The Science of Success

The science of success deals with knowing the natural laws and applying those laws in a definite, scientific method. Natural laws are universal laws. They are higher laws that govern every aspect of life throughout the universe. Natural laws are the ultimate laws of creation. They supersede all man-made laws which only apply on planet Earth and which often vary from country to country. By contrast, the same natural laws apply to all beings in all the planets in all solar systems in every galaxy in the universe.

Ignorance of the laws does not prevent us from creating. We’re always creating. We create our experiences every moment—the sadness and the joy, the contentment and the suffering, the pleasure and the pain, the success and the failure—we create it all. It may be hard to imagine we could be the very ones behind our own misery and suffering, both physical and psychological. Yet we are masters of our creation. Our God-given gift of free will allows us to make choices, in this life and the next. Our choices determine our circumstances in life. The choices we make are largely determined by our mental system or thought pattern. Our thought pattern is largely determined by our level of awareness. When we live in awareness, we make enlightened choices. When we make enlightened choices, we create constructively.

What is this thing called awareness? To be spiritually aware is to be in touch with our Self, the spiritual aspect of our being. To live life on this level of awareness is to go with the flow instead of against it. When we go with the flow, we’re automatically obeying the natural laws. Thus our thoughts are mostly Self-conscious thoughts and our creations are mostly constructive. That is, they agree with the plan for Self-conscious life.

When we go against the flow, we’re creating outside of awareness and our creations are not always productive. To create outside of awareness is to create in an unconscious manner. We’re not aware of our thoughts from one moment to the next. Thus there’s no correlation between what we think, what we say and how we act. Since we’re not creating consciously, our creations become hit-or-miss situations—they may or may not be productive. Good fortune may follow us and our life may go well for a time. When this happens we take it for granted and may even develop a complacent attitude. But when our creations don’t serve us well, we moan and complain and ask; “Why am I suffering like this?” We don’t realize we have created the painful situations. Both the smugness and the moaning-and-groaning attitude are results of an unconscious thought pattern, which ultimately results in unenlightened choices.

Awareness helps us to put an end to the cycle of negative causes that revolve endlessly on an on, causing us to continually experience the negative effects of the causes we create through our unenlightened choices. Living in awareness is the key to creating positive karma. Karma is the eastern name for the fundamental law of the universe, the Law of Cause and Effect. It’s important to understand how this law relates to our creations. The law governs not our belief system or our thought pattern, but the effects created by our thoughts. Knowing how to create positive karma is fundamental to our creations and to living a life of success. All our creations are affected by this basic universal law.

The Law of Karma works in this way: every thought we have and every action we take sets into motion a cause. These causes have their effects for good or ill. The effects make our lives what they are. Our thoughts and actions in the past life affect the present life. Our thoughts and actions in the present life affect both the present and the future life. Every thought and every action creates a reaction that affects others as well as oneself. We always reap the effects of the causes we set in motion, though we may not feel the effects right away.

Karma can be positive or negative, but we take the good stuff for granted and are inclined to notice only the bad stuff. We complain when our life is falling apart. Yet when this law is correctly understood and practiced, it’s easier to create positive karma than negative, with all the effects negative karma can bring. Not only is everyone involved with his or her own personal karma, but also with the karma of the whole human race. When we practice right human relations, namely harmlessness, goodwill, and more concern for the welfare of others than just our own selfish desires, we’re creating positive karma. When we act in selfish ways, seeing ourselves as separate from others, we’re creating negative karma. When we create negative karma, we’re evolving at a slow pace and this holds back the whole human race. It’s in our best interest to create only positive karma.

We have control over our creations only in the present, the Now moment. As we grow in awareness we will be ever conscious of our thoughts, words and actions. We cannot go back to the past but it’s helpful to know we have the opportunity to alter the effects of any negative causes we set in motion in the present. Making restitution and/or performing service are ways that we can counterbalance the effects of the negativity.

The restitution or service need not be aimed at the persons or persons directly involved—we can apply it to anyone who offers us the opportunity to ‘clean slate.’ I was touched by the story of a grieving mother whose only child (a daughter) was sent to prison for life without parole. The mother mourned the “loss” of her child and then explored ways in which she could help other young women in prison. From then on she devoted her life to working with female prisoners, counseling and helping them in ways that made their life behind bars more bearable. This was the playing out of karma. The mother either had to satisfy a past karmic debt or one she had created in the current lifetime.

You may be wondering, “What does the mother’s karma have to do with the daughter’s?” The answer is, “Nothing.” The mother could not mitigate any of the daughter’s karma...the daughter created her own causes and must deal with her own effects. However, it’s highly likely these two had a karmic debt to satisfy from a past life. Before coming into this lifetime, it’s likely they made an agreement to work out their debt to each other in this manner. Regarding the crime for which the daughter was convicted, the individuals involved in that drama must deal with their own causes and effects.

Another example of making restitution may be in the form of looking back at our past misdeeds. During my training as a Level I Zen Qigong instructor my qigong master, Grandmaster Wei Zhong Foo, directed an exercise which he explained was absolutely necessary before he could continue with the “Empowerment to Open the Heaven’s Door” exercise. He instructed the students to think back to any dishonest deeds we might have done or engaged in knowingly, no matter how slight the offense. We were instructed to bring up the circumstances and then perform a forgiveness exercise for each and every offense. I found it amazing that the little misdeeds I committed that lay buried in my subconscious for years, so easily surfaced with my intent to right the wrongs.