CLARIFY YOUR CORE DESIRES
Most people assume that personal willpower and mental focusing generate the action leading toward manifestation. But as we’ve seen, Charles Haanel’s writings, when read carefully, insist that thought alone can accomplish nothing new or creative. He says over and over that the driving power of manifestation is passion, emotion, desire—in sum, strong positive feeling.
In this chapter I want to teach you how to advance, while still in the Silence, into a sharp focus on experiencing your most important passion and desire at any moment. As you might guess, now that you’ve read this far into this book, at some point I’ll introduce you to a special Focus Phrase that will generate the focus we aim for here.
In each manifestation session that you pause and move through, hopefully at least once a day, you will reach the point with this fourth Focus Phrase where you are able to look inward, observe your core passion at the moment, and decide through this process which driving intent to focus your power of attention upon during the session.
Often you’ll find that the same passion and related goal returns over and over, for days or even weeks or months, until that goal and yearning is attained and fulfilled, but probably you’ll find that you have more than one goal that you’re advancing toward, step by step.
In traditional Buddhist, Hindu, and even Christian theologies, the very notion of desire carries a negative connotation. Most meditative and contemplative practices insist that desires of any kind are bad for the soul and must be repressed and put forcefully away if one is to attain spiritual awakening and fulfillment.
Haanel’s system flies in the face of these beliefs, and it does so in a very specific way. He insists, as we began to explore earlier, that manifestation is driven by our feelings, our desires, and our yearnings, and that we will manifest nothing without bringing them to the fore. Again, here’s the key quote:
A thought’s vitality depends upon the feeling with which the thought is impregnated. If the thought is passionate and constructive, it will possess vitality; it will have life; it will grow, develop, expand; it will be creative; it will attract to itself everything necessary for its complete development.
Notice the word that he uses: “impregnated.” That’s a powerful way to state his meaning, because impregnation comes from the sexual act of creation, and it’s the feeling that is the impregnator and the thought that is the receptive host. Wow.
And what are the “feeling” qualities that he specifically names for successful impregnation of a thought? Passionate and constructive.
“Passionate.” What does that word convey to us? The dictionary defines passionate as “easily aroused; having, compelled by, ruled by, or expressing intense or vehement emotion or strong feeling.”
Haanel asks you to focus inward, quiet your mind, look directly to your Source, open to receive higher guidance, and then tune into your most passionate yearning or desire at the moment.
Notice that the order here is crucial and psychologically astute. If you just suddenly try to identify your dominant passion, you’re going to be looking with your everyday awareness, and who knows what you’ll find.
Haanel requests that you first move through a serious meditative process, tune into your inner guide, and then (and only then) look to see what core passion you want to tap into and use to empower your manifestation process.
So many people, in their quest for successful manifestation of their dreams, fall flat right at this point. They might be driven by a host of conflicting desires fueled by the media, by past programming by their parents or peer group, by distorted ideas of what brings happiness in life. Very often, secondary or temporary hungers dominate their awareness, so that they almost never get a clear look at their deeper hungers, their higher passions, their true desires and needs.
For quite a number of years I’ve been looking closely at the whole phenomenon that we call “hunger” and “need” and “desire.” Surely we all hunger for food to keep our physical bodies alive and well. We hunger for sexual intimacy and release. We crave stimulation when understimulated for too long, and yearn for peace and quite when over-stimulated for too long. We need a roof over our heads, a community to support us when we are in trouble, and regular bouts of frivolous play and entertainment.
Most animals share with us most of these needs. They’re in fact programmed into our brains and drive us toward satisfactions of many different kinds. Usually we fixate on attaining secondary material expressions of our true desires—but often we remain unsatisfied deep down.
Haanel says it this way:
If we think of some form of material wealth, we may secure it. By concentrated thought the required conditions will be brought about and the proper effort put forth, which will result in bringing about the circumstances necessary to realize our desires. But we often find that when we secure the things we thought we wanted, they do not have the effect we expected. That is, the satisfaction is only temporary, or possibly is the reverse of what we expected.
That’s surely the universal experience of our advertisement-driven culture, in which we’re actually led to believe that Coke’s the thing, that a fancy car will solve all our problems, and that white teeth will answer all our romantic needs. Much of the shallow dimensions of the New Age movement were driven by what was called “spiritual materialism,” in which people were led to believe that by grabbing onto high beliefs and esoteric practices, a deeper spiritual hunger could be satisfied.
In this chapter I want to challenge you to look more deeply toward the desires and passions you carry within you, so that you can clearly identify the underlying passion that drives you and focus specifically on satisfying that deeper itch, not the surface tingle.
