truly capable of achieving.I know, contrary to popular beliefs, there are actual ways of practicing meditation correctly. How? It is correct, when it successfully enables you to become more aware of the concern you sought to understand. It is correct, when you are able to come to your own conclusions and solve your own problems. It is correct, when building concentration, feeling relaxation, centering in peace and developing mental clarity are the prerequisites to an effective meditation and are definitely not the aims of meditation. This is huge! Meditation is not meant to be dumbed down, so that you can learn how to relax or “tune out” your daily concerns. The purpose of meditation is to solve your own problems and grow into an understanding of who-you-truly-are.In my experiences, when a student encounters a teacher with an inadequate perspective of guiding the student, that teacher is obligated to direct the student along the next path of a more qualified teacher. In light of this reality, I must inform you that I am not qualified to teach you everything you need to know in order to solve every concern you may have. However, due to the depth of my understanding of what experiences I do have, I believe I know just enough about what makes meditation truly effective, that I can guide you through a process of realizing this understanding for yourself.While my advice may seem useful, if you truly want the best and most accurate source of information, you need to go to the source. The absolute best source of information for all concerns concerning your reality is the Self, your Self. Secondly, if for some reason you can not access a clear reception to your Self, you go to the next best source, the person in touch with his Self. Begin right now by listening to your heart, and using your mind to analyze the accuracy of what everyone else spreading. Don’t even believe what I say on face value; critic me, test me, put this advice through the hoops. If this doesn’t work for you, use what works and move on. If this works for you, use it!You can move on, but don’t stop improving on what truly matters - you.Be better.The world needs you.What are you waiting for?Chapter 2: Understanding UnderstandingChapter 3: Practicing the Stillness of the BodyThe primary state of being for meditation is to sit and do nothing. Do nothing. Think nothing. Be nothing. This is the primary state, because in order to consciously gain a grip over your body, your mind, your emotions, and inevitably your life, you need to be able to intervene between the cycles of the mind influencing the body and the body influencing the mind. Without intervention, your body becomes a reflection of your mind, and you mind becomes a reflection of its past conditioning. However, before you can really experience this primary state, there are some prerequisites that you will need to build upon first.Initially, before you begin picking any specific subject of observation, you will need to build up a bit of self-discipline with your ability to sit still. Sitting still comes before you sit long. If you are constantly moving, adjusting, tapping, or fidgeting, you would only be creating more distractions for yourself if you tried to sit for any greater length of time. I suggest that you start with a personal session goal of 15mins for this and the remainder of the other subjects of meditation until you feel comfortable with longer durations of sitting still. Even through the goal is preset, your first objective is to see how close you come to this goal in your first session. On the next session, you primary mission is to meet or exceed your previous best time, with a secondary opportunity of completing the main goal. If you earn the calm of being able to complete this goal for multiple sessions in a row and you feel ready for a longer duration, increase the personal session goal according to your preference. I recommend intervals of 5-15mins, but the choice is yours. With all that said, our first priority is in assuring you of your ability to sit still. Ready?Practicing Stillness:Pick a space to sit where you can sit comfortably. If you are unfamiliar with sitting upright on the floor, sit in a chair.Place your hands on your lap, flat, face down. It does not matter how or where.We will not address posture at this time. It is more important to sit comfortably, as straight as you comfortably can.Affirm to yourself out loud, “I am going to practice sitting still.” Close your eyes. Observe what happens.When you are truly ready to begin, take a deep breath and exhale out of the mouth.Remain still. Continue to breath out of the nose.Continue for your preset session duration or as long as you can. Strive for gains.When you have finished, congratulate yourself and assess your performance.I have made one line of instructions italicized in order to emphasize the importance of creating a trigger for yourself. When you have your intention ready, and you are sure about your sureness, this is the moment when you put your actions behind your words by putting a purposively exaggerated breath behind your intents for the session. By practicing this trigger every time you meditate, it assures you of your resolve to complete the task you have set for yourself. Likewise, within a few days of conditioning your body to remain still, the stillness you learn will permanently be linked to this initial trigger. With practice, this will enable you to effortlessly go into the mediation with complete stillness.Next, I’m going to describe what a typical student can expect from their untrained body, so that you will not get discouraged when you notice how your body does not obey your every command. Also, please keep in mind that this follows the same lines of logic as when you are building your concentration within any subject of meditation, and in fact, any area of your life.Harnessing the StillnessStep 1: If a movement, or moment of non-stillness spontaneously occurs, do what?Upon first trial, your mind and indeed your body, will wander. Instead of becoming aggravated about this happening. Instead of making a thought about it. Instead of talking to yourself about it. Instead of judging yourself, or putting yourself down about it, the key is to just notice it and let it go. When I say notice it, I really mean that I need you to place your awareness fully on it, and when I say let go, I really mean I need you to remove your awareness fully from it, and put it on anything else you would like. Notice it and