How To Make Sure You Listen To Inspiration When It Whispers

Neera

Last week I wrote everything changes when you start working from the fourth level of consciousness, where I introduced levels of consciousness as a roadmap for growth.

At level one of consciousness, we are a part of the Culturescape. Our goals are given to us by the society, the culture that we are part of. “Get good grades.” “Get a good job.” “Become a doctor.” “Make a lot of money and live comfortably.” “Invest, build a portfolio.”

As we are achieving those goals, at some point, we start questioning society’s norms. We start questioning other people’s expectations from us, whether they are our parents or spouses, or bosses. We start questioning the religion. And we start realizing we don’t have to follow what we have been told all our life That we can choose our own experiences in life.

That is when we move to level two of consciousness. At level two, we look for a purpose for life, a way to contribute to this universe. This is when our goals come from inside us.

At level three, we discover we are a part of a greater whole. We see everyone else as part of us and everything else as part of us. We begin to see things differently to act differently to react differently and experience ourselves in a brand new way, a way that can change your life forever. We start re-coding ourselves, and we find ourselves at the fourth level of consciousness.

But we are level four; the goals are coming from a completely different place.

The goals come from Inspiration.

Now, what is Inspiration?

You could call it God, you could call it the Universe, or you could call it your superconscious.

You think you came up with a brilliant idea for that book, or you came up with that brilliant idea for that new program, or you were the genius who came up with the idea for your business, but you did not.

You were simply the conduit.

You have a boss, and that boss has been whispering in your ear. She’s been telling you and pushing you and inspiring you to make that happen.

That is Inspiration.

And that inspiration gives you your intention.

When you start showing that you have intent to listen to it, and you’re going to start moving towards it, she removes the roadblocks.

So you don’t set goals; the goals are not coming from society, they are not coming from you, but they are whispered to you.

You hear whispers.

You have these little intuitive nudges you feel get while you are showering or waking up in the morning, and bang! An idea for that next blog post. Or an idea for that next product you have to build. The idea for the next course you want to serve. It just hits you.

This is Inspiration.

There is this really interesting story about what happens when you start listening to inspiration.

Michael Jackson would wake up at three am and call his manager, and would go, “Butterflies. Butterflies.”

The manager would say, “Michael, what the hell is going on. It’s three am.”

Michael would say, “I got this idea for a song. It’s about butterflies; I got to write it now.

Exasperated, his manager would say, “Michael, it is three am. Can this wait till tomorrow morning?

Michael would respond, “No, if I don’t write it, Prince will.”

How to listen to the Inspiration?

Vishan Lakhiani, in his book “Code of Evolution,” states that at level four, we start feeling that we are particles of God having a human experience.

He calls humans Godicles. We are all God’s equals here on planet Earth, playing God within our own cognitive plane.

When that happens, we feel a deep sense of connectedness with all life with all human beings.

With this sense of connectedness, we open up to intuition.

What is intuition?

Intuition is one of these words that gets thrown around a lot but not many people know how to cultivate the skills to be able to hear their intuition on a daily basis. — Emily Fletcher

And if you ask any high performer CEO, any entrepreneur, how did you come up with an idea, they would say it was just my intuition. I just had this feeling in my gut.

So for many people, intuition is a sort of elusive gut thing that can be how they know something without the involvement of their critical mind.

Our left-brain critical mind is always screaming at us. I suck. I suck. I suck. And it’s very hard to hear your intuition when your critical mind screams at you because your intuition whispers. It says, write that book. Start that business. Compose that song; here is the melody.

If you don’t have a daily meditation practice that it’s very hard to tell the difference between your critical mind and your intuitive mind.

And if you’ve got this screaming, I suck. I suck. I suck voice happening all the time; how are you supposed to hear that intuitive voice?

What meditation does is that it takes our right brain to the gym every single day.

Our right brain is the piece of you that is in charge of intuition. It is the part of you that actually connects to collective intelligence.

Think of intuition and creativity as a Wi-Fi network, and your right brain is the router. Your right brain is the piece of you that allows you to connect to collective intelligence. And your left brain is the actual computer.

You could have the most developed intellect and incredible life experience, which would be like having the fanciest computer. But it doesn’t matter how good a computer is; it is no good if it is not connected to the internet.

Now, Imagine you connect that computer to the internet; how much smarter it becomes? How much more capable it becomes because you’re exchanging ideas. You’re able to intuit other people’s intellect. You’re able to hear how nature actually wants to use you to deliver your fulfillment.

So sit in silence and tune in to Inspiration to get the intuition.

But herein lies humanity’s problem.

