19 replies to this topic

[Dominicus]

Just recently I have gotten back to basics. Meditation, keeping up with daily Neophyte works, reading the G.D. very slowly and sticking to the first knowledge lecture, pursuing some fundamental theory and practice which I had progressed too quickly past or never quite assimilated.

I have always had a hard time keeping focused, dedicated and disciplined (in all areas of life for that matter) and I am curious to hear from yall about how you keep focused and what works for you...

Cheers,
Dom

[R. Eugene Laughlin]

A group where the members know everyone's commitments and will hold each other accountable can help. Even an online chat group can serve that function.

[Imperial Arts]

If you decide to sit still for five full minutes - nothing with the mind or thoughts, just sitting still - you will probably notice an urge to get up and do something else. When you succeed in overcoming that impulse, you might start to think that what you are doing is a pointless waste of time. When you overcome that too, and your full five minutes are done, you will likely come up with a great excuse to put off the whole thing during the next scheduled period, or to stop altogether.

That, in my opinion, is a sign of your internal defenses. Something within recognizes that you intend to tug the reins of consciousness, and that if you are firm about it you might succeed. That could lead to you getting into a position of conscious control over things like love and hate, taste in food, aptitude for travel, motivations of all sorts, and generally stable emotional or behavioral routines. Some part of you, for whatever reason, likes these things to be left on autopilot most of the time, and will use any trick in the book to distract you from getting near the steering wheel.

The solution is to press onward in determination, and never mind the inclination to cease. A decision to persist must be made, whether in meditation or a particular task or the whole course of life, and then stick to that decision. Ultimately the decision is yours, and there is no trick to make the decision easier. You are either going to be a magician and accept the responsibilities and demands that go along with that, or you won't, and that is that. If it's easy and you have total confidence in your work, you are probably doing it wrong.

[Caliban]

Personally, I don't worry about it too much. When it is the Work that I need to be doing, I find myself motivated to do it. But I also go through long periods where my magical life is on a back burner, when I am processing things I have learned while I go about with other aspects of my life. Then, when the cycle turns again, I find I come back to the Work with new insights, interest and perspective.

There is something to be said for cultivating self-discipline for its own sake, and some practices require persistance past the point of boredom to pay off. But by and large, I think things need to come in their own time and in their own way. When it is what you need to be doing, you'll know. Then you just fight through to keep at it until it is done.

[mrblack]

Daily exercises/regime, to me, is a sort of meditation in itself. As long
as it serves a purpose, I don't mind spending time and doing it.

One of the tricks is not to get down on yourself too much when you miss
one or two days or so, just go back at it no matter what and don't beat
yourself down. I assume we all have other priorities, other than magick,
in our lives so just let it breathe.

[Dominicus]

Enlightening and inspiring responses as I had surmised! I have had times where I beat myself up and got intense depressions from lack of motivation and consistency with my workings (which where part of the process of realizing and seeing them as a major roadblock).

I hope people will continue to add their thoughts to this thread as it is a very very important part of magick and often overlooked by the beginner..

My gratitude fellow fraters and sorrors,

-Dom

[z0b]

Ive always been a person that was interested in a thousand different things at once and every now and then some interest would get all my attention and I would put my all into mastering it once id reach a level of mastery in it I would then put it on a shelf and move on too somthing else much like a collector does I did this for much of my early life and into my late teens .Using what I learned never really came up much and when it did the info would come out situation would be solved and Id be back too where I was again eventaly I gained the focus and applyed it in a wider sense too my life in general thats when I started too make my biggest strides in magik and other things of interest too me but this process took years with many pitfalls but the biggest lesson I found is too keep moving forward no matter how small and never give up

[Alice]

I don't meditate except on rare occasions a moment to center myself before spellwork if something else is on my mind. I just don't seem to need it.

Since I'm not sure that works for everyone, my method probably needs to be coupled with the other advise already given.

I find one of the keys is desire. You need to want it bad enough, no matter what "it" is. That can be applied to focus as well. Want something so desperately that you can't think of anything else, bring forth those feelings and let your desire dominate all thought... Then let yourself have what you want.

When using this method in spellwork, tears are a good thing. Cry a little about the fact that you might lose your house if you don't get more money; whatever. Even if it's not so bad in your day to day life, while doing your working you need to want it so bad you can't imagine living without it.

Not the only method I use, but it's a nice one.