let go.Step 2: Notice it and let go. Now what?After you have let go of the movement, or sensation, resolve within yourself to be more committed to stillness. You may do this by internally speaking to yourself, or you may symbolically start your session over by retaking that initial first exhale out of the mouth. This is my preference. Now that you have started over, you have a fresh slate and can try again. Watch what happens and if it happens again, follow through with steps 1 and 2 again until the time for your practice expires, or you do the best you can.Step 3: Advanced : Instead of reacting, try relaxing.In the beginning stages of this practice, you may have a tendency to react to a potential movement, itch or agitation with feelings of increasing those sensations until you feel compelled to move, scratch or adjust those areas of your body. One way of dealing with such sensations is to continue steps 1 and 2 and just do your best. Over a few trials or a few practices, those same phantom wiggles will not occur as your body becomes more familiar with this odd state of stillness. An advanced tactic for dealing with this issue is to occasionally experiment with recalling a feeling of relaxation, commonly linked with feelings of falling, drifting, sinking, melting, swaying, etc. This skill is particular important when you need to calm the emotions that might be associated to the uprising of those potential movements. It is useful to note that it is not the phantom wiggle that compels you to act, nor an inherent inability to remain still, but the emotional charge you have associated with it. Keep practicing and you will nail it.After 4 or more days of practicing this process, you may begin to notice you are sitting still for longer and longer periods of that initial 15 mins. In my own experience, on the 4th day, I was able to sit still for the full 15 mins. I was so excited about this achievement, I took a break and immediately followed this sessions with my first 45min session. I don’t recommend this for everyone, but during that session, my mind suddenly became silent and still, and I experienced a clarity of awareness like no other. This was the first time I purposively noticed a silence to the inner critique. I felt free. Challenge yourself if you feel up to it, but continue with this process otherwise.Once you can sit still for a solid 15mins, you are ready to proceed to the next chapter’s instructions.Chapter 4: Practicing the Stillness of EmotionsPracticing the art of stilling your emotions is indeed an art that you can continue to improve upon for the rest of your life, yet the benefits come fast and easily once you are able to keep your body still. When I reference to the “stillness” of emotions, I am actually talking about emotional poise. Emotional poise means you are not inclined in the positive or in the negative direction on the continuum of emotional excitement. Your focus is to remain poised and attentively ready in the middle of the extremes. This does not mean that you will stop feeling emotions or become a robot by practicing this skill. This means that you will begin to investigate and experiment with the possibilities of becoming more sensitive to emotional disturbances, rather than compulsivly engaging in excessive emotional uprisings. By becoming more sensitive and less overwhelmed, you will overcome the obstruction that distorts your perception and limits the scope of your awareness with ease.Of all the information, tips, tricks and guidance I offer in this book, this skill is the most important and most overlooked prerequisite to the development of a meditation practice that is truly effective. If you learned only this skill and one other skill: The Primal Choice, your life would be forever changed. As literally and precise as I strive to be with every word in this book, I am emphasizing ZERO exaggeration when I convey to you the power of combining these two skills. Miraculous life altering and synchronistic happenings become common experiences. Luck becomes effortless, practical, and obviously inherent to your ongoing livelihood. Nothing is impossible as you begin to gain a firm and unshakable understanding of these two skills. However, before we get into learning The Primal Choice, you need to learn this skill first; I call it: The Silent Breath.The silent breath is essentially a very simple and very powerful relaxation response technique. It is heavily overlooked due to its simplicity and the subtle influences that correspond to its execution when you begin to use it on daily basis. This technique is my own creation based on the influences of two other sources: The Silva Mind Control Method and the Photoreading Whole Mind System by Paul R. Steele. Both of these resources are meant to give you access to a greater depth of your mind’s capabilites. The Silva Method aims at developing altered states of consciousness such at precognition, tele-empathy(telepathy), astral projection, astral communications, clairvoyance, claircognizance and many other abilities. The Photoreading Whole Mind System aims at developing your natural ability to utilize your subconscoius mind to process literary information at a rate of 10,000+ words per second. In the early stages of this skill, you go through a whole process of familiarizing yourself with the content, structure and organization of the book through the lens of a well defined purpose, enabling you to cut study time and retention efforts to less than a 1/3rd of your former efforts. At the advance stages of this skill, you can spontaneously recall the necessary information to answer any questions about the content without having any conscious attention focused on the indidivual words, sentences or phrases. I know: wow.For the purpose of understanding how to understand and applying this understanding effectively in order to realize the solutions to your personal concerns and grow into a greater unfoldment of who-you-truly-are, our aim falls somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.In my personal experiences of practicing the aforementioned techniques, I discovered that their approaches seemed to contain some inherent limitations for entering into the ideal state during everyday life circumstances, or when endeavoring to understand the Self. The first limitation involves counting down from 3 to 2 to 1 and repeating a phrase at the end of the each count: Re-lax. You are required to do all of this while imaging a scenario and feeling the