True Faith Transforms Life- Shahid El Bukhari Mahajataq

You will live only once. Joy and happiness, success and prosperity, fame and fortune, you have this one life to experience it all. So why let frustration and failure, disease and deprivation take over? You yourself have the power to change everything. And you don't need any preparation to start your journey towards a new life. You don't need wealth, pedigree or fancy degrees. All you need is true faith. True faith can change everything in your life.

It doesn't take long to say, 'I can.' Yet the spontaneous faith these two words express has the power to influence all your activities. Suppose someone lays a 100 feet long, 1 feet wide and 6 inch deep wood plank on your front yard and asks you to walk on it. You will do it without any second thought. You might even run. This is because you believe, you know, you can do it. You don't need more than one feet space to step on.

Yet if someone puts the same plank between your high rise apartment and the next, you won't be able to walk across it. One step, two steps, and you will start trembling and feeling dizzy. Your hands and feet might shake so much that you will lose your balance and fall off the plank, ending your life then and there.

Yet all around you you see workmen swiftly climbing up bamboo poles. Plastering the walls of 8 or 10 storey buildings, placing thatched or corrugated iron roofs standing on wood planks no more than a feet wide. Have you ever heard of any of them falling and having a fatal accident ? Probably not. Why? Because the workman believes he would be able to plaster walls or place roofs standing on a wood plank 70/80/100 feet above the ground. His belief has generated this spontaneous skill and ability in him.

Naturally, you would want to know how belief can give birth to skills and abilities. The scientific explanation is pretty simple. Your belief influences your mind. Your mind influences or programs your brain. Your brain then transforms your desire into reality.

You might ask what 'mind' actually is . Roger Sperry, a Nobel winning neuroscientist, calls mind "The crowning achievement of some 500 million years or more of evolution" in his article "Mind, Brain and Humanist Values." Sir John Eccles, another Nobel winning scientist describes mind as "a self conscious, self willing, self acting force" in his 'Evolution of the Brain : Creation of the Self". In his 'Mystery of the Mind', Wilder Penfield, the famous Canadian Neurosurgeon, clearly states that the mind gives order and the brain executes them like a computer.So we can state without any doubt that the mind is an immense and distinct process that directs our brain. Our brain in turn directs all our physiological activities.

Neuroscientists conclude that the human brain is at least a million times more powerful than even the most powerful supercomputer. The more scientists are learning about the brain the more they are realizing they are just counting the waves standing on the shore of a vast ocean. Even looking at one aspect of the brain will give us an idea of the immense power of the human brain and the infinite potential of every human being.

There are one hundred billion neurons in the human brain. Each neuron is connected to between one thousand and 5 hundred thousand other neurons. At least one hundred trillion connections are made in the brain every second. How many connections are possible ? Dr. Herbert Benson, professor of Harvard Medical School and pioneer of meditation research answers this question wonderfully. "The number would be 25,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Put another way, if you made a stack of sheets of standard typing paper, with one sheet for each neuron connection, the resulting pile of paper would be approximately 16 billion light years high - stretching beyond the limits of the known universe."

We get some idea of the immense potential of the human brain from Professor Benson's description. Latest research in neuroscience shows that when we send new beliefs, new ideas and new dreams to our brain, new connecting paths between the neurons are created. Repeatedly sending the same beliefs, dreams and ideas keep these connecting paths busy and active. Specific regions in the brain get stimulated. The working structure of the brain changes. Our mind-body system spontaneously start working towards realizing our goals. In this way, true faith serves as the springboard of fundamental change.

If true faith can change everything, then why don't those bowed down by disease and poverty and grief embrace it? The answer is quite simple. They believe in negativity and misfortune. They believe in the false promises of cheats and swindlers. They believe the evil and the ignorant. And their belief is spontaneous. It is difficult for them to believe anything good. Whenever they come across something positive, they become suspicious. How can someone be so good, or something so easy ? They have questions about religion, but no questions about anarchy. They have questions about the truth, but no questions about the ignorance and falsehood prevailing in society. They have questions about God but no questions about the devil. Talk to an atheist and you will find he has a thousand questions about God. Ask him if he has any questions about the devil, and you will find he is speechless.