May you find what you seek,
Alice

Edited by Alice, 10 April 2012 - 11:12 PM.

[Dominicus]

Alice, on 10 April 2012 - 11:11 PM, said:

I find one of the keys is desire. You need to want it bad enough, no matter what "it" is. That can be applied to focus as well. Want something so desperately that you can't think of anything else, bring forth those feelings and let your desire dominate all thought... Then let yourself have what you want.

see the funny thing is I am not really ruled by a desire to do anything. In all my life I have no great desire or dream or lust that drives me. I am sometimes compelled by an ideal image or suggestion which I would very much wish to experience but wholly do not related to the whole "This is my goal, this is why, this is how, and here are my steps towards it" Sadly I have a hard time finishing my projects and seeing through to my successes or even acknowledging them when and if I reach them. In a way I feel better because I don't really desire a whole lot and am kind of content to see what bumps I come across and try to live wisely (if that could be a great desire) though it doesn't drive my every action.

[voidgazing]

What do you love, and what do you hate? What resonates with you?

[Alice]

Quote

see the funny thing is I am not really ruled by a desire to do anything. In all my life I have no great desire or dream or lust that drives me. I am sometimes compelled by an ideal image or suggestion which I would very much wish to experience but wholly do not related to the whole "This is my goal, this is why, this is how, and here are my steps towards it" Sadly I have a hard time finishing my projects and seeing through to my successes or even acknowledging them when and if I reach them. In a way I feel better because I don't really desire a whole lot and am kind of content to see what bumps I come across and try to live wisely (if that could be a great desire) though it doesn't drive my every action.

Then you really don't so much need focus. What are you focusing on if you don't want anything?

You need motivation or you won't get far.

May you find what you seek,
Alice

[inah]

I know how you feel, I am currently studying and practicing under the G.D tradition as well. I made plans to progress through the western tradition this month, but the month is nearing its end and I have not started anything. One reason for it is that everyday I lose time, I curse myself and become frustrated. From this I become depressed and lack the will power to do anything during the day. But once I get into discipline in few days I immediately change and I become positive and I find it much easier to continue with the discipline.

Always forgive yourself because this will allow you to beat your demons, and in the moment of laziness or temptation think about what you really want to do and not what the Ego wants.

And in order to keep discipline and focus you need will power. Will power will vitalize your psych to avoid going astray towards tempatation and laziness. Regaradie wrote about a psychological trick to help you stay on a straight path in the one year manual, it involves using the little shock gadgets that you can buy in toy or prankster shops. I will post the full text below.

[inah]

Sorry for that, can you please delete my post since I do not have the option to do it myself? Anyway........ Dominicus, If you want to read what I pasted you can read it in the developing the will chapter http://www.scribd.co...One-Year-Manual

[01010]

food :-P

Edited by 01010, 27 July 2012 - 10:28 PM.

[Taliesin]

I do not discipline myself, I only invest energy when sufficiently inspired to do so. With inspiration comes movement, and it cannot be stopped.

[Kuroyagi]

Quote

I am curious to hear from yall about how you keep focused and what works for you...

I have strictly always done what I like but have that bad conscience thing built in that makes me continue with it/practices beyond (my well-being) for the simple reason that no one else is there to tell me. This at times weighs on me very heavily and if I don't follow up on my supposed 'routine' I will become extremely annoyed and cranky or even crazy/lunatic.

But all in all if one would divide the practices theoretically into the willed/disciplined ones and the more free-form ones I'd always side with the latter due to my character. It is somehow paradox cause I think that those who tasted freedom to its fulllest will in fact be most disciplined: more wise, or else would have perished soon. To me the explicitly disciplined ones are always a bit suspicious, like as if they hadn't fully drunken from the cup of life yet but rather have shied away prematurely (and never have become 'true' in the first place).

Edited by Kuroyagi, 28 July 2012 - 12:48 AM.

[Dominicus]

I am starting to realize I need to get out of this town, I have sat and drank away my thoughts, I dwelt very heavily in the fog for a long time, reading here and there but wasting myself. I have spent the last night and tonight currently sober for the first time in a long time. I have not gone more than 2 weeks without alcohol since I was 15, and in the past 3 years that number is more like one week or less. Boredom and depression I push out with drinking. I have been very stagnant in my magickal work, I do perform LRP often but it only notice it's effects subtly. For a multitude of reasons my life has sort of pigeon-holed into isolation, confusion, and quagmire. I have ideas and know what I could and should do but there are also great financial, logistical, and practical reasons which cut me down even if I do try. I feel imprisoned and even when I get sober and clear my head I only seem to be more aware of this.