sensations of a past experience. This is the equivalent of trying to juggle five unfamiliar objects for the first time, yet you are still clumsy with one! The second limitation imposed by their techniques revolves around the fact that you are talking to yourself! Purposively speaking to oneself while in an altered state is highly suggestive of the outcome of that state and is a primary inhibitor when we are striving to see clearly. In order to see clearly, we can not have any other suggestions other than to see clearly. Due to these inherit distractions within their techniques, I could not keep using them for my ongoing practice of seeking to understand.After the improvisation of my personalize version, I began to experiment with applying it in other areas of my life, not just my meditation practice. Amazingly, the affect of practicing this skill continues to produce a profound result for each and every opportunity I use it.A generalized and immediately noticeable effect is what we will refer to as the ideal state: a sense of relaxed alertness. Upon practicing this technique for a few days, you may notice your own physical, emotional and mental conditioning suddenly shift into a more relaxed state upon applying a conscious intention to use the silent breath. This shift becomes increasingly more distinct depending on your familiarity and your prior stress-related conditioning before feeling the shift. The next and far less noticable effect occurs within the totality of your consciousness and influences every perception and assessment you can have about your reality. This is how we directly influence your ability to interpret, understand, utilize and express yourself more effectively than you ever thought possible. We are able to do this due to the fundamental construction of our mind, human body and the organization of our consciousness flowing through it.I designed the following exercises in order to train your ability with the silent breath. We are technically using the tool of your mind in order to create a tool for retraining your body’s conditioned reactions. Your objective is to learn how to accurately practice the silent breath in a controlled setting with an increasing depth of effectiveness. You will commit to a daily practice, but you will utilize set times as well as make use of the “boring” periods throughout the day. Focus on your personal practice for now and in the upcoming chapters, we will discuss more specific details on how to utilize the silent breath in daily life and transform your life into a realm of amazing possibilities.Before you begin practicing this technique, make sure you are in your ideal environment and are already in a pleasant mood. If a stressor is on your mind, or has happened recently, this can interfere with being able to connect with the necessary memories and feelings. Begin when you are ready by assuming your seat and closing your eyes. These instructions build on and from the previous chapter. Enjoy.The Silent BreathInhale silently and exhale out the mouth symbolizing your conviction to do your best.Inhale imagining a memory of relaxation; exhale feeling the sensations of relaxation.Recall a memory in which you feel a sensation of falling, drifting, sinking or releasing tension. If you don’t have a memory, go make one! It is different for everyone, but choose a memory that you can relate to and recall the feelings easily. I like to use a memory of having mud on my face, the mud drying and falling off as I gradually feel lighter. Pick one. If you are a imaginative type of person, you might see yourself melting like a candle. If you are a mental type, you might recall rush of relief when someone stops pressuring you. If you are an emotional type of person, you might recall quite moments after a good, happy cry. If you work a lot, you might like the feelings of sinking into the sofa after a long day of work, forgetting your struggles. If you are a physical person, you might recall the feeling of exhaustion and laying on the floor after high exertion. If you are a kid on the inside, you might recall sudden weight shift at the top of a trampoline jump, just as you start to fall. Whatever works for you. Make it your own. Inhale the physical details as if you are experiencing that event again; exhale the feelings of that relaxing moment.Inhale imagining a memory of being peaceful; exhale feeling the sensations of peace or relaxation.Recall a moment in your past in which you can relate to being mentally content. You had no stresses, no worries, no concerns. You are looking for a memory of feeling release or peace. The one I use is when I used to sit idling on swing. Likewise, I remember the last day of school when I was heading home, relieved that the school year had ended. You might have a memory of sitting on the beach without a care in the world. Maybe you have a memory of the stillness that follows when someone says something useful and profound enough to cause you to introspect. Perhaps you recall the silentness that follows a good long cry. Who knows? Only you. Pick one.Inhale imagining a flower, noticing the details; exhale feeling the sensations of the previous steps.Imagine a flower and the details of its beauty. Feel it in your hand for a moment. Maybe alter it in your mind a little to make it more unique to this practice. The purpose of picking a specific flower with specific flaw is that you can use this memory later as a trigger for entering into this ideal state quicker and quicker if needed. However, once your body learns to spontansously recall these deep feelings of physical and mental relaxation after a conscious silent breath, you may not need this portion of the exercise any more.Inhale watching the breath as best you can; exhale feeling the sensations of peace and relaxation.Continue practicing this last breath as long a you like or until the end of the session.This is the silent breath we aim to develop.If you suddenly notice a slight drop and a deepening of the relaxation & peace, follow it with your attention. Focus on the feeling throughout alternating breaths instead of the breath itself. When the feeling’s intensity subsides, but you feel a new depth, recall the flower step to mind for 1–3 breaths, then begin the entire 3 step breath sequence again before returning to silent breath and continuing it alone. Aim for a depth of feeling and associate it to the flower. This is so that the idea of the flower helps you trigger this same depth in future sessions.Integrating