Blaise Pascal made huge contributions to physics and mathematics, notably in fluids, geometry, and probability. He died at the young age of 39.

Right before his death, he was hashing out fragments of private thoughts that were later released as a collection by the name of Pensées.

While the book is mostly a mathematician’s case for choosing a life of faith and belief, the more curious thing about its clear and lucid ruminations on what it means to be human.

He wrote:

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Zat Rana, another Medium writer, wrote in an article that has got the most claps ever, wrote our aversion to solitude is really an aversion to boredom.

At its core, our addiction to TV, social media, movies, social gathering is in faction an addiction to a state of not-being-bored.

At its root is the dread of the nothingness of nothing. We can’t imagine just being rather than doing.

But according to Zat, there is a solution. The only way to beat this fear is to face it like any other fear. Face the boredom and let it take you where it wants so you can deal with whatever it is that is really going on with your sense of self.

That’s when you’ll hear yourself think, and that’s when you’ll learn to engage the parts of you that are masked by distraction.

The beauty of this is that, once you cross that initial barrier, you realize that being alone isn’t so bad. Boredom can provide its own stimulation.

When you surround yourself with moments of solitude and stillness, you become intimately familiar with your environment in a way that forced stimulation doesn’t allow. The world becomes richer, the layers start to peel back, and you see things for what they really are, in all their wholeness, in all their contradictions, and in all their unfamiliarity.

When you get to this state, you don’t just get your goals, your purpose; you get much more from the universe.

Read about any great person, whether they were spiritual leaders like Buddha, musicians, or entrepreneurs, they all followed a nudge at some point in their life.

Elon Musk woke up one day in the middle of the night with an idea on how to create a better rocket. Likewise, John Lennon got the music of his greatest song in a dream.

The Takeaway

Start understanding that there is a bigger source where you can tap, and that source is Inspiration. You can call it God, Universe, or you Superconscious.

Inspiration speaks in whispers. You need to be attuned to it to be able to listen to it.

You need regular daily meditation practice to hear the whispers of Inspiration that we call intuitions.

The hardest thing to do for humans is to sit quietly in a room, alone.

But if you can develop that practice, you will get in touch with the world within you and the whole world that we call the universe.

A big shift begins to happen then, and things shift, very, very, rapidly.

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Resources: Four Levels of Consciousness, Mindvalley

Zat Rana: The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You

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If you thought this was helpful, please recommend it below, or write a response.

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3 Pieces of Advice For Creative People

Neera

Advice #1

A young man approached Henry Kissinger, a renowned diplomat and a former U.S. Secretary of State, and asked, “Mr. Kissinger, can you give some career advice.”

“No,” said Kissinger in a gruff voice.

Disappointed, the young man turned around to go away. Kissinger stopped him and explained, “My advice is ‘no.’ Always let your first answer be a no.”

To move mountains, you have to learn to say no. You have to learn to be selective in the tasks you say yes to. You have to learn to focus. Because energy flows towards the place, you focus your attention on.

Advice #2

Once there was a donkey who was thirsty as well as hungry. The donkey spotted some hay on one side and water on the opposite side.

But the donkey didn’t know which one to go to first.

The donkey looked at the hay; then it looked at the water. Looked at the hay looked at the water. Am I hungry? Am I thirsty? Am I hungry? Am I thirsty?

And eventually, the donkey died of dehydration.

Sometimes we are that donkey. Should I make this? Should I make that? Should I write this? Should I write that? And we don’t even start.

But for some reason we feel productive. Because we are thinking about it. Thinking about stuff is not doing stuff. It’s the complete opposite of doing stuff. We fall int the trap of deliberation, pondering, questioning, thinking, strategizing, and debating, it might feel like we are moving forward, but we are stuck.

Doing a bit of this and a bit of that is like laying single brick of a million different houses and expecting that one day it will magically become a mansion. It’s not going to happen.

You can do ten things to one degree or you can do one thing to the tenth degree.

Rather than spreading yourself, do one thing. Draw the same thing every single day. Paint in one medium everyday. Sketch the same cartoon character everyday. Write a poem (or an an article or a short story) everyday.

And this is true for work too. This is true for dating versus committing yourself to one person friendship, everything. Really focusing and investing yourself into something you’re passionate about will always yield better results than scattering yourself around.

Advice #3

Adele Adkins is one of the world’s best music artists but there is something that not many people know. She is afraid of her audience. She has crazy stage fright.

Being such a talented artist, she still hates touring and putting on live shows. Because she has a crazy fear. What if the audience think that my recorded performance is better than my live performance?

