The Monk who sold his Ferrari
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
The story revolves around a mid-night discussion between two former colleagues. One was Julian Mantle, who was a litigator who had a stellar professional reputation before giving up the worldly endeavors and pursued his spiritual calling to change his life after his life turned upside down due to the sad demise of his daughter which he tried to bury by submerging into work and this led to his failed marriage as well. One fine day he simply collapsed in the courtroom. After waking up in the hospital he decided to resign from his partnership at the law firm, he sold his house, his Ferrari and left for India. The other person is John, who worked under Julian before Julian resigned from the firm. Before Julian left for India, he was obese, looked very old and pale, which was probably due to the fact that he had a terrible lifestyle of eating junk foods, improper sleep, work stress and completely out of order life style. After Julian’s resignation, Julian didn't see any of his former colleagues for a while, and until one day he knocked on John’s office. John was surprised to see Julian, Julian’s transformation was so radiant and profound that for a while John failed to recognize his former mentor. John wanted to learn what Julian learned during his time in India.
Julian's transformation into this radiant person, full of life and energy motivated John to learn from him and so they decided to meet one evening. Julian explained that he was in a mystical place called Sivana which was high atop mountains in a far off and isolated place. The beauty of this place was beyond description and sages of Sivana had a secret to offer. A secret that would transform the misaligned and out of order life of Julian Mantle and which would later be passed on to John and many others.
At Sivana, a master named yogi Raman took Julian under his belt. Yogi Raman told a fable that imbibed seven virtues for a life overflowing with inner peace, joy, and a wealth of spiritual gifts. The fable goes as follows “You are sitting in the middle of a magnificent lush green garden. This garden is filled with the most spectacular flowers you have ever seen. The environment is supremely tranquil and silent. Savor the sensual delights of this garden and feel as if you have all the time in the world to enjoy this natural oasis. As you look around you see that in the corner of this magical garden stands a towering, red lighthouse, six stories high. Suddenly, the silence of the garden is disturbed by a loud creaking as the door at the base of the lighthouse opens. Out stumbles a nine-foot-tall, nine hundred pound Japanese sumo wrestler who casually wanders into the center of the garden. As this sumo wrestler starts to move around the garden, he finds a shiny gold stopwatch which someone has left behind many years earlier. He slips it on and falls to the ground with an enormous thud. The sumo wrestler is rendered unconscious and lies there, silent and still. Just when you think he has taken his last breath, the wrestler awakens, perhaps stirred by the fragrance of some fresh yellow roses blooming nearby. Energized, the wrestler jumps swiftly to his feet and intuitively looks to his left. He is startled by what he sees. Through the bushes at the very edge of the garden he observes a long winding path covered by millions of sparkling diamonds. Something seems to instruct the wrestler to take the path, and to his credit, he does. this path leads him down the road of everlasting joy and eternal bliss.”
As weird it sounds this fable holds true treasures. Julian explains that in this fable the garden represents the mind. And just as it required for the garden, one has to remove the weed that grows on it. The weeds of worry, negative thinking wears down the mind. Life’s turbulence are bound to come, but it comes to awaken us, not throw us.No situation is as bad as it sounds. If one simply lives through life without judging the events, one frees himself from his past and becomes an architect of their future. The mind is a wonderful servant and a terrible master. Boundaries of life are created by us . The secret of life long happiness is to find out what you truly love to do and then direct all of your energy towards doing it. Those who rise with the sun are truly insane and driven and not in an obsessive way but in an effortless manner. They are so focused at task in hand that they don't have time for endless worries and hence zero worries and zero energy leaks. Your work will be play. No one gets to the third base with one foot on the second. People who say who don't have time to improve life are thinking that they can drive all day without refueling. How do you conserve your own energy? You don't’, you shift it, for every bad thought that passes through replacing it with an elevating one. This way you will have clarity on what you want to manifest.
The purpose of life is a life of purpose. Those who study others are wise, those who study themselves are enlightened. Do your dharma( Sanskrit word for life’s purpose). The secret of success is the constancy of purpose. The key is to have discipline and vision to see your heroic mission and to measure that it serves other people while you realize it. It become easier with visualization of your dreams and putting positive pressure on yourself. Train your mind to associate pleasure with good habits and punishments with bad ones, your weakness will fall by the wayside. Always set goals by attaching a timeline with it.
Self-mastery is the DNA of life mastery. How could a person lead a corporation if he can't even lead himself? Have the courage to run your own race. Life favors the prepared mind. Take time to nourish your mind and body. Be a student of life long learning( Japanese principle of kaizen). Books don't actually teach you, they help you see within yourself. Start your day well, rise with the sun, and please note, the 10-minute window before you sleep and after you awake is profound and influential. Use to rewire your mindset and subconscious mind. Keep the race going, failure is bound to come but remember that for every arrow that hits the mark, there lay one hundred arrows that missed it.
Be disciplined. When spider web unites they tie up a lion. Discipline brings freedom, freedom to effortlessly do what one intends. many people have liberty but they are not free. Discipline is built brick by brick and it is the key to master destiny. Once one keeps up, he gets that momentum.
The most precious commodity is time. Be fanatic and finicky about your time. Always have the discipline to focus your time around your priorities. 80 % of your results will come from 20% of your activities (high impact activities). Think again, will that water cooler gossip yield to anything 10 years from now? Learn to say no to things, this will give you the power to say yes to bigger things.
Shedding the shackles of self: Your life is more than who you are or about you. Your life moves in magical dimensions when you strive to make the world a better place. We all are meant to do something and our true genius will shine through when we are doing it. And makes our journey beautiful.
Conclusion: In the fable, the magnificent garden was the mind. The towering lighthouse was a reminder to follow your purpose. The sumo wrestler represents the Japanese concept of Kaizen and the pink wire cable worn by sumo reminds us of discipline. This separates the people who are free and who think they are free. The gold stopwatch is a staunch reminder of our time and mortality. The fragrant roses remind us that our life is meant to serve others as we elevate our own lives. Diamonds in the fable tells us to live in the moment and enjoy the journey.