A Body ScanIntegrating Different PosturesIntegrating Substitute TriggersRe-Lax: A Powerful Supplementary TriggerIf your inner critique is quite strong and the steps of this technique are difficult to focus on, try adding in a temporary Re-Lax. By mentally stating re-lax, you are giving your critic something to keep it busy while your awareness is focused on the sensations. This can be incredibly useful during emotional upheavals when your inner critic can start to nag you into reacting. Don’t fall for it! Use every tool you have, but don’t forget to return to the silent breath once you reach the ideal state, that way you are continuously training your conscious breathing as well.Inhale while internally speaking a long drawn out, “Re”. Feeling the conscious inhale.Exhale while internally speaking a long drawn out, “Lax”. Feeling the sensations of relaxation & peace.Additional Depth SuggestionsChapter 4: Practicing the Stillness of the MindSo, you have been practicing diligently a bit each day, and possibly a week or more has transpired. You have learned how to still your body with patience and persistence, and better, you have learned how to recall those feelings of relaxation and peacefulnesss at will. As you will soon discover, these two skills are pivotal to your ability to get the most out of every minute of your meditation practice. Why?When endeavoring to understand oneself and solve your own problems, it can be ridiculously difficult to see the contents of the mind clearly when the body is moving or when the emotions are flowing. It is difficult, because when the body is not still, it is constantly sending new information to the brain to be considered. This new information can propel your consciousness in an infinite number of directions with each new direction having an equal opportunity to do the same. Likewise, if this wan’t enough to cause confusion, and it certainly is, the emotions can multiply this effect exponentially!As our next step in the process of learning how to meditate effectively, we are going to examine what it means to practice the stillness of the mind. When I say stillness, I really mean a stillness of mind, not a silentness. This stillness can be metaphorically imaged as pond that is gradually becoming more still as the night approaches, because less bodily movements, emotional thrusts, and internal dialogues are jumping into it. As the degree of these phenomenons lesson, so too do their respective ripples.…rewriting section…but before we get too deeply into the topic, I need to clarify that I do not mean the silencing of the mind, or the silencing of the inner critic. It is true, that with continued practice and the honing of your skills at concentration, you too can experience a degree of silentness from your own inner critic. While this experience can bring forth a greater sense of clarity, peace and contentment, don’t let it become the aim, or replace your intentions for a more purpose driven outcome. Freedom from the stress of your inner critic is a landmark along the journey of greater revelations, so don’t confuse it as a destination or a significant achievement.Finally, it is absurdly difficult to see a situation clearly when that inner critic is constantly sharing its opinion with you about everything under the sun, which can in turn trigger its own set of bodily and emotional reactions. Yap yap yap yap yap. It just loves to hear itself speak. We need to learn how to be at peace with this voice, so that concentration becomes easier, not more confusing. After all, you are after the realizations that solve problems, not the confusion the creates them.Luckily, whenever you begin practicing the skill of concentration correctly, not matter what the activity happens to involve, concentrating single mindedly actually helps silence that inner critic, because it is the effect of concentration that dilutes all distractions.Step 1: Choose a subject based on your need, its usefulness, guidance, or your intuition.We will choose a subject of introspection that will remain the same for the next few sessions, so that you can build up a familiarity with the topic. We will start off with Breath Meditation, because it is fundamental to all other subjects of consideration. Likewise, your body is always with the breath, and the stillness of emotions is directly linked to that silent breath we will all grow to love. This is the beginning of the essentials, and you can always improve upon this, or go back to it if you have no other subject in mind for that session. I recommend sticking to 20 min duriations at first. I advise this, because you need to be able to practice a little challenge perfectly before you endeavor to practice a larger challenge effectively. However, after this, there are no limits!Step 2: Begin from the beginning.Having decided upon your intention for the duration of this session...Symbolizing your conviction for your intention, exhale out of the mouth to begin.Breathing through the nose, bring your awareness to your breathing pattern.Watch the inhalation, noticing its duration, breadth, physical sensations, feelings, or any emotions that arise.Watch the retention on the top, or notice the point of transition into the exhale.Watch the exhalation, noticing its characteristics in similarity to the inhalation.Watch the retention on the bottom, or notice the point of transition into the inhale.Begin noticing the quality of breath characteristic and letting go of each. Follow the flow.Continue watching for the duration of the session.Congratulate your efforts no matter how big or small. Practicing is what counts.Step 3: Tips & Tricks for Developing ConcentrationI will refer to this section as my tips & tricks for developing concentration. These are the instructions that are most important while you improve your abilities at meditation and are paramount to your ongoing success. If you had no other reason for meditating, except to learn these skill-sets, your entire life would be transformed. In fact, it is your ability to maintain a focus that will ultimately determine how skillful you become in any area of your life. This is true, because being able to guide yourself into deeping your concentration is the single most influencial factor in all disciplines of success.As you will notice below, each of these tips is followed by one or more tricks for dealing with a specific distraction that arises during your practice. In essence, the tricks are only useful, so long as that