So how did Adele overcome her stage fright?

Adele did something that made her stage fright manageable. She learnt a trick from a fellow musician – Beyonce.

Beyonce created an alter-ego to fight her stage fright. Her calls her alter-ego — Sasha Fierce. As soon as Beyonce would put on her shoes and hear the crowd, her alter-ego Sasha Fierce would take over. And Sasha Fierce has no fear. Beyonce created a character that she could put on, like other people put on clothes.

When Adele heard about it, she too created an own alter-ego. She called it, Sasha Carter, which is a mix of Beyonce’s Sasha Fierce and country music star June Carter. Sasha Carter could get on stage and blow the audience away.

Why did such a crazy thing like creating an alter-ego work?

Adele’s fear was not based on fact, but on belief. She criticized herself because of a what-if scenario.

The mind is a crazy thing. When it criticizes itself, it causes all sorts of problems.

Alter-ego builds distance between the mind and the behavior.

Self distancing is the key. Self distancing allows you to view yourself more objectively. It allows you to see the bigger picture and not be bogged down with feelings.

Alter-ego works because it helps you build self distance.

When I started writing I created an alter-ego too – Ms Jolly. Here is snapshot from my website where I introduce her.

Your alter-egos don’t have to be forever. Alter-egos are tools that help you accept yourself when you change your behaviour.

But your behavior changes you too. Acting confident indeed makes you feel more confident.

Beyonce acknowledged in 2010 that she had killed Sasha Fierce. Sasha Fierce helped Beyonce with public performances. But when Beyonce got over her fear she outgrew the need for her alter-ego.

Face whatever fear you have for your creativity by creating and alter-ego.

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Image by infographics from Pixabay

Time Management Doesn’t Work

Neera

Late in the nineteenth century, Frederick Taylor grabbed a stopwatch, stood next to a worker, and instructed him to pick a chunk of iron and move it using a specific set of movements. He then timed him. 

He did this repeatedly until he had the perfect combination of movements for moving the chunk of iron efficiently.

Taylor then taught those prescribed moments to other workers in the yard of Bethlehem Steel. As a result, the productivity of the plant quadrupled.

This was the birth of “time management.”

The concept swept through the industrial world, and productivity became the aim of each industry. 

Before Taylor’s stopwatch measurement of performing a task, no one thought of the time that way. 

Most people worked on farms. They were decided what to do and when to do it based upon the movement of the sun rather than the movement of hands on a dial. Their schedules were determined by the sun, moon, and seasons rather than the watches and calendars. 

The truth was most people didn’t even know what day or time it was.

Taylor’s big contribution to productivity was that he thought of time as a “production unit.” 

Add more time, get more output.

Do more work within that time, get more output.

Today we still think of time as a “production unit,” this attitude is so ingrained in our culture that we are hardly aware of it.

For more than a century, “time management” has dominated our psyche. 

We wake up to alarms. As we drive to work, our navigation system calculates exactly how long it will take. We work from nine to five. We estimate project cost based on how much time it is going to take to finish it. 

We diligently fill our timesheets so our employers can bill clients for our time. 

As you opened this article to read, you probably checked the time it would take you to read it.

Everything around us is set up with the assumption that time is precious. 

Whatever is your goal, if you reached it in less time, that’s a good thing. 

Time is money. That is the mantra.

But there was a major problem with this concept.

The time as a production unit has its limits. 

Even Taylor observed that if he tried to fill all of his worker’s time with efficient movements, he didn’t get what he expected. After a while, the worker gets tired and does less and less. 

This concept in economics is known as the “point of diminishing returns.” That is when each additional production unit doesn’t get you the same output as the previous production unit.

If Taylor wanted to get a full day’s work out of a worker, Taylor needed not only to prescribe movements to that worker; he also needed to prescribe rest to that worker.

The “point of diminishing returns” is more evident in knowledge workers.

In today’s world, where creative thinking is the key to being productive, you can’t get more output simply by optimizing time.

Yet this is what we try to do all the time. We cram our schedule, multitask, and always in a hurry. Any opportunity we can find to do things faster, we take it without realizing time is not the only factor we need to take into consideration.

There is another factor in play — energy.

While time is precise, our energy level is not the same throughout the day.

Time management works well if every hour were identical in terms of energy. 

But our energy levels go up and down all through the day. So we recharge them either by taking breaks, naps or taking a walk, or watching mindless TV. 

The way to work with your energy is to make sure you know when your energy levels are at the peak and use them well. 

