Manifestation vs. Sankalpa For Achieving Goals

Manifestation has been a popular method of goal-setting and attracting abundance. In this talk, Saqib will talk about the shortcomings of Manifestation and explains the method of Sankalpa, which you might find much more effective.

Transcript

I welcome you all to this talk.

Manifestation is something that has been promoted like anything by personal development gurus,

Meditation teachers,

And spiritual speakers for achieving goals.

Popular self-help books like The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain vouch for manifestation as the tool for success.

But what if I say that manifestation might not really be a good thing?

What if I say that there is another way that is very effective and the right thing to do for success and happiness?

To understand that why manifestation might not be the right thing to do,

Let's go through two of the most popular practices in manifestation.

First,

Creative Visualization.

And second,

Affirmations.

In Creative Visualization,

You first decide on what goal you want to achieve.

Let's say you want to close a business deal or get recruited in a particular company.

You will then meditate and visualize working with a client that you just closed a deal with or visualize yourself working in the organization where you want to get hired.

You also bring in other senses,

Listen to the sounds that you will hear in the future like congratulations and experience the feeling of bliss and satisfaction in your body that you will get on achieving your goal.

Now let's see how one uses affirmations.

By using affirmations,

You make your subconscious mind believe in something that you want to achieve by saying it again and again.

So you say to yourself all the time again and again that I am a billionaire.

How affirmations are supposed to work in this case are that they reprogram your subconscious mind in believing that you are a billionaire and start manifesting things in your life that will take you through the path of becoming one.

Now that we know what the two major practices of manifestation are,

Let's look at some major flaws in them.

The very first and the biggest flaw in this process is knowing with certainty that what goal you want to achieve.

We actually don't know what is right for us.

Yes,

You heard that right.

We don't know what is right for us.

Let's take the example of closing a business deal that I used before.

Currently,

It may seem that if you make that business deal,

You will become prosperous.

You will grow in your career like anything and that this deal will help you get even more clients for your business and will make you rich,

Right?

Actually,

You don't know that for certain.

It might be that not making that business deal would have made your life better.

It might happen that the client you are getting on board has the intention of cheating your firm.

It might happen that this particular client turns out to be the most difficult client you have ever handled.

It might happen you end up developing anxiety,

High blood pressure or some other illness due to the stress that this client caused to you.

It might happen that you end up hating your work due to this client.

It might happen that you eventually end up making losses due to this client and earning a bad reputation in the industry.

See,

We actually don't know what this business deal will bring us.

So is it really wise to manifest it with certainty?

Now let's look at the second flaw in this process of manifestation.

Manifestation might cause tension.

I would like to repeat that.

Manifestation might cause tension.

But how?

Isn't it supposed to reduce our tensions?

Not really.

When you manifest a desire,

You actually spend your mental energy in thinking about it.

If you are someone who meditates,

You would know that your mind will become calmer if you are less distracted by thoughts.

But what manifestation does is exactly the opposite.

It makes you think more and more about things that you want to achieve.

Basically,

You end up living in the future in your mind,

Rather than being aware of the present moment.

The future is in reality.

It's just an imaginary state.

The reality is in the present moment.

Also,

When you manifest something and it doesn't happen to you in some time,

You end up getting more tensed that whether your manifestation will work or not.

Let's see the flaw specifically in affirmations.

By making affirmations like,

I am a billionaire or I am a great leader,

I am trying to cheat my mind in believing something that I am not.

It creates a contradiction.

And a mind is not so dumb to not know that contradiction.

When I say that I am a billionaire,

My mind knows that I am lying to myself.

It creates a contradiction and I eventually end up being underconfident.

By not accepting ourselves as we are and by trying to fool our mind,

We eventually end up nowhere.

A still better way to manifest has been detailed in Mike Dooley's book,

Playing the Matrix.

In his book,

He explains that why it is better to manifest the end goal of happiness,

Instead of manifesting on the intermediate goals which ultimately lead to happiness.

To avoid the unexpected situation that I mentioned before,

In which a goal that we manifested turned out to be troublesome for us in the long run,

It is better to manifest happiness because mostly it is happiness that we desire as the end result.

We look for an amazing partner for happiness.

We want career growth for happiness.

We want to earn money for happiness.

And all our goals are for happiness.

Think about it.

Even if you want happiness for someone you love,

You want that because if that person is happy,

Then ultimately you will be happy.

So the technique here is to manifest happiness and automatically the universe will fulfil your intermediate goals and desires that will bring happiness to you.

But then again,

I said that it is better to manifest happiness,

Not that it is the right thing to do.

Manifesting happiness also creates a contradiction within you.

If you want to achieve happiness,

You are telling your mind that currently you are not happy and that you will only become happy when your certain desires get fulfilled.

This is a completely flawed idea of happiness.

Happiness is something which is within us,

Not something external that we have to grab.

It is our eternal blissful state which is natural,

But due to our delusions,

Attachments and expectations,

We do not experience it.

So what to do?

Do we just do nothing and just sit and accept things as they are and just be a pure witness to life?

Although this is what exactly some monk or yogi on a mountain might tell you to do,

And he may be right,

But I understand that we all have desires,

We all have goals and we all have a purpose to fulfil.

