A Distraction On The Path: Focusing On Manifestation

A common distraction or obstacle in your journey of freeing yourself from suffering and discovering true peace is getting lost in manifestation and other new-age concepts. While this movement is very popular (and even something I taught at one point), the practice actually keeps you trapped in many ways.

Transcript

Hey this is Ish and in today's talk I'd like to go over a quick little reminder on not getting distracted by manifestation and similar new age concepts on your journey of meditation. Now if you had followed my older content you may know that I had actually made a lot of topics on various manifestation techniques and had even written a book on the law of attraction. However I have changed my views on that because I can clearly see how it's a distraction and actually an obstacle for your journey of finding true happiness. So why do I say this? The world of focusing on manifestations or different powers or energy or visualizations all lie in the realm of this intermediate power that you receive when you're able to access your subconscious mind. So for those who are constantly engaged in the world and using their conscious mind through planning and goal-directed activities, The moment they're able to reflect and turn inwards they start to access this greater power and space. Now the problem is that people get attached to the stage of focusing on these things. There is still a deeper place to go in which you let go of these things as well. Because when you're caught up in manifestation you're still attached to desire. And desire as we know is talked about in all the contemplative disciplines is the root of our suffering. And it's only just change clothes when you focus on manifestation. So you're still focusing on what you'd prefer and that implies that you're not happy in this moment. You're always looking at different realities or different possibilities rather than being contented from within. So in a way manifestation actually creates more suffering within you but it's just disguised under a special name or cloak so to speak. Now one method of manifestation which is acting from the end goal or acting as if you already have the thing that you want is actually quite of a powerful concept because you're bypassing desire and acting as if you already have the thing that you wanted. But it's still one step removed from total contentment because you're still imagining what you would like. So you want to train yourself instead with being okay with whatever is happening right now. So what manifestation does is put your attention somewhere else in the future or you're visualizing or distorting reality rather than seeing reality in the present moment. Now something interesting you may notice on your journey is that as you continue to meditate and start to let go of your attachments one by one you will also find some freedom in not focusing on manifestation or other new age concepts like angels or seeing patterns or numbers or anything like that because again this puts your attention on the external and when you let go from the inside all of a sudden you just feel good all the time. So now you've gone deeper past the conscious mind which is what a lot of people who don't meditate kind of stay in the realm in which they put their attention to objects and try to find happiness there. Then when you tap into the subconscious mind through meditation this is where you get into law of attraction and the realms of power in which a lot of people kind of just stay stuck at. If you go past that and notice where do all these things come from now you're tapping into spirituality and you're tapping into the source of creation and this source is nothing other than you but this is a letting go process of all these desires that you have and by the way this is something that you can verify for yourself so the next time you are in a calm and relaxed state of mind perhaps after a meditation or a relaxing yoga session for example and you're just sitting there and you have no desires in your mind notice how freeing and peaceful that feels and the next time you have a lot of desires in your mind notice how your mind is not very settled in that moment and just observe the difference between the two and when you've learned to let go of these desires gradually you'll observe the freedom that comes from not having the desires of wanting to manifest anything and this process will happen when you're ready so just notice that and in the meantime try to cultivate gratitude for what you have and if there's any circumstances in your life you do need to change then by all means take action but as long as your basic needs are met and you feel very contented from within then start to see how you can find more fulfillment and contentment from internally rather than trying to seek it from the external world so take care of the basics and then from there you'll find that hey i maybe actually don't need as much from the world as i thought i did and that is a freeing discovery

Reviews

I agree so múch. Thanks a lot fór saying IT loud.

Great talk! I always like hearing the other side of things.

Great explanation of what I felt intrinsically and good reminder of the pitfalls of desire.

Something to think about. The problem with 'manifestation' is attachment to outcome. If I have a 'real' or 'pure' need or desire, of course, as a human being, I will yearn to have that need met in some way or other. I find it works best for me to release the desire (when I am present enough to do so), unattached to possible outcomes constructed in or by my mind. Admittedly, this can be tricky if one needs the basic necessities, food, shelter, companionship. In extremis, one doesn't need to spell out the desired outcome. With regard to First World desires, however, it is perhaps best to 'purify' them - release them as energy, and patiently observe what happens. Easier said than done, I acknowledge. 🙏🏻💞

Thank you, makes so much sense to me.