The mind is continually open to suggestion, which means moment by moment it is subject to the influence of whatever is influencing it. This means if you entertain negative or counter productive thoughts, it creates an imprint which you gradually come to identify with as it leaves it mark. Fortunately, the same is true of positive thoughts.
Basically, If a particular message or suggestion is continually reinforced, it becomes impressed on the mind, for better or worse. How does this occur? Over time, our thoughts and feelings, which we create, form habitual behaviours in us, which become second nature as we develop. These states become imbedded in our subconscious, the core of our being. Therefore it is essential to keep the mind occupied with thoughts of a constructive nature, and hold on to feelings of energy which enhance our strength.
Many religious, moral, and spiritual teachings have attempted to instil certain and symbols and behaviours into the minds of people. This has been done by providing model leaders, codes of conduct, and various exercises and ways of life to follow. Some systems have gone further. For example, there are certain Yogic methods which advocate the seeker identifying with specific deities. In tantric practice, powerful imagery is created in the mind which gradually takes on a form of its own by influencing the state of the Yogi. These are said to have such a powerful effect that they influence his physiology and personality, so that he can overcome various hereditary tendencies. Of course, often practitioners of these systems have gone about it the wrong way and ended up psychologically damaged by these powerful procedures. Caution is needed.
More recently in the West, psychological methods have focused on enabling the practitioner to create literal images, for example, mental rehearsal of skills in athletics. This is no different from tantric Yoga, except imagery rehearsal is self centred rather than aimed at transcendental experience. For example, the drive to enhance a tennis serve is useful as far as it goes, but it is hardly enough to absorb our attention at the highest level. Such imagery requires mental effort, rather than effortless absorption in something which is captivating by itself. The trick is to use an image as a stepping stone to something greater. If contemplating a tennis serve allows you to do that, then go for that. But don’t stop there.
Recently, Western psychological methods have been criticised for drawing attention to the individuals current state of development and capabilities. For example, it has been demonstrated that ruminating over ones problems simply reinforces them. For example, you might imagine overcoming a fear that you have created and reinforced, and often it might be better to forget about it entirely by viewing some awe inspiring stimulus instead, such as a waterfall or sunrise in the minds eye. Such imagery can have a positive impact and enhance concentration, so that the mind is not distracted by petty problems, which it often blows lout of proportion. Of course ones problems are very real, but a lot of the time it can be a better use of ones time to tap into a certain state of mind and feeling of harmony, so that negative states are simply dissolved and given nothing to feed on.
In any case, the attention of the individual for a period of time can directed towards some meaningful goal or principle which enhances motivation. As such, it does not matter whether the imagery practiced is aimed at individual performance, adoration of a deity, or contemplation of the sunrise. The important factor is what sort of state this activity creates, and what feelings of warmth and energy are transmitted to the body. In other words, the thoughts and feelings do not necessarily need to correspond with the current physical reality if they can be used to create an entirely new experience of life.
Thought can be directed towards anything, whether that is towards making money, scientific discovery, battling mental illness, or whatever else. The methods for achieving success in this vary, but the principle is always the same. The idea is to moment by moment, day by day, keep the mind occupied with thoughts of a purposeful nature, being careful to avoid lapsing into a counter productive mindset. This often starts as a daily routine, scheduling in a practice session at certain times of the day. For example, someone might join a class and practice positive thinking with others, or simply devote fifteen minutes in the evening towards thought training. For some, it becomes a habit, an addiction even, that they can’t do without. It is even possible to become absorbed in constructive thought at every moment. Of course, even Masters of this art forget from time to time, but they just remind themselves to push forward relentlessly.
A good exercise for martial arts is to imagine yourself doing footwork or aligning yourself to deliver a punch, perhaps during certain moments of the day. The whole body does not need to perform this action necessarily, just the core and centre line. For example, you can twist and align the body in a similar way as you would in martial arts when walking down the street. This is a very basic exercise which allows you to see the connections between every day activities, and martial arts practice. Your health and fitness will be greatly enhanced without wearing out the body, providing you become fully involved in the activity.