And it is perfectly okay to desire,

Wish and grow.

So I would like to suggest an alternate way for achieving goals and avoiding all the mishaps that manifestation might bring to us.

This is the method of sankalpa.

Sankalpa means intention.

And the method of sankalpa means setting an intention.

Deepak Chopra in his bestselling book,

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,

Lays out the way in which one can achieve goals through sankalpa.

Let's say you have a desire to get healed.

Sit in silence and connect to whatever you believe in – God,

Universe,

Universal consciousness,

Energy or even yourself.

Then say out loudly or just in your mind,

I desire to get healed.

I desire to get healed.

I desire to get healed.

Write this intention down somewhere.

Make a list of your desires and set your sankalpa every day after waking up and before sleeping.

But the key here is not to get attached to the output.

Not to expect that the same thing that you desired should happen.

Let the universe do its work.

It will bring you to what is right for you and the entire universe,

Including all sentient beings.

In fact,

You can also state while setting your sankalpa that you desire that thing to happen which is for the betterment of yourself and the entire universe.

Wait,

What?

Why the entire universe?

Isn't this supposed to be about me only?

Well,

Not really.

If we understand spirituality,

We would know that everything is connected.

We all are one.

Something that is good for my selfish desire but which is not good for other sentient beings will harm me in the long run.

We are all part of one universe and are deeply connected to it.

We will eventually harm ourselves if we harm others or harm nature itself.

This is the reason that this method of sankalpa will work in the best way only when our desires are for the benefit of the entire universe on the whole.

What you are doing by this method of sankalpa is that you are expressing your intention to the universal consciousness or God and letting it decide that if it is good for you and for the entire universe then it should happen.

By not getting attached to the outcome,

You are at peace because you know that if it is the right thing,

It will happen.

The next step is to diligently work towards your goal because remember,

Achieving goals is a team work.

You and the universe are in one team.

If the universe works towards the goal but you don't,

It is unlikely to get fulfilled.

Similarly,

If you work towards the goal but the universe doesn't because you had never expressed your sankalpa to it,

It is again unlikely to get fulfilled.

So let's set our sankalpa for all the beautiful things we desire for ourselves and the universe and make this universe a better place.

Lots of love and blessings your way.

I am really grateful that you listened to this talk till the end.

I hope you found value in it and that your time was well utilized.

Take care and have a wonderful day.

Reviews

Thank you, I love the concept of having a goal that not only is good for me, but also the Universe!🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

My first session with this teacher and truly loved it. Thank you.

This is an inspiring discussion about how the Universe and our desires intertwine. Manifestation may be challenging, yet our Sankalpa enables clear communication with the Cosmos, fostering a reciprocal connection. My unwavering trust in the Universe reflects our unity as ONE.

Thank you, Saqib, for deepening my understanding of manifestation. 🙏⚡💜🪐❣️

❤️🕊️🌻

Thank you, Beautifully broken down, we’ll put and easy to understand.

Thank you for this excellent talk. I feel like I finally understand HOW to set an intention!

Thank you for this clear explanation, most helpful. Namaste

This was an eye-opener for me and it feels good. Thank you, Saqib! 💙

Great talk! I’ve always wondered about the effectiveness of affirmations and manifesting, and often felt what you explain- that I was tricking my mind, which would make me get even more frustrated. Your explanation about intention is beautiful. Also, I’ve now learned how to still do affirmations, but releasing the attachment to the outcome.

I like the reminder that we don’t really know what we want and the importance of sanculpa.

Thank you for this clarification. I found it both helpful and affirming.

Wow. I so enjoyed this talk and it certainly resonated with me. It made me think of the expression, “be careful what you wish for as it may come true”. Thank you for sharing your wisdom. ❤️

Love this🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻really great! Thank you. Definitely resonates with me!

I found great value from this short talk. Let us all set the intention of being happy so that we can share a smile with others and spread the joy.

Saqib Is one of my all-time favorite Meditation teachers exclamation he did this today he said my intentions/goals in line with the good of the world for both the week and the month!

Great talk! It makes absolute sense! Thanks for the insight!

I love this perspective. You've presented things to me that have refreshed my ideas on manifestation. Thank you 💜

Thank you Saqib!
Lots of love and happiness to you too!

Very interesting talk. It was worth listening... Setting up intentions have been so helpful in my healing process. And that I learned from you. I am so grateful that I found you here. Thank you Saqib for what you do. Blessings to you 🙏🏻😊

Another excellent talk Saqib. I had recently begun incorporating some principles of sankalpa into my practice in conjunction with exploring chakti energy, specifically through the solar plexus chakra, and Raam mantras to awaken and align universal intention.

I would be delighted to hear your thoughts on how the concept of sankalpa might relate to awakening and aligning the chakras and chakti energy (please forgive me for any misspelling or confusion of terms).

As always, I have so much gratitude for the work you are doing and find your talks to be absolutely perfect, honest and enlightening.

P.s- I had recently changed my profile name, hopefully you recognize my pic as I haven’t checked in for some time. Much love and thanks 🙏🏼 Namaste.

Clarity at its best. Saqib explains everything so beautifully. No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, this is a must listen. Thank you! 🙏