I divide my energy levels into three categories:

  • Peak Energy Level. It is when I am well-rested, emotionally sound, and at peace with myself. This peak energy is the creative energy, when I conceive new ideas, can go deep into a topic, and learn new things. Usually, for me, it is mornings. This is when I do most of my fresh writing.
  • Medium Energy Level. This is when I am a bit tired and not in a mood to tackle heavy thinking work. But I am still quite alert. My afternoons and evenings are like that. I use this time for researching, editing, sketching, and painting.
  • Low Energy Level. Each day I reach a point of exhaustion when I can’t do work that involves thinking or concentrating. At these times, I don’t push myself to write or do anything that involves heavy thinking. But surprisingly, I am still good to read a book or watch a Masterclass video. This is the best time to wind down watching TV, surfing the net, or checking social media. 

Now that I am aware of my energy levels, I am well equipped to manage them.

I am very vigilant of my peak energy periods and don’t waste them doing tasks that I can do with medium or low energy levels. That is why doing research or checking social media in the mornings is a big no-no. 

Sometimes both “time” and “energy” are not enough to be productive. 

I have been trying to write an ebook for a long time now. In fact, I have several in draft mode. But, unfortunately, every time I make time to work on those, and I have selected peak energy hours, I hardly make any progress. 

It is not the lack of time or energy that stops me from writing those books (it is not even the skill level). It is the mindset. 

Things are not difficult to make; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the state of mind to make them. — Constantin Brancusi

I have no problem writing an article a day now. Just a few weeks ago, that was an unthinkable proposition. So when I announced my intention to write 100 Articles in 100 Days, I was in the right mindset to take the challenge. 

Nothing changed between that day and one week before other than my mindset.

I am sure one day I will be in the right frame of mind to tackle the ebook. 

Sometimes our mind is better suited to think creatively. Other times it’s better suited to think analytically. Sometimes we’re in a mood to do some research. Other times, we’re better off taking care of little details.

Manage your creative energy so that instead of going through a to-do list in order of priority, tackle it in order of mood priority. Ask yourself, What work am I in the mood to do right now?

In Summary

Time Management is an outdated concept. It only takes “time” as the production unit and assumes your energy levels are the same at all times during the day.

But we have all fallen into energy black holes.

Rather than managing time, manage your energy.

Do the tasks that require thinking and a high level of concentration when your energy levels are at the peak. 

Make sure you don’t waste them; otherwise, you will feel crappy, and it will create a doom loop of lower energy.

Mindset is the third factor of productivity. Our mood dictates what is the optimum thing to do at a given time. So rather than fighting it, how about we listen to it. After all things, we do wholeheartedly turn out to be our best creation.

Photo by Katie Harp on Unsplash

You Only Need To Learn Five Types Of Sentences To Write Fiction

Neera 2 Comments

In the summer of 2015, I wrote the first draft of my first novel. 

Like the thousands all over the world, I wanted to see whether I could churn out 50,000 words in one month while participating in NaNoWriMo.

I did.

But it was not a novel—just words.

Then began the laborious process of turning those words into a novel. Over the years, I converted that first draft into a compelling story with a strong protagonist and an engaging opening scene. 

But there was still one problem with it. My story sounded terrible. It was failing the sentence level.

I had never written fiction before, not even short stories. Embarking straight onto writing a novel meant I made every single mistake I shouldn’t.

The worst thing you can do is to write the sloppy first draft. If you write the sloppy first drafts you will be spending much more time in revision. — M. L. Ronn

I had two options — throw it in the bin and start the next one or fix it.

I chose the latter.

With that started my learning of how to write a novel — at the sentence level.

There are thousands of books, articles, and blog posts on how to write a novel, and most of them are very helpful, but none of them addressed how to write a novel at the sentence level.

But why at the sentence level?

Because sentences are the building blocks of writing.

Whether it is fiction or non-fiction writing, you construct it by laying a block over a block. Just like a stonemason does or children do with their Leggo blocks.

A group of words forms a sentence, a group of sentences forms a paragraph, and a group of paragraphs forms a piece. Simple as that.

But it is not that simple. 

Not any group of words can form a sentence. A good sentence has a structure. A good sentence is grammatically correct. A good sentence sings.

Good sentences make good writing. The more shapely and elegant one’s sentences are, the sounder they are structurally, the better one’s writing is.

Besides being the building blocks of a piece, sentences perform another essential function.

Sentences are the conduit to carry information.

In its basic form, storytelling provides information — a sequence of events that happened at a particular time and space to a set of characters, their response, and the conclusion.

Sentences answer questions that arise in a reader’s mind. What happened? Why did it happen? Who did it? Why? How? In a seasoned writer’s hands, sentences are like a string of beads, each providing a little bit of information. Each sentence answers a question much before it arises in the readers’ minds. 

