You must have heard the fable of the tortoise and the hare. The hare, certain that he’ll succeed, invites the tortoise to a match. The hare accelerates quickly and gets way far that he wants to sleep a little; ultimately, the tortoise, despite being not even quite as fast as the hare, triumphs in the race. Stories or fables like this served as a means of instilling ideas and morals in a fun and unforgettable way.
Suppose that someone narrated a story so compelling and influential that the story had you put on the market your most valuable items and relinquish the life that you grew used to. What sort of stories could be that influential?
In this summary, you’ll find a story with the ability to transform how you examine life. The story is about a fictional lawyer who wound up putting his Ferrari on sale and beginning to be a monk.
Chapter 1 – When Julian Mantle was employed as a perfect lawyer and making a fortune, he experienced a spiritual awakening.
This is the imaginary story of Julian Mantle, a person for whom everything was in apple-pie order. After having graduated from the renowned Harvard Law School, Mantle was among the most prominent trial lawyers in America. His paycheck had seven-figures; his living place was a mansion and he drove a red Ferrari. Mantle had the life many would consider a dream.
But, in reality, he was having difficulty at work. He was overwhelmed under a gigantic amount of work, which was difficult for him to deal with. Every day he had a novel, significant case for Mantle to work on and he addressed each step meticulously. Finally, the pressure began to be too engulfing for him, and one day Mantle had a critical heart attack and passed out in the courtroom.
Following that incident, he never went back to his profession.
Actually, none of his co-workers from his company heard any news from him following that incident. By all accounts, he’d relocated to India in quest of finding some answers and a more modest life – and, in fact, this was the exact thing Mantle had done. Prior to his relocation, Mantle sold out his house and his car; It was very clear for him that his search for meaning mattered much more.
One day, three years after his leaving, Mantle came back, appeared all of a sudden at his previous co-worker’s office. He looked like the embodiment of health, with a smile similar to that of Buddha that spread across his face.
Mantle had walking from one village to another in India on foot. When his quest was going on, he had discovered yogis who appeared to challenge aging. In Kashmir, Mantle had learned the Great Sages of Sivana. So, these novel explorations spurred him to set out a journey to the Himalayan Mountains, where he met by chance the monks that dwelled there.
It was in that place where Mantle experienced a reawakening and eventually found his soul.
Chapter 2 – A mystical story tells about the seven principles of the Sivana System.
During his time in the Himalayas, Mantle met the group of monks called the Sages of Sivana. Among the monks, Yogi Raman provided him with his wisdom.
They talked about the significance of life and Mantle discovered how to attain better energy, how to begin to be more inventive, and to feel more content.
The monk decided to give him all of this under one condition – that he would go back to the place he went to the Himalayas and share it with others. So, this is the reason for Mantle to return to his profession: to help others learn the transformative Sivana System.
Sivana system consists of seven fundamental virtues that prepare the ground for the Sivana System, and every virtue constitutes a wonderful story.
The story starts off in a beautiful green garden, calm and tranquil, full of elegant flowers.
There situated a very huge red lighthouse in the center of the garden. However, the serenity is unexpectedly disrupted by a sumo wrestler who goes out of the lighthouse door on foot. The wrestler who is nine-feet tall and is 900 pounds, puts on just a pink wire cable to cover his humility.
Strolling in the garden, he found a golden stopwatch by chance. Being curious, the wrestler wears the golden stopwatch – and instantly fell unconscious and fell to the ground.
Finally, he regains his consciousness and is loaded with vitality by the beautiful scent coming from the yellow roses around. The wrestler swiftly stands up and turns his head to left; Astounded, he notices a trail in diamonds. Enthralled, he wanders on it. And this trail drives him to never-ending happiness and pleasure.
There may be people who will think this fable is absurd. However, every part mirrors a feature of the Sivana System. In the next chapters, you’ll attain a more comprehensive perception of these principles.
Chapter 3 – Reaching fulfillment is about mastering your mind.
The garden that is mentioned in Yogi Raman’s tale symbolizes the mind. Many of us wind up contaminating the gardens of their minds with waste – which signifies adverse thoughts or concerns.
So, the earliest virtue of the Sivana System is to command your mind. It is important for you to take care of the garden in your mind, and the most appropriate way to look after it is to keep watch at its gates. Just allow nice, good thoughts to enter and bar the deleterious ones.
