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The Exercise in Week Two of “The Master Key System” Explained
The exercise for Week Two of The Master Key System is the one exercise for which I receive the most emails. It is also the one that frustrates the most people — and, unfortunately, causes many people to give up.
I am happy to tell you that this exercise is much easier than you think it is.
Also, the goal of the exercise is quite different than what you probably think it is.
It is my hope that this explanation will assuage any frustrations that you’ve had and set you on the right track to mastering this exercise and getting the full benefits from it.
The Exercise
30. Last week I gave you an exercise for the purpose of securing control of the physical body. If you have accomplished this you are ready to advance. This time you will begin to control your thought. Always take the same room, the same chair, and the same position, if possible. In some cases it is not convenient to take the same room. In this case simply make the best use of such conditions as may be available. Now be perfectly still as before, but inhibit all thought. This will give you control over all thoughts of care, worry, and fear, and will enable you to entertain only the kind of thoughts you desire. Continue this exercise until you gain complete mastery.
31. You will not be able to do this for more than a few moments at a time, but the exercise is valuable because it will be a very practical demonstration of the great number of thoughts which are constantly trying to gain access to your mental world.
32. Next week you will receive instructions for an exercise which may be a little more interesting, but it is necessary that you master this one first.
The Exercise Explained
Before I explain this exercise, I want you to read what the exercise is again.
Now, here’s what most people get wrong: Most people believe that the goal of this exercise is to “inhibit all thought.” They think that they have to become some sort of super-yogi Zen master and have no thoughts for minutes, hours, days, weeks.
It’s not. Inhibiting your thoughts is not the goal of the exercise for Week Two.
The goal for this exercise is stated by Mr. Haanel in point number 31:
You will not be able to do this for more than a few moments at a time, but the exercise is valuable because it will be a very practical demonstration of the great number of thoughts which are constantly trying to gain access to your mental world.
Most people go into this exercise trying to do their best to inhibit their thoughts for minutes. When they can barely do a couple of seconds, they get very frustrated.
In that same point, though, Haanel explicitly states that you “will not be able to do this [inhibit thoughts] for more than a few moments at a time.”
Moments. Not seconds. Not minutes. Moments.
One of the definitions of “moment” is “A brief, indefinite interval of time.” It’s a very short amount of time. Very short. It’s, as the perhaps clichéd phrase goes, fleeting. Moments are here and then gone.
Does that make sense? Does that now make the exercise doable? Easier?
It should.
Haanel in that same point tells us what the real goal of this exercise is: “[I]t will be a very practical demonstration of the great number of thoughts which are constantly trying to gain access to your mental world.”
This exercise is made to showcase just how much mental chatter is constantly bombarding us. That’s it.
Concurrent with that, it will also allow us to develop ways to stop those thoughts as they occur. When you do this exercise, you will inhibit your thoughts. You will only be able to do that for a moment or two before a tho...
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The exercise for Week Two of The Master Key System is the one exercise for which I receive the most emails. It is also the one that frustrates the most people — and, unfortunately, causes many people to give up.
I am happy to tell you that this exercise is much easier than you think it is.
Also, the goal of the exercise is quite different than what you probably think it is.
It is my hope that this explanation will assuage any frustrations that you’ve had and set you on the right track to mastering this exercise and getting the full benefits from it.
The Exercise
30. Last week I gave you an exercise for the purpose of securing control of the physical body. If you have accomplished this you are ready to advance. This time you will begin to control your thought. Always take the same room, the same chair, and the same position, if possible. In some cases it is not convenient to take the same room. In this case simply make the best use of such conditions as may be available. Now be perfectly still as before, but inhibit all thought. This will give you control over all thoughts of care, worry, and fear, and will enable you to entertain only the kind of thoughts you desire. Continue this exercise until you gain complete mastery.
31. You will not be able to do this for more than a few moments at a time, but the exercise is valuable because it will be a very practical demonstration of the great number of thoughts which are constantly trying to gain access to your mental world.
32. Next week you will receive instructions for an exercise which may be a little more interesting, but it is necessary that you master this one first.
The Exercise Explained
Before I explain this exercise, I want you to read what the exercise is again.
Now, here’s what most people get wrong: Most people believe that the goal of this exercise is to “inhibit all thought.” They think that they have to become some sort of super-yogi Zen master and have no thoughts for minutes, hours, days, weeks.
It’s not. Inhibiting your thoughts is not the goal of the exercise for Week Two.
The goal for this exercise is stated by Mr. Haanel in point number 31:
You will not be able to do this for more than a few moments at a time, but the exercise is valuable because it will be a very practical demonstration of the great number of thoughts which are constantly trying to gain access to your mental world.
Most people go into this exercise trying to do their best to inhibit their thoughts for minutes. When they can barely do a couple of seconds, they get very frustrated.
In that same point, though, Haanel explicitly states that you “will not be able to do this [inhibit thoughts] for more than a few moments at a time.”
Moments. Not seconds. Not minutes. Moments.
One of the definitions of “moment” is “A brief, indefinite interval of time.” It’s a very short amount of time. Very short. It’s, as the perhaps clichéd phrase goes, fleeting. Moments are here and then gone.
Does that make sense? Does that now make the exercise doable? Easier?
It should.
Haanel in that same point tells us what the real goal of this exercise is: “[I]t will be a very practical demonstration of the great number of thoughts which are constantly trying to gain access to your mental world.”
This exercise is made to showcase just how much mental chatter is constantly bombarding us. That’s it.
Concurrent with that, it will also allow us to develop ways to stop those thoughts as they occur. When you do this exercise, you will inhibit your thoughts. You will only be able to do that for a moment or two before a tho...