Each sentence is there for a reason. It has a special function to perform. If it doesn’t do that, it is superfluous.

In fiction writing, a story is told by writing five types of sentences over and over again.

I didn’t know that until I stumbled upon a video by Michael La Ronn, a science-fiction and fantasy writer.

Michael makes the case that is what the bestselling authors do, all that time.

He urges that if you want to excel at writing fiction, you must master these.

I decided to check Michael’s theory with my own research. I took three novels from my bookshelf, picked random sentences from each one of them, and tried to see if they fit in one of five sentence types. 

They did.

All of them.

In fact, most of the sentences were simple sentences. They didn’t draw attention to them by being overly smart and complicated. They were practical technical, and functional sentences. Sentences that were doing their job.

Fiction writers such as Nora Roberts or Michael Crichton don’t write convoluted, complex sentences. Instead, they write sentences that do their job.

What are the five fictional sentence types?

Fiction writing needs to convey a lot of information. That information needs to be conveyed in such a way that the reader feels what the protagonist is feeling. The story should unfold rather than be told after the incident has already taken place. 

According to Michael La Ronn, there are the following five types of sentences:

  1. Character’s opinion about a setting or the situation 
  2. The backstory of the character
  3. Action
  4. Dialogue 
  5. Sensory Details

If you look at any fiction piece, you will find that most of the sentences fit in one of these categories to some degree.

Let’s take them one by one.

Character’s opinion about a setting or situation

Often, the first few sentences in a novel fall in this category. A setting is the description of the time and the place where the story is occurring and is usually written from the main character’s perspective. 

Have a look at the following example:

May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air. Then they stun themselves against clear windowpanes and die, fatly baffled in the sun. — Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

A situation is what is happening at a particular point in the story. Mostly a situation arises through dialogue or action. But sometimes, a situation is revealed through a character’s monologue, as it is in the following example:

It was midnight in Grinder’s Alley. The gas lamp flickered in the darkness. Somewhere in those shadows lurked the larrikins of the Push, with their hot breath and cold knives. — Jackie French, A Waltz For Matilda.

The first two lines describe the setting. The third line describes the situation where the protagonist is worried about the danger lurking in the background.

Take away:

You should write sentences that describe the setting in your story. Every time you introduce a new place or location, you should describe it in a few sentences so that the readers can see it clearly in their minds. 

In the same way, you should write sentences to describe a character’s monologue so that readers know what is going on in the character’s head. That takes the readers inside the story world rather than observing it from outside.

The backstory of a character

There is a whole category of sentences that tell the backstory of the character. All novels have the backstory spilled here and there and dispersed throughout the novel. They give us insights into who the character is and why they are the way they are. As it is in the following excerpt: 

Matilda put her chin out. The jam factory was only three streets away from Mrs Dawkins’s.She’d managed to escape the Push before. She’d make it tonight too. — Jackie French’s novel, A Waltz For Matilda.

The third bolded line tells that Matilda has encountered the Push before and has escaped them. That background information is important as it implies she might be able to escape this time too. 

Take away:

Sprinkle enough background information in your stories so that the readers are informed enough about the main character’s reasons and motives.

Action

Action is straightforward. It is what a character is doing. It is best written as showing. Not telling. Make sure you write it in such a way that it unfolds rather than reported a moment after it has already occurred. The action that unfolds is gripping and engaging. See the example below:

She hurled herself over the fence, landing hard, heard boots thud onto the ground next to her. ‘Got yer, yer little-’

Todger screamed. It was a good sound. Matilda stood, trying to get her breath, as Bruiser tugged and tore at the young man’s arm. Blodd dripping onto the gravel. — Jackie French, A Waltz For Matilda.

Take away:

Most of the sentences in a novel other than dialogue are written action sentences. They are active sentences with appropriate verbs describing the action. You should master them. They make your write come alive.

Dialogue

We all know what dialogue is. I will not go too much in detail here as most fiction writer knows what a dialogue sentence is like. Here is an example:

‘Matilda…’ Her eyes darkened. ‘Rabbit, what’s wrong?’

How could she think she’d hide the truth from Mum? The tears that wouldn’t come before erupted in a giant choke. ‘Tommy. There was an accident at the factory. He’s burned.’

‘How bad?’

Mum’s voice was just a thread; there was no breath behind it. One thin hand touched hers its fingers long and soft. The nails had grown since she’d stopped sewing.

