Manifesto: How To Get What You Want Without Trying - The Doctor Barefoot

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with all its shallow tawdriness. The energy we put into outward displays of status, however discreetly splurged, is truly phenomenal – hence the pointless expenditure on so-called premium logo branded clothing, for example, or being seen at the ‘right’ overpriced restaurants and clubs. And while it’s obviously utterly silly, it’s an utterly silly life in many respects, and nothing is gained by avoiding the status game altogether, so you might as well visualize yourself now enjoying good social standing and having the power to influence events in a positive direction. I’m not sure how that looks to you. But however it looks to you, let yourself see it, feel it, smell it, taste it and hear it now.

      a good reputation

      Having a reputation as a mostly (no one’s perfect) honest, just and fair-minded person, as opposed to a dishonourable, no-good lying cheat, is not only desirable but fairly indispensable (unless you live in a bubble), for your very survival depends on people being willing to engage in commerce with you in one form or another and commerce depends on trust. So visualize yourself now enjoying a solid reputation as an all-round honourable character with whom others are keen to be involved on whatever level. Perhaps see yourself walking through the great marketplace of life and being greeted left, right and centre as a queen among women or a king among men – or even a queen among men and a king among women (or it could all turn out to be a bit of a dry experience for everyone).

      popularity

       (maybe involving fame)

      Everyone except the most miserable spoilsport wants to be popular. Popularity is almost akin to respect, status and having a good reputation but is subtly different, in that when you walk into a crowded room, people don’t just treat you with respect, admiration or at least deference, but come up and hug you instead, which is always a lot more fun for everyone involved. Indeed it’s great to be popular, as long as you remember people are fickle and resist the temptation to take it seriously. So visualize yourself with a scintillating social life, the most popular belle or beau of the ball, your card marked for the duration, but visualize it so because you’re exuding so much love and bonhomie. More importantly, visualize yourself with at least a few real friends, sisters and brothers who make your heart sing whenever you meet, talk, email or text, because as far as I can tell, all the clever-clever stuff aside, there’s hardly anything more important.

      safety

      Interesting one, safety. Even though we know that living in a human body on a planet in deepest, darkest space, which is hurtling around the nearest star at 66,000 mph, while simultaneously rotating on its own axis at no less than 1000 mph, and is subject to the vagaries of stray asteroids and comets, unpredictable weather and climate, tidal waves, flooding, drought, famine, pestilence, economic turbulence, social unrest and human violence, is probably the most dangerous game a spirit can play in life, still we delude ourselves into expecting safety in our everyday lives and are strangely surprised when events turn dangerous. Nonetheless, start immediately visualizing a protective sheath of energy around you and anyone whose safety you may be concerned about. See yourself so surrounded, walking through the jungle of life without a single lion, tiger, mugger, rapist or murdering gangster pouncing on you now.

      entertainment

      Well it would be pretty damn boring without it, wouldn’t it? No matter how spiritually developed you are, nor how fully engaged you are in your gainful, fulfilling employment, you still need to be entertained by life, whether formally at the theatre, movies, lapdancing club, comedy store or wherever, or informally by the living theatre, movie, lapdance and humour of everyday life. Essentially, most entertainment boils down to watching other people do things that make you laugh, gasp or simply engage your attention so you can forget your own story for a while. See yourself being fully entertained and amused by the ordinary details of workaday life, as well as by troupes of the best performers of every showbiz discipline from every corner of the globe – why not? – and bring on those dancing girls (or, of course, boys).

      visualize yourself with at least a few real friends, sisters and brothers who make your heart sing whenever you meet, talk, email or text, because as far as I can tell, there’s hardly anything more important.

      a feeling of belonging

       (wherever you are)

      While it is evident on close inspection that even the most permanent object, such as the oldest mountain, was once nothing more permanent, hence belonging only in situ, than molten lava, we still delude ourselves into craving a sense of belonging on the planet, and specifically to a particular place or group of places and, even more specifically, with a particular person or grouping of persons. Of course when you see through the illusion, it’s quite clear that if we belong anywhere at all, it’s in our bodies and in the universe. Anything more defined than that is asking for trouble. Yet ask for trouble we always do – hence xenophobia, nationalism and all the painful nonsense that comes with them.

      So visualize yourself now feeling a deep sense of belonging in your body in the universe, so that no matter where you find yourself, nor with whom, whether in Taunton or Timbuktu, whether with friends or complete strangers, you feel completely at home. Feel it as a relaxing awareness in the belly now.

      peace of mind

       (including being at peace with the idea of dying one day, as well as having a workable, reliable philosophy or existential model that may or may not have spiritual underpinnings)

      This is really the big one, because if you have unshakable peace of mind, no matter your external condition or situation, no matter your state of health, wealth or status, then you’ll always feel comfortable, which is after all what everyone wants to feel all the time – comfortable. Peace of mind isn’t something come by easily yet it is incredibly simple to attain. And it usually only takes thirty years or so of diligently following any valid psychophysical, spiritually based, philosophically sound system that grabs your fancy. Meantime, start visualizing yourself immediately with a mind so calm and peaceful that even if a stray asteroid were to crash into the ground before you now and destroy everyone and everything you hold dear or are familiar with, you would still retain your inner and outer composure – imagine that.

      purity of heart

       (hence authenticity and intensity of experience)

      It’s a rare person who’d enjoy an insipid life and who’d prefer things to be dull. Rarer still someone who’d truly prefer simulated life to the real thing. Even the most commited couch potato, if you could get them up off their arse, would rather be out in the world having a good time than watching other people doing it on TV. But the intensity of experience we crave and look for mistakenly in drink, sex, drugs or spending money to excess, to name but a few examples, can only truly be accessed with a pure heart. This implies a sufficient level of inner self-awareness to be honest with yourself and hence honest with others wherever and whenever possible, something usually facilitated by a few years of therapy with a competent therapist, meditation under instruction from an experienced teacher, or both. Meanwhile, immediately start visualizing yourself with absolute self-honesty, purity of heart in other words, living each and every moment with optimum authenticity and hence intensity now (however that may look to you).

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