Living Your Alpha Life

Meditating Your Way to Happiness

Lesson 6 - Planning Your Alpha
Life

Aristotle, one of the great thinkers of

all time had thoughts on the concept
of cause and effect. Cause and effect
is the foundation of all programming.
All things are precipitated by cause.
A great redwood tree was caused by a
seed that was created by an earlier
cause. The effect of the seed is the
tree. The tree will eventually be the
cause of still another event. It might
be the cause of a redwood closet in
your home, or simply a home for
birds - there will however eventually
be additional effects.
Cause and Effect
Aristotle asked two questions
regarding cause and effect:
1. Are there causes that are never
effects?
2. Are there effects that are ends in
themselves and that do not in turn
become causes? A final end. Things
that we desire for their own sake, not
as a means to gain something else.
Aristotle says that to achieve the final
causeless end we must have a closed
end result, what he calls a 'right
ultimate aim'. What we would call, an
ultimate goal.
What is this ultimate that we should
plan and aim at? If there is an
ultimate then it would surely follow
that every one of us should set our
sights on it.
Aristotle's ultimate and final end is a
good life. With a good life there is no
effect turning into a cause for some
other event.
Causes take one to the good life, once
there however, Cause stops. The good
life is the final effect and not of itself
the cause of some other gain. The
good life is something we desire for
its own sake.
Suppose that to achieve Aristotle's
good life you set up a plan, with an
ultimate goal. Part of the plan would
be an occupation, which is a cause for
earning money. The occupation is the
cause while the money is the effect.
You spend the money on a new car.
The money is the cause of your
buying the car, the car is the effect.
You drive to work. The car is the
cause of your getting to work, work is
the effect. Therefore cause is effect,
and effect cause.
But in the final end, cause stops. A
good life is not a case for a better life.
A good life (what you may call
happiness) is the final end. Aristotle
calls a good life 'living well'. Living
well is an end we seek for its own
sake and not as a cause for something
else, or for some other effect.
Wants and Needs
Tied into living well (a subjective
concept) are wants and needs. To
simplify the difference - we have
certain basic needs.
You need food. You want certain
types of food. You do not need apply
pie, pancakes, rare roast beef, custard
pudding or a cheese sandwich. Those
are things you want, not need.
Wants are determined by ethnicity,
upbringing, environment, and attitude
- all four of those factors are part of
past programming.
Aristotle calls needs 'natural desires'
and wants 'acquired desires'.
When we know something is bad,
such as drugs or cigarettes, and yet
still want them, the desire for
immediate gratification overrides the
eventual bad that comes from the
want. Those are acquired desires and
are wants, not needs. Immature
people desire immediate gratification.
Aristotle's blueprint for achieving the
good life involves a plan that includes
seeking out, and acquiring things that
are good for us to have. To acquire a
want for the beneficial. But what is it
that is good for us to have?
Plans Require Productive Thinking
Thoughts that produce desired
outcomes (which we call creative
thoughts) are productive. The
thoughts necessary for the good life
would be the ultimate in productive
thinking.
The best plan is the one that has as
the end result, a good life. This is
what Aristotle would set as the
ultimate goal, for it is the one goal
that spells finish to the cycle of cause
and effect.
Determine what a good life means to
you. What things would be necessary
for you to have the good life? That
doesn't mean things you daydream
about when you have nothing better
to do, like a castle in the clouds, or a
chateau in the south of France.
Keep it realistic. Go to Alpha and
consider what a good life would mean
to you. Once you have determined
that - use the techniques you learned
in this course to program it. That's
your ultimate plan. All other goals are
subordinate to the ultimate plan as all
other goals are effects that will in turn
become causes.
There is nothing wrong with goals
that are subordinate to the ultimate
plan but understand that they are
tributaries leading to the main stream.
The important thing is to develop
your plan for the good life first, then
work on the rest of your goals. When
you have your ultimate, living-well
plan established, the rest will fall into
place easily, and naturally.
Establish your living-well plan - then
have the courage to go out of your
way if necessary to involve yourself
in the things that lead you to that
good life - then allow your
subordinate goals to come into play.
Once your ultimate plan is set,
everything you do is a means to that
end. Aristotle said,"The good life is
an end unto itself."
The Aristotle Action Process
1. Go to Alpha and determine what
good life means.
With your eyes closed you take a
deep breath and as you release the
breath you mentally say the number
three. Take another deep breath and
as you release it, mentally say the
number two. Take another deep
breath and as you release it, mentally
say the number one. You should be
relaxed and at level at this time.
2. Use The Golden Image you
learned in Lesson 5 to establish a
good life goal.
Say that a good life for you is a cabin
by a lake with a platform extending
over the water with a dock and your
boat nearby. Create an image in your
mind. Once you have it, make it clear,
bring in color, give it depth, bring in
sound, imagine you are feeling the
rail of the platform. Bring in other
senses.
3. Use the candle of Aristotle to help
in your programming.
Picture yourself lighting a candle and
placing it on a plate, in a safe place,
somewhere in your home or office.
Imagine this while you are at the
Alpha level.
4. Use your new resources to gain
the courage to skip over the
difficulties that stand in your way.
Imagine any difficulties or
temptations that you will encounter
and sense yourself overcoming the
difficulties and temptations.
5. Establish your subordinate goals.
There will be smaller goals for you to
achieve on your way to a good life
goal. Establish a small goal that will
be the first cause. It could be
something simple. Something that
you are certain you can achieve. Be
sure to put in a date the goal is to be
achieved by.
6. Take the first action.
Your first action will be the actual
lighting of the candle. This is the
catalyst for beginning.
The candle should be lit after the
meditation with a picture of the good-
life goal established. Place the candle
in a plate (for safety reasons) and
place the candle in a place where it
can burn down and disappear without
being looked after. Your intent is
what lends power to this concept.
May the Rest of Your Life be the
Best of Your Life.

Yours faithfully,
GoldmanMethod.com
www.GoldmanMethod.com