your wu simply won’t wei. This is because to manifest what you want you first have to have a clear picture of what it is, and you can’t have that if your mind is full of interference. That would be like listening to the cacophonous sound of two tunes playing at the same volume at the same time. I say emptying the mind is tricky, but it’s not impossible and is, once you get the knack, actually extremely simple.
to manifest what you want you have to first have a clear picture of what it is and you can’t have that if your mind is full of interference.
To start with you have to believe that you can control your own mind, rather than the other way round. Now there are a thousand and eight different techniques from a plethora of spiritual disciplines to help you do this, including, for example, the following.
Imagine yourself standing by a river and throwing each thought, as it arises, into the current to be swept away.
Simply watch each thought arise from the nothingness and disperse again, making sure you catch the dispersal in case you lose yourself in the thought and get carried away.
Count your in and out breaths from one to nine and start again, or one to one thousand and eighty if you like, starting again at the beginning every time you get lost in a thought, visualize an extremely deep, dark hole, repeat, silently or aloud a mantra (sacred sound), such as:
Om (approximately, the sound of the Universal Dinner Lady’s belly rumbling)
imagine yourself standing by a river and throwing each thought, as it arises, into the current to be swept away.
Om mane padme hum (approximately, I surrender to the thunderbolt in the void)
Om shanti (approximately, peace)
Nam yoho renge kyo (approximately, I surrender to the law of cause and effect)
Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté, bodhisvaha (approximately, go, go, go beyond, go beyond the beyond – to you (inside) who goes, I bow down)
Fortuna, Fortuna, give me my sweetcorn and tuna (approximately, goddess of good fortune, give me sustenance), or whatever you like really, as long as when you repeat it over and over, it cancels out the thoughts in your forebrain.
Or you can simply say to your mind with utmost authority, compassion and firmness, ‘Shut the f*** up!’ (which is approximately how I do it).
Whichever way you choose, and it really doesn’t matter which, as long as you achieve even brief moments of emptiness, start practising immediately and continue till you die, if you really want to …
form a clear picture now in order to get what you want
Come on, let’s do it. But let’s do it methodically, using the (carefully considered) aforementioned template. Let’s conjure up a complete internal experience of what you want to manifest now, in full Technicolor, sensaround, 7.1 Dolby surroundsound, complete with smell, feel and taste, starting with:
clean air
Picture yourself always breathing clean air now – feel it thrill your lungs and oxygenate your brain – and picture it following you wherever you go. We have to start here with the basics and nothing is quite as basic, not only to your surviving but to your thriving, than breathing clean (or relatively clean) air, at least while you’re on the planet. Moreover, by visualizing yourself breathing clean air, it’s more likely you’ll manifest realtime locations at which you’ll be able so to breathe.
pure water
Picture yourself always drinking and having easy, uninhibited access to pure, or relatively pure, drinking water now – feel it caress your oesophagus as it slides down. While this may have not yet been something you actively craved, there is every likelihood, without wishing to alarm you, that before very long, relatively pure water for drinking and cooking will become more and more scarce on the planet, so visualize well, my friend, and you may even manifest a pure water spring in your own backyard.
uncontaminated food
Picture yourself always eating the finest (uncontaminated) food, your table laid with a feast fit for a queen or king. See the vividness of the greens, the depth of the browns, golds and yellows, the lushness of the reds and oranges; imagine the smell of it wafting sensuously up your nostrils, the taste of it bringing pleasure to your palate and tickling your tongue. Visualize well, for as with water, clean, wholesome food will become harder and harder to come by as time goes on and a steady supply will be extremely beneficial to your ongoing wellbeing.
shelter
While it’s true that the essential purpose of shelter is to give you adequate protection from the elements as well as privacy, your home (or homes) also affords you the space to play out the theatre of your being, complete with props, sound effects and lighting. So don’t hold back as you visualize this, your perfect home or homes, located, aspected, designed, furnished, equipped and externally landscaped exactly as you’d like. Go into as much detail as you can muster, all the way down to the finish on the plug sockets, the feel of the bed linen, the width of the TV screen, the colour of the walls and floors, the shape of the swimming pool, the heat of the steam room and the green of the foliage as the breeze blows through it. See yourself with key in hand, opening the door and stepping in – smell it, run your fingertips along the worktop surfaces in the kitchen, gaze at your reflection in the bathroom mirror and tiptoe proudly through the tulips in the yard.
clothing
(including, for the sake of convenience, shoes, accessories and all hair, skin and bath products, perfumes, tweezers, nail clippers, razors and all the gubbins you need to make you feel presentable)
While the essential purpose of clothing is to protect you, both from the elements and from being arrested (other than in your own home or equivalent, or designated nudist areas), we wouldn’t have such a huge global fashion industry had we not the compulsive proclivity for dressing up for the purposes of impressing each other; and while it’s possible you’re so enlightened you don’t do that too, it’s unlikely, so visualize your wardrobe now, full of the most beautiful clothes and footwear you can possibly imagine and your bathroom shelves stocked with all the products you could ever want to pamper your beautiful body. See yourself stepping out in all your manicured finery (or neo-hippie throwaway chic, or however you fancy yourself looking), feel the fabric against your moisturized skin, the leather around your pedicured feet.
visualize your wardrobe now, full of the most beautiful clothes and footwear you can possibly imagine.
physical warmth
See log fires, underfloor heating, double glazing and roof insulation for the winter and warm sun on your shoulder for the summer, or however you like to take your physical warmth. See yourself now never having to shiver in discomfort – except, of course, on the rare occasion the boiler breaks down and you get ripped off by the plumber, for which occasional, inevitable eventuality, even the power of wu wei is no