distraction continues to arise for the unconditioned practitioner. With increased practice, your familiarity with using these tips will eventually become so automatic and spontaneous that you no longer notice those distractions reoccurring. Thus, you develop the ability to concentrate and meditate effectively. It is that simple.The only difference that you need apply if you wish to carryover these skill-sets into any other area of your life is to change the intent from “returning to the breath,” to returning to your focus in the task at hand. The new-age lingo for being more present in life, is actually the skill of improving your concentration on what it is that you are doing at any given moment. If you wish to become more present and feel the peace and calm of the eternal moment, you really just need to learn how to concentrate better on any given moment you are presently experiencing. It all begins here.So, without further delay, I hope you enjoy these tips and their relative tricks and practice them diligently for as long as they remain useful.Tips & TricksIf you notice your attention has wondered, kindly bring your attention back to the breath.Practice guiding yourself to stay on course without internal judgement or labeling. Imagine that you are teaching a puppy to sit for the first time. It is a puppy; you expect it to wander. The same principle applies to your ability to concentrate, on this or any other task. Be kind to yourself and simply redirect your focus as soon as you happen to notice that it is off track again. With practice, you will be amazed at how your body will actually automate this process almost instinctively. Likewise, you may also begin to notice the differences in duriation for which you notice your attention being off subject. Very intersting.If you notice your attention drawn to a reference with emotional emphasis, kindly return to the breath. +1This is a prime opportunity to practice your ability to remain emotionally poised. When you return to the breath, allow that first breath to mirror a slow and silent inhale, followed by your skillful recall of what it feels like to be physically and emotionally relaxed. Continue alternating between following the breath specifically and using the silent breath to nullify the emotional charge. By closely following a compulsively stressful focus with a consciously peaceful focus, you are dynamically restructuring how you will feel and perceive that same focus in future instances. With practice, your body directly associate the silent breath with the feelings of relaxation and peace, allowing this effect to become effortless. You may even notice and remember the differences between the intensities of each experience, slowing seeing those ideas lose their emotional charge.If you notice difficulty keeping the focus, dizziness, or a rapid shifting of focus, kindly return to the breath.+1This experience occurs when you are not familiar with the practice of focusing your awareness, noticing when it is has moved, what it has moved to, how often it has moved there, how long it was there, or if you made a decision about it before you returned to the focus. The trick here is to guide your focus into slowing down by slowing down the rhythm of your breathing. Take twice as long to inhale, exhale, and pause as you would normally.!!! If you notice that you don’t notice improvement, kindly return to the breath.!!!This is a very important aspect to all areas of skill improvement as well as maintaining an improvement bias to any meditation focus. If you notice that you don’t notice improvement, you may need to reduce the scope of your concern, so that you are focused more narrowly on the task at hand. When applied to breath meditation, this means that for each inhale and exhale, your concern ends and begins anew on the following breath. Your intent is to focus your conviction into improving a single breath until it is done perfectly. The experience of this done accurately is that upon reflection, you recall nothing else but what you focused upon. You have no memory of noticing an external or internal distractions that usually occur. Once you are able to hold your focus on one breath, then you begin to expand into two breaths, and three and so forth. In anything you do, if you want the final product to be the absolute best quality, the quality of every component must reflect the absolute best. So, if you want to develope a masterful skill of concentration on a full session of breaths, you need to first understand how to masterfully experience this with a single breath, first.Combine this with slowing the breath and the silent breath and you have an amazing effect:By slowing down your practice, you are increasing the amount of awareness you can give to each breath. Next, reduce your scope of the task into a smaller reference frame of care by concerning yourself with only one breath at a time. Combine these with with feelings of relaxation and peace on that exaggerated exhale, and you have a recipe for heightening your rate of perception! As your rate of perception increases due to this slowing and relaxing in peace, it is as if your mind is allowed to observe its experience through more frames per second. These additional frames give you the experience of “more time” between the impulses that are arisings or pulling your attention away from the focus, thus you are able to concentrate more easily, notice more clearly, and feel even greater depths to those feelings of relaxation and peace. If you then return back to your usual rate of breathing, you may notice it just got easier! Experiment! Paradoxically, even though you are experiencing more frames per moment perceptually, because you are not familiar with all of the general contents of your mind, your conscious awareness may consolidate this experience in your memory as the experience: “Wow. Time flew by, but I don’t recall much importance.” As your practice grows, you will be able to notice more meaningful moments within this and your other subjects of meditation, and you will have a different experience: “Wow. Time flew by, but I realized so much! How did I fit so much into so little?!”If you notice you are suddenly daydreaming, fantasizing, or considering what you do or do not want, kindly return to the breath.