Monday, July 23, 2018

John Farley's Spotlight: The Professional Tennis Player and the State of Enlightenment

The gaining of enlightenment is the purpose of our existence. Each of us has his or her role to play in this grand theater of life. You have chosen to be a professional tennis player. Playing out this role, which is natural for you, while embracing the highest wisdom available in this life, will take you to the state of enlightenment.

Enlightenment is the natural state of human life. In the state of enlightenment the question of "who am I" is answered. You come to realize that you are not the adoption of some external persona you have perhaps identified yourself with, but you are a fully realized self, established in an unbounded field of pure intelligence, pure consciousness, pure energy, and bliss. For it is your birthright as a human being to live a life blissful in nature and cosmic in scope. By blissful I mean a life of inner fulfillment, not dependent on external circumstances. By cosmic I mean a fully expanded consciousness, the realization and establishment of full mental potential.

Enlightenment is not based on a mood of the mind, it is a state of the nervous system cultured over time through the process of transcending which completely removes the blocks from the nervous system while producing unbounded awareness. It is important to understand the state of enlightenment can only come from the purification of the nervous system through the process of transcending which gives deep rest to the entire system. It is possible for some of the very evolved among you to spontaneously slip in and hold the state of enlightenment, but this is rare. The nervous systems of most players and most people in general require repeated experiences of transcending to purify their nervous systems to gain enlightenment.

This path to the full state of enlightenment is enlightening itself because with each experience of transcending your consciousness is more expanded and your nervous system more free of stress. This changes your relationship with experience toward one of greater understanding and greater appreciation. Therefore, life becomes more elegantly dynamic, more fulfilling, moving every day to a higher stage of development.

The initial conditions required for reaching the state of enlightenment are transcending and action. The transcending comes from the technology of Transcendental Meditation. The action is simply what you do every day - brush your teeth, hit some tennis balls, eat lunch, work out at the gym, travel to your next tournament, and maybe, if all goes well, come home with a trophy. The combination of transcending through the effortless technique of Transcendental Meditation and your normal, natural routine is the key. With transcending comes an infusion of consciousness into the nature of the mind and deep rest to the nervous system. The action you do stabilizes and integrates the infusion of consciousness creating a more profound level of wholeness in the neurophysiology, elevating you to a more expanded, higher level on the path. And on it goes, moving you every day to a higher and higher stage of development. Eventually a time comes when the full state of enlightenment is gained.

The practice of Transcendental Meditation produces a unique style of functioning of the nervous system called "Restful Alertness," in which the attention system is fully alert while the mind and body are quiet, deeply restful. It is the experience of being awake and rested at the same time -wakefulness and silence together. As your practice of Transcendental Meditation advances, the nervous system, given to experience these two qualities simultaneously again and again from your daily meditations, gets cultured to maintain this experience even in the midst of dynamic activity outside of meditation. Action in silence - this is a hallmark of growth to enlightenment - playing your game, serving, returning, and running down balls - all in an inner environment of silence.

These increasingly dynamic conditions for your growth toward enlightenment - the expansion of consciousness, a more stress-free nervous system, action in silence - and the increasing fulfillment of experience that are more and more defining your life, do not mean you will be free of the ride life takes us on - its successes and its failures, its pleasures and its pains, its losses and its gains. These are all a natural part of life. But what it does mean is that you will have a different relationship with this ride. Not based upon some mood of the mind as I said, this change in relationship has its foundation in a natural, increasingly higher-order level of functioning of the neurophysiology, the development of a resilience and an inner silence that allows you to navigate the ride with more balance and equanimity.

This wisdom of how to gain enlightenment and joyously live your full potential is what has been missing from life. Without it, the consciousness tends to narrow over time while the physiology, unable to release the deeper stresses that it picks up, becomes more vulnerable to illness and injury. With it, your consciousness expands, freeing you from the smallness of thinking and making you more creative, while the physiology, with the deeper blocks of stress removed each day, becomes stronger and more resilient. With it, you create for yourself, as a professional tennis player and athlete, the mind-body coordination that can take you to the finals of grand slams. With it, you increase your chances every day of walking onto court and playing "in the zone." With it, you have a better chance of remaining injury-free and enjoying a longer, healthier career. With it, you will begin to enjoy more each moment of your life. Embracing this wisdom, you will have set yourself on a path of increasing fulfillment and happiness, on and off the court.

You have chosen in this theater of life a court stadium as your setting and a professional tennis player as your role. Then play it every time for an award winning performance. You are a cosmic being, unbounded and blissful in your true nature. Gain the state of enlightenment and live that reality. Be it. It will transform not just your game, but your entire life. Then you'll know who you truly are and what you are capable of. Maybe you didn't know before how to gain it....... but now you know.



Anyway, that's how I see it.



Note from Author:

All of what I imparted to you above is a knowledge most fortunately shared with me by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I learned this knowledge from personal discussions with Maharishi, from his lectures, video tapes, books, and from other teachers of Transcendental Meditation over a period of almost 50 years. I am eternally grateful to Him for blessing me with this wisdom. As He has passed it on to me, I am passing it on to you.














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