Purposeless people are those who have many goals, but they do not adhere to any of them, for example:
1. They do not have the power of concentration.
2. They themselves are not impressed by the right purpose.
3. They are told about their goals by various entities, each presenting a different tasty goal.
4. They jump from one “purpose to another “purpose,” wasting their energy, time, and life.
Let us take each of these statements and try to understand it.
1.
They do not have the power of concentration. The power of concentration is the ability of the mind to hold itself in a specific direction or a goal until that goal is accomplished.
When this ability is lacking, it is because the person has no mental discipline. He may also have a karma by which he is led from one goal to another without the accomplishment of any one goal. Or it could be that this individual goal was harshly criticized and another goal was presented to him.
One of my Teachers used to say that it is better to accomplish one small goal than to hallucinate about many fantastic goals.
Changing goals too rapidly, without serious reason, creates a mental dizziness, and the mind develops a habit of not staying with any goal. In the Ageless Wisdom such people are called “butterflies.”
2.
They themselves are not impressed by the right purpose. The reason that people do not have stable goals is because they have not yet sensed the permanent purpose in their intention, or they do not have a powerful intention in their life.
If you have no intention to go to New York, you do not have to have any preparation or any goal to go to New York. And if you have in your mind intentions to go to many cities, but you cannot decide which one you want first, you create an unstable condition in your mind. Instability of mind is lack of purpose or goals.
If you sense the purpose of your life, you create a plan and set goals and systematically work to achieve your purpose.
If you do not sense your life’s purpose, create one and work for it as hard as possible. Do this not only to achieve your purpose, but also to discipline your mind in concentration and to develop perseverance.
Without a purpose you drift here and there without projecting roots, and your life becomes very superficial, a life running on the surface without depth.
3.
They are told about their goals by various entities, each presenting a different tasty goal. This is sometimes unconscious and sometimes “conscious.”
There was a very talented woman who could have done great service for humanity, but she became the football of various entities, each of them kicking her in different directions. The curious thing is that these entities were cooperating with each other to prevent her from any focus or concentration in any direction and by permanently changing her goals with very subtle and palatable reasons.
Every time this poor woman visits me, she presents fantastic plans and fantastic goals with great enthusiasm. But a few months later, before she starts working on her goals, her goals change.
In the next visit she gives gigantic reasons why the former goals and plans were not going to work, and why these new goals and new plans are the right ones which are going to bring her lots of money and opportunities for service. This has been going on for ten years, and she has not done anything completely and she has no money in the bank.
One feels sorry for such a talented and charming girl, seeing her drifting from one goal to another to obey so-called “spirits” or her nonexistent “intuition.”
“By the fruits of them you will know...”
4. They jump from one “purpose” to another “purpose,” wasting their energy, time, and life. The important thing is to see how much time and energy are wasted for so many years without any accomplishment.
A real purpose is just like a magnet which brings together all your efforts and challenges you to achieve your purpose. Confusion, hesitation, and vacillation are symptoms of a decaying brain.
Frustration is a method used by entities to try to lead a person into failure. Frustration is caused by permanently changing a person’s goals, or by presenting him with goals for which he is not ready. Imposing goals on people for which they are not ready makes them frustrated, or it develops a tendency in them to run after many goals in order to have security from their frustration.
The following are rules that can be applied to create concentration and focus. They are simple but far reaching in their effects.
1. Whatever you do, do it with all your heart and concentration, and try to complete it before you start doing something else.
This needs discipline, and it is often very beneficial to go and work for a boss and follow his instruction to create a “sense of continuity” in you.
2. Do your own duty instead of trying to do the duties of others.
If you do not focus yourself on your own duties but try to be interested in the duties of others and interfere in them, you soon lose the opportunity to have roots. You become rootless. You see many rootless plants carried here and there by the wind.
Doing your own duty creates roots. What are roots?...Stability, focus, concentration, sense of responsibility.
3. Create a purpose and three goals to achieve that purpose. Write about your goals and know them as factually as possible.
Set the steps to reach your goals, and do all that is possible to fulfill your goals.
After fulfilling your goals, see how close you are to your purpose.
Once you accomplish your three goals and achieve your “purpose,” you will feel very strong, self-confident, focused, and concentrated.
Now you can create another “purpose” and do the same thing. After achieving these “purposes,” you are a man or woman who can be successful in the world.
During the period of working with your goals to try to achieve your set “purpose",” you will have intuitive moments in which you will be conscious about a Purpose which transcends all your so-called “purposes,” but such a flash will be so fast that the next moment you will lose it.
Periodically the flash of the ultimate Purpose of your life will visit you until your brain one day catches it for a few seconds.
Your glory will start from that moment of realization of your Purpose, and you will enter into the path of success.
An unstable mind and an unstable life are a great waste. They are sources of confusion and instability for others.
People who change their goals often and run after new goals without accomplishing their former goals and achieving their “purpose” eventually turn their back on their purpose. They often hate it and become enemies of those who have a similar purpose. Those who are frustrated become the traitors of those who show signs of having a similar purpose to their own.
A person who was changing his church every year eventually told me that all churches were useless. Another person who was changing his political ideology every six months came to the conclusion that all ideologies were nonsense. Another person who was reading every kind of book eventually gave away all his two thousand books. Another person complained that all branches of the Ageless Wisdom had no substance, and he became a materialist.
The reason for all this is that such people have never touched the essence of the things they tried, or they were not ready yet for studies which they wanted to master.
Too much undigested food makes the stomach reject all kinds of food.
There are a few Teachers who know the rules of the Path, and they like to train students to practice focus, concentration, perseverance, and stability.
Daily we can exercise these virtues in the smallest of our deeds, developing them bit by bit, and eventually turn into stable persons.
It is not an error to study many branches of one subject, but if it is done superficially and without dedicating enough time and interest, you remain on the surface and one day lose your life under a great wave of the unmastered subject.
There are also some people who pretend that they have higher goals so that they can function in groups dedicated to certain high goals. Such a pretension is based on a selfish or personal goal. When these people achieve the goal, they quit their growth, and take themselves away from the path of discipline.
For example, there was a man who joined a certain group. Eventually, he acquainted himself with a pretty girl who was very modest and careful. He carefully discovered what she liked and tried to show her that he liked the same thing. He bought for himself the books that she liked. He began to tell her about his meditations which she had done for years. He spoke about his evening review and how it helped him to shape his life.
Eventually he started dating her. At first they would occasionally be absent from classes. Eventually they disappeared.
Years later I met her in a shopping center. She looked like a witch – unclean and with improper dress. We had a talk. “What happened to you?” I asked. “I thought he was a human being with the same goals. We got married. But he left me without money and with children to support.”
I have seen this happen again and again.
When people pretend to have goals, they attract those who have goals. Later, if they are unstable, they cheat them and make them forsake their goals.
My Father used to call such people, “Coyotes who steal chickens.”
-Torkom Saraydarian
Leadership vol.4