+1Beginners are often unaware of our tendency to fantasize on a moment by moment basis. Good fantasizes are labeled as “wishes” while bad fantasies could be called “worries”. Notice these. It is difficult, but persistence is king. The experience of noticing you are fantasizing is liken to suddenly being dumbstruck. “Why am I thinking about this?” It can become a source of amusement to watch yourself drift in and out of delusions while striving to build up a strong practice of conscious attentiveness. Try not to make an idea about this and kindly return to the breath.If you notice these fantasies having an emotional emphasis, these are called “Desires” and they are causing you emotional suffering. It is very important that you dissolve this emotional attachment with the silent breath. By desiring what you do not have, you sow the seeds of discontentment for what you do have. Nip this in the bud and you will begin to experience real peace in your everyday life. There are two forms of desires: Desiring what you want to happen, and desiring what you do not what to happen. Learn to recognize them throughout your daily life and, “kindly return to the moment.”On occasions, breath meditation can really excite some great ideas to arise during these sudden daydreams, but don’t turn them into desires. This is one reason that it is better to keep this kind of meditation restricted to chucks of 20mins. You can rest assured that if you have a great idea, you will remember it. You can either write it down afterwards or begin a separate meditation on that subject exclusively. I usually choose to act on them afterwards, or remember all of them. When you are familiar with this practice, you will realize that you can never forget anything, unless you don’t need it.If you notice a phantom itch, tempting you to move or scratch it, kindly return to the breath. +1Even through you have put in the practice for stilling your body, there will be occasions when old habits die hard. This is true for all aspects of psychology. If you have done something before, you retain the potential to do so again. Remain vigilant and remember your training. Recall that final breath from the 3–2–1 Method, just as with the emotional distraction, and return your attention to the breath. Perfect practice makes perfect.If you notice your inner diologue remarking on what you observe, kindly return to the breath.This habit of accepting what your internal dialogue says to be true, without assessing the validity of its statements, can be a tough cookie to crack. Sometimes the best medicine is to simply ignore what it says for the duration of the session. If is really important, I’m sure you will remember it later. If it isn’t important, I’m sure that voice will keep trying to distract you from what really matters. My personal preference is to combat this inner voice by non-competition. I simply pretend for a moment that I didn’t quite catch that, or more often than not, the totality of my practice and repetition of practicing “returning to the breath” is so entrained, it occurs spontaneously before I even notice what was said. Ignore the voice as you would ignore the hatters. Focus on the task.If you notice your awareness suddenly focused on an external phenomenon, kindly return to the breath.Generally, I advise picking an environment that is silent with minimal distractions for conducting your meditations on a regular basis. This is important for the beginner, because it really reduces the total number of possible stimuli that could potentially draw your attention. However, there will come a time when you really feel a need to sit down and reflect, but silence is not an option. I recommend that you occasionally challenge yourself by having a session in an environment that is completely contradictory to your ideals. This will strengthen your ability to focus much more than if you were to only practice concentrating in silent places. Rest assured, with practice, your ability to “kindly return to the breath” will eventually outweigh any distracting obstacles.If you notice your focus is too tight, kindly return to the breath. +1This one is difficult for the beginner to notice at all, and usually becomes more self-evident the longer this “tightness” persists. Basically, the meditator is trying to use too much willpower in order to enforce the conditioning of concentration instead of focusing on the persistence of the practice. If you are trying too hard, a slight sense of agitation or disappointment will begin to seed itself within your ongoing practice. The agitation comes from the stress you are generating and the disappointment will result if you persist in this stress and start to notice that your progress has stalled. The key to good training is to let the conditioning do the work for you and save your willpower for when you really need it, like deciding to meditate during a challenging emotional upheaval. Be patient. The opportunity will come. Return to the breath with the silent breath until you feel this tightness subside and simultaneously notice your face and relax the muscles that seem tight. The eyes can be tricky for holding tension. At all times you are focusing on maintaining an alertness that is balanced between a deep physical relaxation and an emotional poise that is not too excited in any direction.If you notice your focus is too loose or lazy, kindly return to the breath.This is the opposing issue to having a focus that is too tight. This can occur when you haven’t noticed your body or head slouching forward, backward, or to the side. Alternatively, this can also occur if you have forgotten to set you intenton for the session prior to taking that first exhale out of the mouth. In this condition, you are almost too relaxed and you may need to introduce a bit of physical strain on your body in order to perk your attention back into alignment. There are many ways to go about this, but I will list what I have found works best for me. Check your posture. If you notice that your body or head has fallen out of alignment from your original posture, adjust your posture briefly and kindly return to the breath. Check your tongue. Notice if your tongue is lazily sitting in your mouth or if it is pressed firmly to the front roof of your mouth. When endeavoring to bring your focus back into balance, forcibly pushing your tongue to the roof of your mouth can give you just the right amount of physical tension in order to bring back from having a lazy focus.If you notice your body falling asleep, kindly return to the breath.I am reminding you to kindly return to the breath, so that you keep your commitment to finish this session. However, you should consider getting more