All motivationally charged movements, whether that is powerful speech, throwing a spear, or reaching for an apple, share the same underlying movement patterns. Actually, even if the body doesn’t move, the neurons of the nervous system transmit energy which stimulates the cells. Science has even shown that by thinking about recovering from illness, it greatly enhances health. Lets take this further. By thinking about a state that you want to be in, you engage in an activity which allows you to evolve and transcend physical limitations imposed on you in the past. In this way, you become involved in an process which directly experiences life as it is, so that you become a transmitter of life rather than a shadow.
If you try to act with purpose in whatever you are doing in the day, you can enhance motivated behaviour. This method gives you an advantage over the typical one, in that you will experience a lot more training time. Rather than waiting to go to the gym, you will be training as much as you like. A disciple once asked his master: “How much time do you train in the gym?” The Master replied: “About ten minutes a day. You see, I have become martial arts”. What this means is that the time you spend doing the specific drills becomes less and less the more you apply the lessons to every day life. The mind and body reach such a degree of development, that the underlying experience of energy and motivation come much more effortlessly. Of course, the traditional exercises are useful as a means of achieving this inner unity of mind and body, but if the mind can make these connections more broadly then there is less and less need for them.
As we have seen, the mind can turn everyday activities into highly motivated pursuits by simply perceiving them as such. This does not mean that every action becomes dazzling to look at. Not at all. In fact, such a practitioner might look so ordinary that you wouldn’t suspect them capable of such powerful practice. To them, no action need take place that can be read by anyone else. In fact, this prevents hostilities from being drawn towards them. If a bacteria wants to invade the body, it cannot latch onto the subtle activity of the mind. Recent research has shown that viruses can learn to predict our behaviour because it reads our often rigid biological activity. The trick is then, is to work at the level of the mind so that biological activity itself can be influenced and given a new direction. If the body doesn’t decide what the outcome is, then a virus can’t follow the logic. In a similar way, if an opponent can’t tell what you are going to do, it is simply because you are acting intuitively and beyond simply instinctive intelligence.
Just as the religious man enters the kingdom of heaven within, The athlete enters into the inner mind gym. Mental practice can take place in an effort towards winning the world championship, whether that is during specific training slots or subtly throughout the day. Importantly, the accumulation of these small instances of practice has a large effect size. Many prominent scientists are said to have created ideas in their minds, which years later have materialised into inventions or grand theories. This is an ongoing process with far reaching consequences. The same laws which govern creation of the physical world apply to the mental world, and there appears to be no limit because the universe is expanding all the time. There are no rules in creative thought, it is just a question of how productively ones uses their energies according to their own individual needs.
The possibilities for the application of thought and focused attention are endless. Anyone can think, but not everyone is able to sustain the thoughts they desire by focusing exclusively on them. However, some individuals have learnt to develop in this area so much that it becomes the number one goal and the ultimate experience.
The creative imagination of the individual is limitless in its potential. This more closely correlates with the reality of physics than the the potential of the physical body as it is now. This allows for the possibility that our performance can be measured against high ideals rather than past achievements. In the same way, the process of scientific discovery always aims at truth but never actually arrives. It is always in the process of becoming, which is what human beings are doing too. Human beings as they are now are not the finished product. However, the limitations the impose on themselves with their attitudes often create obstacles in the path to self realisation.
Powerful imaginative ideas cannot help but have a positive effect on the ignorant and weaker side of our nature. This is because we harness our true strength only when we overcome our limitations in spite of ourselves. It seems impossible, yet we do it anyway. Whether such an idea bares any resemblance to our current physical experience is beside the point. It didn’t matter to Galileo whether his ideas resembled what was already out there. Nor does it seem to matter whether motivated thinking even materialises into anything that we had in mind. As long as the mind is occupied and moving forward, then it is moving in the right direction, and an individual is at worst removing some aspect of their own ignorance. It often happens that a person has to move through successive stages of ignorance and suffering before they get much tangible success. The absence of constructive thought has the reverse effect. In our ignorance, it can seem as though everything is going well, until our health and well being are undermined later on. It is true what they say, that “Nature unaided fails”. What this means is that nature has a habit of pressure testing us and taking away our allowance after a certain period of upbringing and indulgence. This is to develop the side of our higher nature, which is not subject to the same laws as our lower nature, bringing us the necessary conditions for inner evolution. The higher nature works at the level of the mind, so that we can dissolve certain physical and mental states.