There are without question a list of basic needs that all human beings share, and that we all need to focus on and satisfy, in order to be happy and harmonious in our lives. Here’s the outline that Haanel offers:
We cannot be happy unless we have health, strength, congenial friends, pleasant environment, and sufficient supply not only to take care of our necessities, but also to provide for those comforts and luxuries to which we are entitled.
Do you agree with his list? If so, when you look within to see what needs you have that require attention and manifestation, be sure to reflect on the following:
This list can be shortened in your daily meditation to:
If you look deep within you and find one of these shouting for attention, definitely give it attention. Basic needs require regular attention to make sure you’re keeping everything in balance. If you deny or ignore anything on this list, you’re liable to get into compulsive behavior and avoidance patterns, such as drugs. Best to listen and respond with action.
But notice that Haanel lists these needs with the preface that we need to satisfy these needs in order to satisfy a deeper desire, in order to be happy. The driving intent is not to have a fancy house or flashy job; the intent is to fulfill temporary material needs in order to fullfill your deeper hunger, to experience enduring inner harmony and contentment. And usually, only when all of these needs are taken care of can you feel harmonious in your mind, your heart, and your relationships.
So do focus and manifest anything on that list of seven, so that you regularly experience the underlying emotion of happiness that comes with satisfying your human needs. But throughout, remember that you will need to focus on and sustain positive thoughts in order to manifest what you need in life. As Haanel says:
A happy thought cannot exist in an unhappy consciousness; therefore the consciousness must change.
So before you attempt to manifest something external that you hope will make you feel better inside, you’re going to have to deal with any negative inner thoughts and feelings that are predictably manifesting the outer negatives in your life.
As mentioned before, Haanel encourages us to not focus our manifestation energy on specific outward things that might be part of our desired happiness picture. Instead he suggests strongly that we look deep within, find the core positive yearning that’s living under pressure in our hearts, and focus on manifesting that positive feeling, not as a future imagination, but as a present-moment experience inside us.
Please bear with me—this requires close attention to see adequately into the spiritual logic of this process. Yearning is a power under pressure. There is something that you hunger for, that you need, but that externally you don’t have. However, that exact feeling inside you of yearning for something indicates that you already know this feeling, and want more of it in your life, yes?
Haanel insists, and I with him, that what we ultimately want is the feeling of being one with our Creator, of not feeling separated from God’s love. Everything else is a secondary yearning, wouldn’t you agree?
And here’s the joke: If we can yearn for a feeling, that means we already have a vague connection with that feeling. We’re already plugged into happiness and harmony. But we’ve let the connection be mostly lost, in all our various negative attitudes and beliefs and judgments and all the rest. Our problem in feeling bad isn’t external. The problem is that our internal condition is generating a negative outside world.
So we’re back where we started a few pages ago—as Haanel put it earlier, “the consciousness must change” for the better if we want our external situation to change for the better. And how do we change our consciousness?
Once again, our ego minds cannot think us out of our ingrained attitudes and negative beliefs and emotions. Remember the adage, often attributed to Albert Einstein: “You can’t solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created the problem in the first place.” Something new is needed, an inflow of fresh ideas, of more positive thoughts. And where do these come from?
From your Source. It’s plain and simple, but so many intelligent people fail to get this very simple point. Inspiration is our godsend, as they say. Insight from our deeper source of wisdom is required to break us out of our mental habits and to impregnate our usual thoughts with higher realization and a better game plan.
And notice that that’s exactly what we’re doing here, and that’s why I have suggested you first look inward, quiet your usual thoughts, enter the Silence, and open up to receive guidance from your Source before you look to your yearnings and see what the core yearning really is that you need to work to satisfy.
I suspect that there is a passionate pressure inside you right now—otherwise you wouldn’t be motivated to read this book right now. If you can look directly inward and make contact with that passion, you will tap the power and energy that will then impregnate your thoughts with insight, wisdom, practical plans, and step-by-step procedures to begin to manifest not just a car or a house or a job, but an entire life that is an expression of your inner yearning.
The yearning ultimately comes from your Creator or Source, by whatever name. The yearning is to not only subsist and survive for a while on this planet; the yearning is to fulfill your purpose on this planet. People who have identified their purpose, tapped their deepest yearning, and welcomed Spirit into their hearts and minds to manifest their purpose are happy people.
Do you want to be one of these people?
If so, here’s what you do.
As a regular daily habit, even hourly if you want to, you must remember to remember to pause, shift your attention to present-moment sensory experiences so that you temporarily quiet your regular thoughts, and enter into the Silence.
And as you breathe into that quiet-mind state of consciousness where Universal Mind can merge with your individual mind, say to yourself, “I am open to receive guidance from my Source.”