‘I don’t know. He’s at the hospital. They said they think he’ll live…

‘Oh, my little rabbit.’ Matilda could feel Mum’s warmth as she lay next to her, the comfort of her arms. ‘Come, lie down. He’s strong, little rabiit. He’ll pull through.’ — Jackie French’s novel, A Waltz For Matilda.

Notice how there are monologues, and action types of sentences are strewn with dialogue in the above example. 

Take away:

Sentences belonging to the dialogue category occupies most of the real estate in a novel. Get good at writing dialogues as they are the bread and butter of fiction writing.

Sensory Details

This is one category of fiction sentences where most of the new writers fail. Perhaps because we rely too much on our eyes than other senses, other than eyes, we have four more senses — taste, touch, smell, and audio. If you want your fiction to work and want your reader to experience what the character in your story is experiencing, you need to describe the places, things, and people using all five senses. 

The sensory detail is a great tool to turn your writing from telling to showing. 

Have a look at the examples below.

Ah, Ching’s smile changed: became deeper, gentler, rich in understanding. He picked out a second peach, then held it out to her, bowing.

She looked at him, speechless, then unwrapped it slowly, letting the smell seep into her nose. The first bite was like slipping into the waves at the beach or clean white sheets. The juice exploded down her chin. She wiped it. embarrassed.

 — Jackie French’s novel, A Waltz For Matilda.

Take away:

Including sensory details in your description is one area where you can turn ordinary sentences into evocative sentences. It is not hard to master skills. Once you become aware of it, you will describe a place, person, or thing each time you start engaging all your senses.

Summary

Fiction writing consists of just five types of sentences. 

  1. Character’s opinion about a setting or the situation
  2. The backstory of the character
  3. Action
  4. Dialogue and
  5. Sensory Details

You win half the battle when you become aware of them. 

Rest is won when you master writing them.

Next time when you read a novel, pay attention to sentences. See which category they belong to. It will help you in more than one way —  you will see how established writers convey so much information in so few sentence types and how they make those sentences work.

Next time you go ‘wow’ while reading a sentence, ask what caught your attention. What element made you go wow. And what you can learn from it.

Photo by Keren Fedida on Unsplash

The Blessed (Fiction – Short Story)

Neera

If you ever get a chance to come to the South of India, close to either the state of Karnataka or Tamilnadu, I urge you to come and visit me. I reside on a hill almost at the border of two states, mere 20 km east of Bengaluru and about 230 km from Chennai.

I stand forlorn and deserted overlooking the valley, crumbling with the winds of time, thinking about the days when I was revered and famous. Hardly anyone ever comes to my altar to pray these days, but there was a time when worshippers surrounded me. My tapering ceilings decorated with amorous apsaras, posing gods, and bellowing elephants touched the skies; the sound of bells and prayers filled the morning air, and beggars came from all around for their daily meal. Dignitaries and commoners from far and near came to seek blessings of the stone statues that resided on the alter clad in finest linen in bright colors.

Over the years, I have heard countless mantras chanted by thousands of priests who prayed in my belly. I have swelled with the songs of gratitude and praise from the zealot on the fulfillment of their desires. Then, on the other hand, I have been saddened by the grievances of the worshippers and wails of the sufferers. I have witnessed childless women praying for sons, unmarried young women seeking worthy husbands, young men seeking blessing for success in their endeavors, older men asking for prosperity and peace.

Today in my twilight years, I have nothing better to do but go over the days of my glory. I reminisce about my devotees and wonder what happened to them. Their stories keep me wondering. 

If you care to listen, I can tell you a story each night. I remember them as if they happened yesterday.

This one is about a young girl of marriageable age in the thirteen century. 

I was young too then. Recently built. Still getting to know my role in society. Three priests were responsible for my upkeep, taking turns in doing prayers and building my reputation. An army of devotees kept the premises clean and collected offerings.

Her name was Champa. She came with her parents, carrying a silver platter full of offerings to ask for a worthy husband. 

She was fresh like the jasmine flowers she wore in her hair. Fair-skinned, short-statured, her sensual body she was not easy to forget. Maybe that is why she is still stuck in my memory. 

Gods probably also noticed her because they granted her wish.

Less than a year later, she came back. This time with her husband, the only son of a personage. The parents accompanied the young couple too. They did puja and asked for an offspring to complete their happiness. 

There must be something lacking in their prayers. This time, gods didn’t respond to their prayers for many years.

It came to the point that the young man’s family started pressuring him to seek another wife. “The girl might be barren,” was their argument. But the young man was hopelessly in love with the girl and wouldn’t hear of any alternative. 

The doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with the couple. “This is something in God’s hands” was all they could offer. 

