Effortless Attainment

In Dream-Jitsu, we strive to develop and maintain the precept that life is but a dream. Therefore, NOTHING is attained or achieved through physical means — you can’t manually move yourself closer to a desired end. You must tune your thoughts and attitude until they align with whatever you want. If you’re straining and struggling, you can be sure you’re doing it wrong AND you’re moving further from the goal.

Even the simplest goal, like grabbing a glass of water, requires tuning to its frequency — otherwise you could knock it over and spill its contents everywhere. If you’re not tuned to walking, you could trip and fall. If something isn’t easy and effortless, you’re not aligned with it. Difficulty doesn’t mean you should strain harder, it means you should calm down and get yourself into a receptive mental state — you need to remove your resistance.

In a dream, nothing requires great effort. You wish it, it manifests. So don’t entertain thoughts that have struggle as their theme. Whenever you think “it’s not supposed to be easy”, dismiss that idea. You certainly CAN impose obstacles, but why bother, they’re not necessary. Complete what you want, appreciate it, then move on to the next course. Don’t drag something out just because you’re afraid of what’s to come — in a dream, every meal ends with a delicious dessert.

When you’re receptive to receiving your wish, it comes. Whereas if your mind is full of “logical” limitations and feelings of lack, that resistance will obviously keep your wish away. When flooded with negative thoughts, practice not thinking those thoughts: meditate. When the mind is calmed, do something you enjoy to repopulate your mental biome with delight. You must develop the feelings of accomplishment and attainment FIRST, THEN the actual manifestation happens.

Manifestation Station

Manifestation is the process of bringing specific circumstances into being. It’s like setting a goal and seeing it fulfilled without obvious external effort on your part. For example: you want something, you internally prepare yourself to accept it, the stars align, and voila there it is. In a sense, it’s magic. Whereas in a more conventional approach, you would’ve performed some sort of external effort to physically move yourself closer to the goal.

Because I believe in Simulation Theory and a dreamlike experience of existence, the concept of manifestation is a no-brainer. Of course you can summon whatever you want out of thin-air, it’s all pixels anyway. You simply reference a pre-existing object and update its xyz coordinates OR create a new object and place it into memory — no big deal. When I believed in a concrete chance-based reality, the idea of manifestation didn’t make any sense to me.

And now that I’m more tuned to the process, I’m seeing it everywhere. For example, I thought I lost a bunch of stuff from the last time we moved, I couldn’t find it anywhere — I recently found that stuff in a box two-feet from where I’m sitting. Or another example, I went out but forgot to put “AAA batteries” on the shopping list — a truck literally turned in front of me with the words “AAA Batteries” on its side (referring to the car service and car batteries). Another example: my wife lost her wallet and searched everywhere to no avail — I suggested a location and there it was. Coincidence!??

If life is a dream, then it only makes sense that everything I experience is based on my attitude and focus. When I was a wholly negative person, of course I manifested the worst stuff possible. And now that I’m actively attempting to cut negativity out of my life, of course I’m seeing helpful things happen. In that sense, manifestation isn’t simply a wish-granted, it’s what’s happening in every moment. It’s the narrative unfolding in front of me according to the theme I maintain in my mind. Therefore, I best maintain the merriest thoughts I can muster.

Dream-Jitsu

Dream-Jitsu (or dream-technique) is the art and method of living life as if it were a dream. As martial-arts comprises various techniques of overcoming opposition through physical manipulations, Dream-Jitsu seeks to overcome opposition through the development of a dreamlike perspective. Instead of manipulating opponents through joint-locks and strikes, Dream-Jitsu manipulates the practitioner’s own mind through concepts that paint reality as infinitely malleable.

Where a non-practitioner sees a brick-wall, a student of Dream-Jitsu sees a mirage manifested by his own mind. The brick-wall is surmounted not by physical effort, but by overcoming a belief in solidity. But does it work? By utilizing Dream-Jitsu, the relevance of the brick-wall in the student’s life rapidly approaches zero. As he no longer focuses on the brick-wall, it’s as good as gone — whether it’s truly gone doesn’t even matter.

But make no mistake, to the practitioner, the brick-wall IS gone. The student alters his perspective until life is but a dream. Furthermore, the practitioner trains his focus so that he can specifically manipulate this dream. Without focus, he knows his dream will run rampant and take him on a wild ride. But with focus, he can rein-in this dream and direct it in a manner that results in an enjoyable experience. For that is the ultimate goal of Dream-Jitsu: to facilitate a delightful life.

Like the martial-arts, Dream-Jitsu uses repetitive practices to reinforce its teachings. But unlike the martial-arts, the only opponent a student ever faces is himself. A student must thoroughly smash his belief in a concrete reality, and replace it with fleeting illusion. From an illusory perspective, the practitioner is able to proceed through life without fear or frustration, without lack or limitation, and with an ever-present confidence and comfort in the power of his practice.

Starting Point

What’s your starting point for the day? Do you begin by scanning your body for aches and pains? Do you try and recall yesterday’s details? Or do you analyze a mental calendar, wondering which deadlines are finally due? Maybe you think about potentially unpleasant circumstances that await? In other words, are you simply a mechanical body rooted in a material world, subject to the whims and ways of random chance? If that is your starting point, good luck with that! It’s a sure-fire recipe for a miserable experience.