And as you stay aware of your breathing, just see what comes to you, as an experience, right in the middle of your breathing experience—that’s where Spirit flows in!
At some point, when you’re ready, you can use a special Focus Phrase that will gently awaken a realization inside you, of what you really desire deep down to bring into your life. Let the words of the Focus Phrase, in and of themselves, elicit a response and realization within you.
Simply say to yourself the following Focus Phrase:
“I know what I want.”
Say the words, and at the same time continue to stay aware of your breathing experience in your nose, your chest, and your belly.
Most people most of the time do not know what they really need to be truly happy. You can begin to evolve into a person who does know what you want.
Most people, when they ask themselves what they want, think of a thing they want to possess and do something with. If you look inside and say, “I know what I want,” and what you want is an ice cream bar, fine, don’t belittle small desires—go get one!
But if you’re this deep into this particular book, what you’re looking for probably isn’t a box of chocolate or any other temporary fix to push back your sense of frustration or incompleteness. You know you need something deeper than just another thing, or more of the things you already have. If you’re in need of something, fine—this program will help you focus and manifest that thing. But there’s a deeper dimension to satisfying your needs.
My experience in this regard (which runs parallel with Haanel’s) is that what we really need to bring into our lives isn’t a thing; it’s a feeling, an inner experience.
If you say to yourself, “I need more . . .” and complete the sentence, what words come to mind?
Sometimes, you’ll find your inner voice saying, “I need more money,” and this will very possibly be a valid need—and this program will help you manifest that financial need.
Sometimes your voice might say, “I need more love,” and this is definitely a serious yearning to respond to.
Perhaps you ask yourself what you truly desire, and your inner response (guided by the Universal Mind, which does know what you need) will say, “I need better health” or “I need to feel safe and free from all my worries.”
But deeper down, always, what I’m hungering for is a shift in my feelings—I yearn to feel more of a core good feeling. That’s the secret: What we truly yearn for, beyond things and situations, is the deeper positive feeling that these things and situations might bring us.
If you at first say to yourself that you need a better-paying job or a more fulfilling relationship, this is fine, but then look deeper. Look to see how you feel now in your heart, related to that need. And then look to see what feeling you hunger to feel inside you that a new job or relationship or whatever would hopefully bring you. Perceive the core yearning!
Let’s take a closer look at Haanel’s statement that began this chapter’s discussion:
A thought’s vitality depends upon the feeling with which the thought is impregnated. If the thought is passionate and constructive, it will possess vitality; it will have life; it will grow, develop, expand; it will be creative; it will attract to itself everything necessary for its complete development.
You have the thought, “What I need is to lose ten pounds.” Good, that’s a thought that seems to represent a solid need or intent. But the thought on its own will accomplish nothing, because “a thought’s vitality depends upon the feeling with which the thought is impregnated.”
And where is that essential passionate and constructive feeling going to be found and tapped? That’s the logic that you must return to over and over in this program. How do you access the feeling that will impregnate your thought and intent, so that your intent will grow, develop, expand, be creative, and attract everything necessary for its complete development?
You are, essentially, beyond all your thoughts and beliefs and ideas and judgments, a feeling deep inside your chest. But to gain power; you must learn to focus regularly and steadily and positively on that core feeling, that dynamic yearning, and impregnate your manifestation thoughts with the passionate power of that feeling!
Here’s what I often experience when I move through the manifestation process: I choose to look enjoyably inward, and I focus on my breathing to quiet my mind. This inner action of focusing in my chest area naturally brings me into deep encounter with the current feelings in my heart. I breathe into these feelings that are found right at the center of my heart experience, and then say to myself, “I am open to receive guidance from my Source,” and tune into whatever new experience comes to me, from that deeper Source. And as I focus on that experience, I say to myself, “I know what I want.”
Perhaps as I’m saying those words, I don’t yet really know what I’m yearning for that day, but in the process of starting that “I know what I want,” insight comes flowing into my mind from a deep source, and suddenly I do know!
That’s what insight is all about. That’s the “aha!” experience that is required right at this point. Perhaps in the first week or so of learning this process you won’t have a flash of insight into your deeper needs. But trust me, at some point soon, you will. You’ll make that vital inner “feeling” connection that carries the power to impregnate and activate your thoughts.
Again, I welcome you to move through the process yourself. As Haanel regularly said, it’s essential to exercise the mental muscle in order to become strong in this process. Each time you pause and say these Focus Phrases to yourself, you’re moving deeper into the Manifestation Process that will bring you what you desire.
Be sure to make your breath experience primary, and after you say each Focus Phrase, take time (one or more breaths) to open up and experience the resonance of the intent statement as it awakens deep feelings and insights within you, bringing your unconscious Universal Mind into full play.