After all, what we think plays a role in molding our lives. Your standard of living will significantly ameliorate should you make your mind full of positive thoughts. Do you desire to live a serene, meaningful life? So allow the serene, meaningful thoughts to preoccupy your mind!
However, what’s the way of making our minds concentrate only on satisfying thoughts? Well, everyone possesses the capacity to decide on what to contemplate on, therefore this process depends on training our minds as we do a muscle.
The initial thing is to better your focus. There’s a method of enhancing your skill to concentrate, which the Sages of Sivana names as The Heart of the Rose.
So as to put this technique into practice, there will be a necessity for a silent place and a rose. First, just look fixedly at the rose’s middle. Be very heedful of its hue and texture, and furnish your mind with thoughts regarding the gorgeousness of the rose.
On the surface, any thought can fill your mind. However, once you’ve trained yourself for some time, you’ll start to realize you have more control of your mind.
Make efforts to put this into practice routinely every day and spare more time for relishing the rose each day.
Ultimately, it’ll get easier to be the master of your thoughts. You’ll no longer fret and rather be full of a feeling of serene and happy.
Chapter 4 – In order to have a satisfying life, it is necessary to have a goal that leads you.
The next virtue of the Sivana System involves having a goal. We can see this principle in the story by the lighthouse.
The Sages of Sivana possess a precise understanding of purpose, and hence don’t kill their times doing useless stuff. They are well aware of their task that involves meeting this purpose.
When they talk about their purpose, the monks utilize the Sanskrit word dharma – the meaning of which is “the purpose of life.” Dharma originated in the ancient thinking that says when we are in this world, there is a duty for all of us to fulfill. When you fulfill dharma, you manage to attain eternal fulfillment and inner harmony.
The most appropriate way to fulfill your life’s purpose is to establish explicit objectives – well, how can one hit the mark when one can’t see it?
Below will you find the five-level method that was created by the Sages to fulfill the individual purpose:
For starters, it is vital to envision the result in your mind. Say, your objective is to lose weight. Then you should picture a more slender, fitter form of yourself.
The next level involves putting pressure on yourself, however, in a positive manner. It is possible to render pressure an excellent source of inspiration since pressure can usually drive a person towards achieving their complete potential. A perfect method to create pressure is to share what you aim to do with others.
Then comes the level of creating a timeline. So as to reach your target that is in progress, it is crucial to put a time limit.
The next level is called by Yogi Raman the Magic Rule of 21. According to this notion, novel behavior begins to be a habit once you’ve practiced it for 21 days without any break.
The final one? Simply relish the process!
Chapter 5 – Continuous self-development is vital for a merry life.
Can you recall the wrestler that we mentioned? Well, the wrestler embodies one of the virtues in the Sivana System, as well.
This virtue is known as kaizen, which is a word of Japanese origin that refers to continuous, lifelong development. This only involves unwrapping your potential.
In order to acquire this virtue, the Sages developed ten phases, namely the Ten Rituals of Radiant Living.
First comes the Ritual of Solitude, which conditions your everyday routine to include a period of calm. It is necessary for you to manage to soothe your mind and get access to your creativity.
In the second phase lies the Ritual of Physicality. The goal of this phase is to make your body move. When you attend to your body, you also tend to your mind.
The third phase is the Ritual of Live Nourishment. The sole thing that you should live on are live foods, therefore, the most suitable thing to do is to adopt a vegetarian way of life.
In the fourth phase, we see the Ritual of Abundant Knowledge. For your entire life you must never stop learning – thus, learn a method to have your mind motivated by reading or studying.
Next comes the Ritual of Personal Reflection, which involves reflecting on how you behave every day. Was it possible for you to do something better?
The sixth among the phases is the Ritual of Early Awakening, which is challenging for those who like their sleep since the notion behind this phase is to sleep for roughly six hours and to get up when the sun comes up.
The seventh is the Ritual of Music. Listening to music is a great activity since it elevates your spirits. Do it as often as you can.
The eighth phase is the Ritual of the Spoken Word, which involves developing a mantra belonging solely to you to encourage you.
The ninth phase is the Ritual of a Congruent Character, whose aim is to guarantee that you constantly stick to your principles.