I think the first part of the neo-phyte is realizing this, as I progressed magickally and my awareness opened simultaneously my life crashed and the boozing got more intense. I moved back home with my parents to get away from the city and the madness to get some peace and balance but now I just feel like I'm wasting away.

I did a tarot reading for the first time in a long time to get a layout of my situation but it just seems as confused as I am of what to do. I'll post it in the divination section if anyone cares to help me analyze it.

http://occultcorpus....pic/24857-help/

Edited by Dominicus, 28 July 2012 - 02:40 AM.

[Adamantium]

Dear Dominicus,

This is an excellent topic and an equally valid concern. In my own experience, concentration and discipline are cultivated skills. Meditation has helped me to concentrate a great deal. In terms of areas of study, however, I notice that the topics I concentrate on do not remain constant; they shift. My attention and interest take me in different directions. I have had periods of intense, regimented, daily magical practice followed by a total loss of interest in any sort of magical practices whatsoever. 'Discipline' has shifted from Chariot-card type iron-fistedness to Strength-card-like flexible discipline.

I am presently in this sort of 'waning' period; I have not practiced any Golden Dawn rituals or done any sort of ceremonial magic in almost three months. When I first began to enter into these sorts of periods, I used to be alarmed by my loss of 'concentration,' motivation and drive to practice what I had called "my path." Now, though, these periods have come into sharper focus; they have been recontextualized in a larger pattern of growth and subtle development.

I call these intervals of breaking from our habitual practices 'fallow periods.' I borrow the term from traditional grain farmers, who, to maximize the growth of their crops, would rotate their crops and alternate grains, legumes, and vegetables to counter grain's tendency to drain nitrogen from the soil with legumes' (e.g. clover) tendency to restore nitrogen to the soil. In this way, they ensure that the soil is regularly reinvigourated with the nutrients needed to maximize growth. I believe that we are like the fields; we, too, need to shift between activity and passivity, practice and non-practice in order to grow.

Over the years, I have learned to listen to the intuitive promptings that tell me to begin and to cease a given practice. Right now, my energies have been directed to the study of physics, Taoism, and Buddhism, and my practice, to meditation, bokken sparring, and some basic practice of martial arts. All traces of the Golden Dawn have been, as it were, temporarily 'banished' from my life. Do I feel that my growth is somehow 'stunted' by this absence of active magical work? On the contrary, I feel that this 'fallow period' is greatly enriching my life, experience, and practice.

The heart and mind offer intuitive promptings and if we are attuned to them, we can learn to follow their guidance. In this way, we come to wax and wane like the moon, to move in and out like the tides, and develop the flexibility of flowers growing in the desert. In this way, we become more aligned with the Way of nature, the Tao of the universe, and less bound to artificial forms.

Take care,
Adam

[Jastiv]

I remember going through this whole deal, of wanting to want, desiring to desire. At one time, I did not want anything, and it was absolutely the most miserable time. I had no discipline. I did not want to go through the motions. Prior to this, I did a daily web cartoon, but after I lost the motivation, I stopped doing it.
I had wanted to write a MMORPG, but I could not figure out how to learn to program. I stared at the textbooks and got nowhere for several years. I thought I was just dumb, or too ADD, or something, to figure it out.
Eventually, I got involved in ceremonial magic. I did not believe it would work or do anything whatsoever, but I figured I would try it out anyway. I started trying out the LBRP, the LBRH, and the Star Ruby. I quickly found out after trying all these rituals that the Star Ruby made me feel good and lifted up my mood, so then I continued to do it, while the LBRP made me feel worse.
Already I threw out the window the idea that I would feel a certain way when I did certain rituals, or that certain things would necessarily happen because I did something. I realized I was different from most people, and just adjusted my ritual program to what I felt was most appropriate. I decided, yes, people go through a dry period, but they should not start out that way, no matter what some authority tells them. I would not allow someone else to dictate my magical practices at the beginning of my study.
Soon after I started to added daily libre Samekh, and later some evocation experiments( after I figured out what I wanted to want).

[93rdcurrent]

The practice of Asana Yoga has helped me tremendously! I have to say that sitting without moving and allowing my mind to flow until it reaches it's eclipse was one of the best magickal experiences of my life.