A few more years passed. 

Now the family was getting really anxious. If the couple didn’t produce a son soon, the family name would vanish. 

The boy’s parents consulted the elders, the astrologers, and priests. Finally, a solution was agreed upon without the knowledge of the couple.

Next month, on a full moon night, the girl and her mother-in-law came to me with a whole load of offerings of fruits, flowers, and coconuts. The temple was kept open late that night just for them. 

All three priests were present. Led by the head priest, they performed a special puja. Champa was asked to do parikarma twenty-one times around the deities, reciting the mantra the head priest gave her. 

While she was still doing the parikarma, the mother-in-law left the temple. Fully immersed in the puja, Champa didn’t even notice her departure. When she finished the final round and stood in front of the deities, hands folded, head bent, and eyes closed. Suddenly everything went still. I drew in my breath.

Champa probably felt the stillness too.

She opened her eyes. The head priest was standing a few feet from her, leering intently. She didn’t like what she saw. Looking around for her mother-in-law, she backed towards the door. When she couldn’t find her, she ran. My carved gilded doors, which should remain open at all times, were closed.

I knew what I was about to witness but couldn’t do anything to prevent it. 

Champa banged and banged. Even I couldn’t open my own door. She begged when the head priest tore the sari from her body. He laughed at her, begging through his stained teeth. She ran back inside the temple, this time to beg the gods. It was time for me to discover that those idols whom the whole world came to get their wishes granted were nothing more than stone statues. The head priest took her, right there on the altar, followed by the other two.

My whole being shuddered with disgust. That night I learned the meaning of sanctity. A place can’t be sacred if the hearts are not. Ashamed at myself, more than anyone else, I figured out what my role was going to be—the one of a mute observer. 

A few months later, Champa came back with her husband and his family. A baby in her arms. She followed the priest’s instructions to get her son blessed.

But she didn’t bow her head, either in front of the priest or the gods.

© Neera Mahajan, December 2014

Photo by Kristen Sturdivant on Unsplash

Everything Changes When You Start Working From The Fourth Level of Consciousness

Neera

The last few days have been mind-boggling. I am witnessing a paradigm shift happening right inside me. I am amazed at my transformation and the speed with which it is happening.

Many years ago, roughly twenty-plus, I had this tiny desire to write. It was no big deal. I wanted to express myself better, record my story for my children, write some short stories, and maybe a novel someday.

But there was only one problem. English was my second language, and I was terrible at it. But the more I sucked at it; the more my desire grew to get better at it.

I joined a life story writing course and wrote stories of my growing up in India. They were pathetic. We were supposed to read them to the group, and it used to terrify me. I spent hours making my stories coherent. Still, when I read them, they were fragmented, muddled, and plain old boring.

Anyone in their right mind would have given up and picked some other hobby.

But I couldn’t

My desire to write wouldn’t go away.

So I continued. For twenty years, I agonized over my lack of skill to be able to write well. I wanted nothing more than to be fluent and original.

Persistent paid. I got better at expressing my ideas. But writing still demanded a lot of “effort.”

I got swayed by the other writers. I read all the advice there is on how to succeed as a writer. The list was very long. I myself have written many such lists.

Fast forward to Friday last week.

I was lying in the bathtub listening to random YouTube videos when a guy appeared on a video and started talking about how we operate from different levels of consciousness.

I am not new to mind-body-soul learning. But this one made me think about writing in a completely different way.

There are four distinct and unique levels of consciousness from which we operate from. These levels determine how our consciousness and our self-awareness relate between us and the world around us.

I will come to my thought process a bit later, but let me tell you what I learned about four levels of consciousness.

Four levels of consciousness.

In 1968, Alan Watts, a British writer, speaker, and Zen master, appeared on CBS with a group of students to teach a unique zen philosophy.

He asked the students three questions:

  • Who am I?
  • What do I desire?
  • What do I know?

The three questions sound simple enough, but they go very deep.

According to Alan, if you ponder these questions long enough, they will unlock many new meanings in your life.

Your answers to these questions depend on what state of consciousness you are in.

Vishan Lakhiani, a writer and CEO of Mindvalley, explains in his book “Code of Evolution” four levels of consciousness.

At each level of consciousness, you react and shape the world in different ways. — Vishan Lakniani

Level 1 — Culturescape

Culturescape is the tangled web of rituals and beliefs, and ideas that come from the culture. Whether we live in a tribe in a developing part of the world or in modern tribes such as a corporation, all of us are part of Culturescape.

We believe in what our parents, teachers, priests, politicians, media, advertisements, authors, books, and thought leaders tell us. But we don’t see it just like fish swimming in water.