sleep or practicing at a time in which you can remain more alert. Alternatively, you could welcome the challenge, and overtime enable yourself to concentrate single-mindedly despite your body’s suggested condition.Overcoming FearsFear is your False Evidence Appearing Real. Whatever evidence you are using to make these claims of a “right to be fearful” are incomplete. I know this to be true, because I have conquered many fears, and I am on my way to conquering them all. If you saw fear for what it truly is within the context of who you truly are, you would be more amused or dumbstruck with clarity than actually afraid.Seek to understand it and you will control it.When fear is identified as happening, the heartrate increases and the breathing constricts. This is also known as anxiety. The only difference between anxiety and fear is the degree of the debilitating physical, emotional and mental side effects, but they are the same. Anxiety is seeded in any experience, real or imagined, as soon as you define it as being unsupporitve of you by saying, “This is bad. This sucks. I hope this never happens to me! Oh no! That is horrible! Etc”. Your body literally enters into a fight or flight mode, prepping you to take action. Adrenaline and emotions flow through your body, and even through these are the same properties of feeling excitement, you are perceiving it as fear due to labeling it as threatening to your safety. The effects of fear continue to remain active, so long as you allow the cycle of your mind reacting to your body & your body reacting to your mind, to continue due to remaining unconscious of how each opporates, or not practicing how you can intervene.The reactive cycle entails:You notice an event and declare: “This event is bad if it ever happens to me.”Upon defining the experience to be unsupportive of you, you enter into fight or flight mode.Fight or flight prepares you for action, but if you sit on it, it becomes anxiety.You dwell on it with emotional emphasis(worrying), it intensifies into a fear and you forget about it.Circumstances arise that appear to be similar to the event you saw or imagined: defined as “bad”.Noticing the similarities, but not waiting to check the accuracy, you react and attempt to protect, defend or flee.Emotional attachment intensifies due to reacting in the moment; your worries are reinforced.You are safe, because it was a false alarm. You reacted to what you thought, not what it was.You dwell on it with emotional emphasis(worrying) and forget about it.Circumstances arise that appear to be similar to the event you saw or imagined: defined as “bad”.Noticing the similarities, but not waiting to check the accuracy, you react and attempt to protect, defend or flee.One of these realities occur:It was another false alarm, but you continue to reinforce the cycle.It was a real alarm, but you made it out safely.It was a real alarm, but you did not make it out safely.It was a false alarm, but you became conscious of this pattern and discontinued giving the ideas you “feared” emotional emphasis, and they stopped attracting these realities or opportunities to your awareness. You are safe, so long as you remain responsible for your present tense emotional state and where you place the emphasis.In order to intervene between the cycles of the mind reacting to the body and the body reacting to the mind, you need to develope an effective meditation practice that enables you to train yourself in the skill of emotional poise. By developing this skill, you will be able to neutralize the emotional component of your “fear”. This is also the component that compels you to dwell on the subject despite your logic knowing how illogical it is to believe. This is the same component that compels people to gorge on junk food when they know they want different food, or keep smoking when they know they want to quit. Emotions compel us into acting on the images we associate with them - period, regardless of the opinions or intellect of our inner critic.Seek to understand the fear. Seek to understand your Self. Seek to understand who you are and how you relate to the fear and how the fear relates to your own mind. Strive to understand how it became your experience, and why it continues to remain your companion. Seek to see your fear and its content within the context of what is actually happening within you. Challenge your fear with emotional poise. Don’t let it control you simply because you don’t understand it. Analyze your fear and examine its validity with a razor sharp focus. Fear is nothing, but the creation of a desire you believe can not support you, yet it can. Strive to understand this and your fear will evaporate like the illusion it truly is. As soon as you are able to hold the images of the “fear” within your focus, without giving it your emotional emphasis, you will be able to see for yourself how illogical it truly is and you will easily let go of dwelling on this subject. The power is within youI am going to assume for a moment that you already know how to still the body, feel relaxation, center in peace, and develope mental clarity using the guidance provided throughout Part 1: The Foundations of Clarity. If you desire to overcome your fears, follow this guide:Dissolving FearStep 1: Intend to Assess the IllusionAssume the ideal state in your ideal environment.Exhale out of your mouth to begin, symbolizing your intented conviction.When you are ready, bring to mind an experience you are afraid of having or seeing.Notice how this experience feels.Notice if your inner critic speaks.Notice if your heart begins to race.Notice if your body twitches at all.Notice if your imagination creates images.Notice if you are recalling a past memory.If this fear excites other fears to arise, focus on just this fear for this session.Take a break and jot down what you have noticed about your bodily reactions thus far. Please, strive to understand that these are only reactions to your mind’s past interactions with such experiences, or reactions to your mind’s predictions of future outcomes. These are not fixed in any shape, way, or form, unless you refuse to confront them in a systematic fashion, confortable to your own pace. You can use this practice in order to recondition peace into any experience, just as your previous experiences conditioned these reactions into these experiences. All it takes is that you decide how you would prefer to feel and recondition accordingly. The fact that you are afraid is a clear