Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So, we are actually giving you a 100% guarantee in this Training
that if you use this algorithm called the Four Mainstays,
it will always produce the results.
Just think about that. Have you heard that before?
I’m actually sitting here telling you that if you use the Four Mainstays
you will for sure gain confidence in something inside of you that is totally stable.
How about that?
I was so impressed when I heard that when I came to the Training.
And so, let's have a look at the Four Mainstays and see what they really are.
So, everyone basically can take short moments, right?
I mean it’s just something we can all do.
We can just for very briefly, whatever is going on,
if we have physical pain, if we have very strong fear or anxiety coming up,
we can just check something else out now.
We can try to just pause that thought of descriptions coming up for us
and just see what happens when we do that.
So, that is a very simple practice that you can use in whatever life circumstance you have.
It’s always available, you can always use it, it’s very simple, not something complicated.
And in the beginning when I was practicing short moments
I couldn’t really see that it was that powerful,
but someone told me this is actually the most powerful force in the universe.
But, as everything else in life, it takes some practice.
So, that is the key instruction in this training:
short moments repeated many times,
after a while becomes continuous.
But like everything else you’ve learned in life, you have to practice.
If you want big biceps in your life you have to train it.
It’s the same with this practice, you really have to train it and give it some focus in your life.
So, if you have that commitment to just stick to the short moments,
whatever comes up in your life.
And migraine is such a powerful example for me
because I was really struggling with migraine before;
it just runs in our family.
So, what I saw for example,
and this is a very good example of how you can use
this Training in everyday life.
Whenever I had the migraine coming up,
there was not just the physical sensations of having pain,
there was always this descriptions around it,
“Oh, not again, it’s gonna be like it has always been...
my whole day gonna be ruined, I have to lie in bed,"
blah blah blah, all those stories coming up.
So, what I did basically when I had migraine, and that was even before the Training,
very instinctively I could see that
if I don’t buy into those stories but instead try to relax,
I noticed something.
It was when I was not fueling all the descriptions and all the ideas that I had,
what was going on, I started to see,
if I’m using my mind in a different way,
I started to see that there is something in this relaxation that is so powerful.
So, my experience with migraine at that point was that,
and I came from the tradition of meditation at that point,
so I just sat down and I started to relax.
And I started to see it was, I could feel that my whole brain was relaxing.
This is just a simple, very simple, way of describing what happens
when we don’t focus so much on our descriptions of what is going on in life.
And in many ways that is exactly what a short moment is.
You just give yourself a break from all this story telling.
You just try to go in another direction now; you don’t jump onto that train
of using your mind in that old habits.
You try something else, you just relax, let it be exactly as it is.
And another very powerful example for me was when I came to the training,
despite many years in psychology and spiritual practice, I was still struggling with pain,
but especially psychological pain: fear, anxiety, panic attacks.
And everything that I learned before was based on trying to get rid of those states.
So, that basically points to the fact that we don’t have so many options of how we use our mind,
either we indulge, avoid or replace,
and if you make this really simple you could say either you try to do something
or you let it be exactly as it is.
And if you look at fear and anxiety for example
how can you learn anything about any of those states
if you are so sure I have to get rid of them.
So, what we do with short moments
is that you let the fear and the anxiety, whatever it is, go as far as it can go.
Just see what happens if you let it be exactly as it is.
And relax in the midst of it.
So, instead of trying to push anything away,
you allow it to be there,
open your eyes maybe for the first time
and see what happens when you practice these short moments.
And the first thing that I started to see was
that it actually self released so much more quickly
if I don’t emphasize my story around it so much.
So, I could see that my mind is actually an exact copy of nature.
Just look at the weather pattern for example,
we never think about, today it’s raining we have to do something about the rain
we just naturally know that the rain will
subside and something else, a sunny day maybe tomorrow.
If you live in Sweden it’s a little bit more difficult.
This is just very natural for us and our mind is an exact copy of nature
—everything comes up and it just self releases.
And the only reason that we don’t see that is
because we are so caught up in the cycle of trying to change it.
So, what I started to see with fear for example, was that
instead of practicing a practice based on trying to get rid of it,
I could see that this is really something that
brings mind back to my precious heart in open intelligence.
I could see that fear is actually a part of open intelligence,
the dynamic energy of open intelligence, the life force, if you want.
So, I could see that I don’t want to get rid of life force,
I want more of this, I want more fear, I want more anxiety.
So, everything just changed for me.
I saw that I have been so caught up in trying to get rid of things
and not see that I could actually mining the gold from all these afflictive states.
So, the whole perspective changed from living a life based on
an underlying sense of fear,
because before I was always trying to neutralize the states
and I was quite good at that.
And I was also practicing what we call positive psychology, mindfulness and all this stuff
that is basically based on that you are trying to change something into something better.
So, if I felt fear for example, or better example is anger,
so I was a spiritual person but I’m not supposed to be angry,
I’m supposed to be compassionate.
So, I tried to change, I tried to cultivate compassion in my life.
But instead of trying to get rid of the anger or the fear, when you let it be exactly as it is,
you just sense this very beneficial counter-part;
you see the other aspect of your labeling, so to speak.
But you can only see that when you deeply relax in it.
So, then the whole perspective changed from living a life where you try to
get rid of things to really see that everything that you’re trying to get rid of,
if you mine the gold in those states,
whatever, if it's migraine, physical pain, being in India, whatever it is,
the whole perspective change from being open to life
and everything becomes a lesson in life.
But that is a really radical change.
and now i have just spoken about one aspect of the mainstays
short moments, the practice of short moments
And I could speak for three hours about the other three
But just briefly, I could see that I couldn’t do this by myself,
and that is also one of the main differences between everything I did before in life.
I felt great when I was sitting for three weeks in meditation for example.
I felt great. But what happened when I came back home again?
so, that is why we are providing in Balanced View a support system.
So, whenever you feel sickness in your life
and you really sense the deep pain, what can you do?
If the trainer is not available, the short moments doesn’t work,
well, listen to a talk and see what happens when you don’t focus so much on the pain.
When I did that I started to see that the pain is there
and if I don’t focus on it, it subsides, comes back again, but then it goes again.
No one would be able to experience pain all the time.
And I could see that when I felt depressed for example,
I was saying to myself at the end of the day, “Today I have been depressed.”
When in fact, there have maybe been five or six times during the day
that I have the thought, “I’m depressed.”
So, how can I summarize my whole day saying, "Today I have been depressed."
It doesn’t make sense.
It just comes about by us focusing on the descriptions, focusing on data.
But when we listen to talks for example, focusing on listening,
we just pay more attention to the fact that everything just self release.
And then we have the community.
Just imagine having friends wherever you are in the world.
I had my birthday last week and I was just reflecting on
so many people loving me basically.
Just comparing my life today
and ten years ago when I had maybe twenty
people in my life that said, "Congratulations, we love you."
Now it was like two hundred maybe.
Isn’t that sweet? It's just amazing!
Just having a community wherever you are in life,
supporting you, always reflecting back to you your perfect nature as open intelligence.
The practical results of this Training,
people living together in harmony,
without constant struggle without any effort to change each other.
Just a loving presence,
someone always reflecting back to you
nothing has to change; you are perfect exactly as you are.