Why can't those engulfed by distress and misfortune rise above it ? Because they are prone to believe in negativity. They are easily influenced by negative words.

A few years ago at the end of a Quantum Method Course I found one of the participants waiting for me. Everyone else had already left. When he got the chance he came close and clasped my hands. He was so overcome with emotion he couldn't speak. I could see gratitude in his face. After he collected himself he said, " I had never even dreamed the problem I had been suffering from for so many years could be solved so easily." I learnt from him that he had been living in the Shantinagar area for twenty years. He passed Quantum's Shantinagar office everyday. I asked him, 'What took you so long? If you had joined the course earlier you could have been better a long time ago.'

After a little hesitation, he said, 'You see, I have been hearing all sorts of comments from everywhere. Different people say different things. I did become somewhat interested at one point, and decided to make a few inquiries myself. But the barber's comments scared me off.'

I looked at him, stunned. What does the barber have to do with meditation? The man replied, 'I had been a regular client of the neighborhood barber for many years. One day while I was having a haircut I casually mentioned that I was thinking about joining the Quantum course. As soon as I said this, the barber became shocked and said, "Sir, whatever you do, don't go there. I have heard that everyone who goes there turns into a monk. It is completely unIslamic. You are doomed to go to hell!" So I thought, there are no end to problems as it is. The only thing I have is my religion and the hope of going to heaven. If that is gone, what do I have left ?'

I smiled a little and asked him, "What do you think now? Have you survived the course with your Islamic faith intact?" "Please don't embarrass me", he replied, "This course has taught me how to be truly thankful. And I haven't experienced the kind of satisfaction I got from my prayers in the last two days in my whole life."

Naturally my next question was, "So what made you finally join the course?" He said," A childhood friend recently took part in your course. He kinda forced me to join it." Once again his eyes became moist with tears of gratitude. " He saved me", he went on, "This is heavenly. I have never experienced such peace and contentment before."

This is not an isolated incident. Every Quantum graduate probably has a story like this.

Those trapped in the cycle of distress are swayed easily by false beliefs, negative comments and doubts and confusion. The words of religious fanatics, cheats and swindlers, fools and oppressors; the words of the doorman, the grocer, the barber, confuse them even more. They lose the enthusiasm to find out the truth themselves and make their own decisions. Until they are inspired by an enlightened loved one, they cannot break free of this evil and destructive cycle. Although they have come to this world with immense potential, all their dreams and aspirations remain unfulfilled.

So like intelligent people, like tens of thousands of successful people, believe that you too can break free of the cycle of distress and suffering. In the words of Sir John Eckles," Every human being is unique. Every being is a divine creation. Human beings have a spiritual existence that transcends his psysciological activities. He has a self conscious, self willing and self acting mind."(Quoted from 'Brain and conscious experience.') And now you have a little idea of the immense capacity of your brain.

Like successful people, have faith in your endless potential, have faith in truth, in positivity, creativity and benevolence. No one has yet been able to set a limit to the power of the human spirit. You have an infinite reservoir of benevolent force within you.

Believe that you can recover from psychosomatic diseases in an instant. And you will. A life of health and vitality will welcome you.

Believe that the whole world is yours, you can go wherever you want. And you will go wherever you want.

Believe that you will get whatever you desire. Believe that yours will be a life free of scarcity and want. And destiny will grant you a success and abundance.

True faith is the springboard of all success and achievement. We are free in the truest sense when liberate ourselves from the chains of false beliefs and notions. This freedom will lead you in the path of a noble and enlightened life.

(Shahid El Bukhari Mahajataq is the pioneer of modern meditation practice in Bangladesh. He conceived, developed and teaches Quantum Method, the science of living for the new milleneum.)