indication that you are seeing the circumstances unclearly. Strive for clarity and your own understanding will guide you to the light.Step 2: Intend to Condition ClarityAssume the ideal state in your ideal environment.Exhale out of your mouth to begin, symbolizing your intended conviction.When you are ready, bring to mind that experience you are afraid of having or seeing.Notice anything you may have noticed before.Notice if this has changed at all since before.After noticing all there is to notice, bring your awareness to your insight meditation practice.Feel the silent breath and the feelings of relaxation and mental peace this invokes.Slow your breathing rate if this is difficult for you in order to increase the side effects.Continue until you have forgotten about your fear and its relative preconditionings.When you are ready, bring to mind that experience again.Notice what you notice, but suspend believing what the critic has to offer.Notice any changes in the intensity or frequency of bodily reactions.When you have had enough of this, or it becomes familiar, return to focusing on the silent breath.Use the silent breath to neutralize any bodily, emotional or mental distractions just as before.Continue until you notice that your body has forgotten the experience and its preconditionings.* Continue alternating experiences of fear with experiences of the silent breath for the duration of this session, or until you have had enough of this activity for the time being. Take into account any reasons your critic has given you for fearing the situation. You will assess the validity of this statements in the next step through a process of experimentation if applicable, otherwise continue with this step until you neutralize all emotionally attachements to the ideas associated to the fear and realize the truth.Take a break and jot down what you have noticed about your bodily reactions thus far. We are going to check these for any truth in the next step. Did they change or sway, even a little bit? How does it feel to know that you can engage these experiences consciously and influence their influence over you? Have you noticed anything new? Continuing practicing this form of insight meditation until you are able to look at any and all internal references of these experiences with emotional poise - no emotional emphasis. Proceed when ready.Now that you can sit with emotional poise during your internal references of the “fear,” it is time to challenge the validity of this fear during more authentic experiences. There are a variety of ways for going about this and each approach is largely determined by your preferences, the pace you have set for yourself, and if your fear is applicable to something you actually would like to do. So, if you fear dancing in public, but you really love to dance and would like to do this someday, step 3 would be for you. However, if you fear being kidnapped, raped, murdered, robbed, hurt, harmed, abused, or killed, this step would be unreasonable and you should continue with step 2 until you overcome the illusion of your fear internally.The general idea is that you need to pick an opportunity that can place your body and eyes in front of the potential experience. Understand, you do not need to “experience” the experience, you just need to be in proximity of the experience and be willing to experience it if you truly feel ready. Ideally, you will pick an opportunity that allows you to witness other people experiencing the fear as a fear as well as different people experiencing it as an enjoyment. Here we go!Step 3: Intend to Experience Reality(What is truly happening?)Assume the ideal state prior to arriving into the opportunity you have chosen.Exhale out of your mouth to begin, symbolizing your intended conviction.As you begin to move forward towards the fruition of the potential experience, notice what you notice.Notice what your inner critic is telling you about the experience to come. Is it true?Look around you. Are other people having the same experiences? Why or why not?Find a comfortable place to stop and rest before continuing towards the “fear”.Take a few minutes or however long you need to practice your silent breath.Condition your body to remain relaxed, your emotions poised, your mind peaceful.Continue until you have forgotten about this process and feel absorbed in the silent breath.Now is the perfect timing to assess what you have learned thus far. Jot it down if you need.Continue this process of two steps forward, one step back. Move toward the experience you thought you feared, and occasionally step back, feel the relaxation, dissolve the emotions, analyze the critic, assess what is truly happening for you.Move closer and closer to the experience until you are able to have it and find the joy in it, or at least not be controlled by it.As you continue this process of repeatedly going through these steps, you will become familiar with your perceived fear. This familiarity and the practice of the silent breath will gradually enable you to neutralize the emotions and clarify your perceptions. It is my intent that by using your meditation practice effectively, you will come to realize that your personal experiences hold no inherent value outside of the value you have attributed to them. The only difference between the experiences you love and the experiences you fear are the reasons you have chosen to believe. However, these reasons are not inherently true and will only appear to remain so, so long as you do not examine them closely.I have used the technique I have listed above for overcoming my fears:Fear of dolls, scary movies, heights, walking on steep roofs, talking to girls, dancing in public sober, public speaking, crying around family or strangers, sharing sexual preferences with a lover, practicing yoga in public, meditating in public, assuming a homeless life for a year, insecurities about how I look, sleeping in obscure places, going to prison, insect stings or bites, bird attacks, fear of acceptance, fear of failure, fighting, confrontations, making mistakes, ruining my life, death, life, rejection, financial freedom, taking responsibility for my actions, standing for what I know to be true, being wrong, being corrected, being taken advantage of, developing disorders, curing those disorders, pain, struggle, following my heart regardless of the opposition….and more. I wish you the best skill in doing the same. Enjoy.I hope this information finds you ready.Sincerely,Michael Smith