A better starting point for the day is this: I haven’t woken up from a dream, I’ve ENTERED a dream. This world IS the dream. And the theme of this dream depends wholly on my focus and attitude. Therefore, I am filled with faith in a delightful day that will unfold before me. I am ready to experience the best of what life has to offer. I will walk through this realm lightheartedly, ever-merry because I only focus on what I love. All my efforts will go towards appreciating this wondrous dreamworld.

Try THAT as a starting point and see if your life doesn’t drastically improve. Spoiler Alert! It will. Think about it this way… If I bathe myself in thoughts of suspicion and betrayal, and someone comes up to me and says: “Hey Rich, here’s some coffee”, I’m bound to think they’re up to something and I’ll respond: “WHAT!? No, it’s probably poisoned!”. Whereas if I bathe myself in thoughts of love, I’d likely respond with: “Oh! Thanks so much! Wow, what a treat!”

The way in which you achieve “the good life” is through the practice of keeping your mind focused on good stuff. And relatedly, don’t sabotage yourself by taking detours into the land-of-negativity. It’s not complicated stuff, the formula is simple: inviting only the best thoughts into your mind will result in the best life possible — whereas allowing the worst thoughts to remain in your mind will result in a miserable life. That’s IT.

English Class

It was the early 90s and Mr. Haviland seemed straight out of a different era. While many of us wore baseball caps with t-shirts and jeans, this guy had an actual suit on — with posture and diction to match. He’d often refer to us as Mister or Miss so-and-so — always proper and always polite. Although he wasn’t physically intimidating, his demeanor demanded respect.

A teacher from a bygone age acting his part. We students acted our part too, a listless bunch that didn’t care. We weren’t unique in our disposition of course, we simply expressed it in a manner appropriate to the times we were in. Skateboards, metal-bands, and ridiculing “try-hards” (people that actually cared and tried to do well). Think Beavis and Butt-Head.

While Mr. Haviland proceeded on his anachronistic course, we proceeded on ours — a civil exchange nonetheless. At this point, you’re probably waiting to hear a poignant anecdote. Unfortunately, I don’t have one. I’m not a storyteller. I mention all this simply to remember an interesting character I once knew. I’ve always been in awe at how well he performed his role.

He seemed to enjoy who he was and never varied, a polished professional. I was a freshman when he was my teacher but our paths last crossed in study-hall when he was the teacher-in-charge — taking attendance and doing whatever teachers did (grading papers I’d assume). I never saw him after that. I heard he retired not too many years later, having worked there for a few decades.

In life, there are those that relish their well-defined roles and there are those that avoid being pinned-down by labels. But are those living as nonconformists simply acting out the role of “contrarian” in their wholesale rejection of the status quo? Instead of some “square” that sold his soul to the system, perhaps Mr. Haviland was the most Zen-like of us all.

Positive Context

What’s happening depends on the context it’s placed within. Always and without exception, context matters. Part of my negativity-free diet, is placing EVERYTHING within a positive context. Did something bad just happen? The answer is always: NO. Something GOOD just happened, and here’s why….

Hey Rich, the money in your savings account is getting substantially smaller, that’s bad right? NO! It’s GOOD because it means something literally life-changing is about to happen!! How amazing is that gonna be!? I’m not sure what form the change will take, but a new adventure is coming my way! Cool!

Hey Rich, a headache is certainly bad, right? NO! It’s GOOD because it lets me know that I must’ve let my thoughts drift into negativity. The pain serves as an early-warning indicator telling me to improve my mental focus. The “pain” also provides an opportunity to re-contextualize the sensation into a mild pressure that no longer captivates my attention.

Hey Rich, a hard-to-reach lightbulb just burnt-out, that’s annoying right? NO! It’s GOOD because I have an opportunity to use my ladder and feel like a real handyman. “Everyone, please remain calm. Your lighting will be restored momentarily.” Okay, how about when your mini-helicopter broke, that’s gotta be bad? NO! It’s GOOD because I get to fly my drone more.

Bad things aren’t bad, they’re just different. And different isn’t bad, it’s just my character experiencing a new scene. Life is a movie made for my amusement. One scene follows the next and I appreciate the ever-changing narrative that keeps me enthralled. Plus, my focus shapes the story-arc: if I focus on dark stuff, dreariness increases — whereas if I focus on lighthearted stuff, delight increases.

Negative Influence

I’m currently on a negativity-free diet, and as such, I’m doing all I can to eliminate negativity as a lifestyle. I no longer want to engage in pessimism, dissatisfaction, lack & limitation, fear, and frustration as a way of life. To that end, I’ve adopted a strict viewpoint about “why bad things happen”:

ALL unpleasantness I experience is a DIRECT result of my own tendency to drift into negativity. If there’s pain in my body, my negativity caused it. If anyone tells me some bad news, my negativity created the circumstance. If something of value breaks, my negativity manifested it. Even if I see one stranger speaking harshly to another stranger, MY negativity is causing that scene to occur. In other words, my attitude is influencing the world I’m experiencing.

Basically, I think of life as a dream. If I’m negative, bad things will appear before me, conjured by my gloominess. Whereas if I maintain a positive attitude, pleasant narratives will come into being. Anything bad that happens simply serves as proof that I need to work harder at removing negativity from my thoughts. Life does NOT treat me poorly in ANY way, I’m simply inexperienced at reining-in my negativity.

I’ve used this way of thinking in the past, so I know it works. The only difference now, is that I’m going full-steam ahead with it — there will be no alternative I’ll entertain. Diets can be strict and often enforce unusual conditions, this is simply one of those constraints. I’m tired of being a sloppy mess, bloated by pessimism and fear. Be gone, dour days! Let only the good-life remain!