The rules by which each tribe lives do not apply to everybody, but they apply to that tribe. The problem with Culturescape is that it feels real. We become a victim of it.

At this level world happens to us. We suffer breakups, business failure, being hospitalized, book launch failure, newsletter failure, not-being-able-to-build-a-subscriber-base failure. You get the point.

A vast majority of people exist at level 1.

At this point, we give this kind of answers to Alan’s questions:

Who am I? — I am a writer. I am a three-book author. I am a bestselling author.

What do I desire? — I want to get better at writing. I want to make a living from writing. I want to write a book. I want my book to be a megaseller. I want to earn big royalties.

What do I know? — I know I am a kind person. I know God is on my side. I know if I put in 10,000 hours, I will get better at writing.

But at a certain point, people start waking up. That is when they go to level 2.

Level 2 — Awakening

At this level, people start going back to the childhood nature of questioning. They question their parent’s expectations; they question religion, they question the social- norms, and they realize they can choose their own experiences in life.

Life doesn’t happen to them, but it starts happening from them. It emerges from them. This is when they start creating their own rules.

They don’t follow society’s so-called normal professions and start following their passion. They do that because it is fulfilling. They might become a coach, or set up a business. They still identify themselves by what they do but their desires are in line with their inner being.

At this level, they really start embracing personal growth.

When they do that enough, they go to level 3 — Recoding Yourself.

Level 3 — Recoding Yourself

This is when you realize the world is not just outside you; the world is inside you as well. And you start paying attention to your inner world. You start listening to that tiny little voice inside you.

When you start going within yourself, you start recognizing that you are more than just a physical body.

At this level, the big shift happens at question #1. The answer to that question becomes:

I am a soul having a human experience.

Level 4 — Becoming Extraordinary

As soon as you start going within, it opens you to level 4. And level 4 is when you start becoming extraordinary. An important shift happens that really transforms how you live your life. It puts you in 1–5% of human beings who are truly fulfilled and happy.

You realize you are so much beyond your body. “You” extend to all other human beings and all the life on the planet. “You” become a part of a great “whole.”

The more you expand your circle of compassion to other people, the greater the opportunity the universe gives you.

At level 1 our society teaches us to have goals and the goals are given to us by Culturescape. At level 2, the goals come from our soul. But when we get to level 4, the goals come from a completely different place.

According to Vishan Lakhiani, they come from Inspiration.

Call it Inspiration or God, or Universe, or Supreme Being, or Higher Power, but when we become a part of the “whole,” Inspiration leads to intention.

Inspiration leads to intention.

We might think we came up with the brilliant idea for that book or that song or that business, but we are simply a conduit.

When we say we got inspired, what we really mean is Inspiration whispered in our ear.

When someone gets an idea in a dream (John Lennon) or in the bathtub (Archimedes) it was Inspiraton whispering. And when Inspiraton has your attention, and you are receptive, it clears the roadblocks and starts moving you towards it. I gives you the intention.

That is how inspiration leads you to intention.

But you got to be listening. Your antenna needs to be attuned to hear the whispers. Whispers can come in any form. As an idea in the shower, or a nudge in a seminar, or as a YouTube video. You never know.

You got to be ready.

As soon as you show that you will take the nudge and act on it and you have the confidence to make it happen, luck starts being on your side.

The Inspiration doesn’t just whisper to you. It clears the way for you.

Your job is to listen.

And if you chose to ignore it, the Inspiraton goes to someone else.

I like this idea.

To me “Four Levels of Consciousness” is like a roadmap for growth.

I like that at fourth level of consciousness your goals, your purpose is assigned to you by a higher power.

At level 2 we keep looking for a purpose for life, a way to make contribution to this universe and most of the time we have no clue what that purpose is. So we pick one thing, something we like and enjoy and declare that this is the purpose of our life.

And when we don’t achieve success in our endeavor, success as defined by the society or culture, we give up.

In my case it was writing. I picked it up and made it my vocation. I have pursued it for a number of years without getting much success as in terms of making money, having a big subscriber base, building a business on it.

But the truth is I don’t need any of that. I write because I see it as a means of personal growth.

I can’t give it up. It is the reason I get up each morning, energized and ready to work. My drive to write is so strong that even if I want to give it up, I can’t.

So there is a possiblilty that universe might have a purpose behind it. Or maybe it has something completely different and I haven’t even got a clue.

How can I find out.

Listen, I suppose. Wait and listen.

How to listen? I will write about it in my next article.

Image by Comfreak from Pixabay