The final one is the Ritual of Simplicity. Live a modest life and concentrate on the things that mean a lot to you first and important activities.
Allow the sumo wrestler to be a sturdy aide-memoir of kaizen!
Chapter 6 – Lead a disciplined life and regulate your time in a clever way.
One other feature that we can deduce from the sumo wrestler in the story exists. The wrestler wasn’t wearing anything except the pink wire cable around his private parts!
The cable in fact symbolizes the fourth virtue of the Sivana System. This principle is about conducting a disciplined life.
While conversing with the Sages, Mantle was informed that the wire represents stringent self-discipline.
In the same fashion as your focus, it is possible to create a quality of self-discipline for yourself. Yogi Raman told Mantle that one of the things he most enjoyed doing was to not utter any word throughout a day. The Sages confirmed Yogi Raman by saying that an oath of silence for an extended duration of time makes a perfect technique to condition the will.
So, the story continued and the sumo proceeded o find out a golden stopwatch.
This signifies the fifth virtue of the Sivana System. This virtue is concerned about showing esteem to your time. The Sages, even if they are excluded from society, value the time to a great extent and are attentive to its passing.
They showed Mantle that mastering time amounts to life mastery. For the yogis, hourglasses make up a great aide-memoire of impermanence and conclude that people should constantly relish life to its fullest.
Thus, it’s essential to make effective use of your time and think about the way you consume it. In order to accomplish this, you can try sparing a quarter minutes before sleep to devise what you’re going to do the other day. On Sundays, spare your sixty minutes to devising the timetable of the upcoming week.
One other thing it says is to be relentless when it comes to your time and learn when you should be able to utter ”No”. Live every day as though you wouldn’t see tomorrow – doing this will deter you from killing time saying yes to an event that you aren’t even eager to participate in. It’ll beneficial to pose yourself this question, “Were today to be my final day in the world, would this be what I would want to do?”
Chapter 7 – Help others altruistically and live today for a merry, fulfilling existence.
In the exact fashion that Mantle fell unconscious in the courtroom due to the burden of his duties, the sumo in the story fainted and crashed to the ground. However, when he regained consciousness, he was filled with vitality, which was presented by the redolence of the yellow roses.
Then, what is the thing these flowers represent? According to an ancient proverb of China, a bit of scent never leaves your hands that give you roses.
Thus, the roses represent the sixth virtue in the Sivana System – the notion of altruistically helping others.
What the monks stated is that it is important to constantly be nice and tender to others since this will better your own life.
Spare some time each morning to contemplate on what goodness is possible for you to instill into others and what’s the way of enhancing the lives of others.
It is something achievable by cordially lauding others, supporting your friends in their time of need, and by exhibiting care toward your parents, spouse, children, and your other close circuit. Acting in a nice and sincere manner will help you live a more joyful way of life.
Having regained his consciousness thanks to the roses, the wrestler noticed a trail that is covered with diamonds on the surface that presented him with lifelong happiness and satisfaction.
According to the Sages, “living in the present” constitutes the seventh virtue. The Sages comprehend that bliss is not the end of the journey but the course of the journey.
Continuing their journey in life, people will find the route will present them with small surprises – which refers to diamonds in the story. So as to recognize the worth of the diamonds, it is necessary to exercise gratitude every day.
So, this involves constantly being cognizant of how valuable your health, your family, and the tone of the birds chirping in the trees also are. The ”present” matters much more than anything else.
When he went back to his office, Mantle fascinated his previous co-coworkers with the story of his quest to meet the Sages of Sivana. From that moment onward, he has carried on with disseminating the Sages’ wisdom and has thus met his oath.
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams and Reaching Your Destiny by Robin S. Sharma Book Review
All of us can conduct a life full of happiness and fulfillment. Through sticking to the seven virtues of the Sages of Sivana, which are explained in Yogi Raman’s story, it is possible to do away with negativity and concentrate on accomplishing the thing we came into existence to realize.
In order to have your mind concentrated on good thoughts, exercise Opposition Thinking.
The first virtue in the Sivana System of wisdom deals with getting control of your mind. So as to achieve this, the Sages often practiced what they called Opposition Thinking. If you realize that an adverse thought permeates into your mind, actively substitute it with a positive thought. For example, should you ever be filled with thoughts of criticizing how you look, come up with a compliment for yourself!
