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Act as a unit of Accomplishment

 

(44)   An act is the unit of life or accomplishment.

Life is an accomplishment of existence. Life is a field for accomplishment. A work that ends in giving the expected result is accomplishment. There are physical accomplishments of projects executed. One who leads a cross section of people accomplish in the vital field of leadership. Conceptions of an Idea, a formula, etc. are accomplishments of the mind.

All such accomplishments are live and give life to existence. One who is violently rejected by the lady of his love, inwardly endeavouring to rise to the level of her expectation of acceptance, accomplishes in Romance.

  • Life and accomplishment are correlated synonyms.
  • Building the Trans Siberian Railway is a big accomplishment.
  • Getting rid of Hitler for the world is a universal accomplishment.
  • Having an abscess operated and healing well is an accomplishment for a diabetic patient.
  • It is an accomplishment for The Secret when one gets the car he has visualised.
  • There are as many accomplishments or types of accomplishments as there are walks of life.
  • The Secret is espousing an old formula that Man can accomplish anything, if only he chooses.
  • When we say an act is the unit of life or accomplishment, we lay serious foundations for a new way of thought on earth. Though it is not unknown, it is not known for the purposes we lay down here.
  • Accomplishments can be big, even universal or global, but Acts are microscopic, within our external and internal grasp. He who masters the act, masters the accomplishment.
  • Any accomplishment breaks down into innumerable acts.

They fall into various types in the beginning.

As we proceed, they begin to show a certain specialisation.

At one point each type of act becomes unique.

At that point, all acts resolve into the same components lending themselves to mastery.

  • The act is a unit of life even as the atom is a unit of matter with which the universe is pervaded.
  • Of course, the act, in its turn is a universe in itself, into which we do not go, as it is the territory of philosophy. To know the basis of such a philosophy is vastly useful to master the act.

(45)         A system is a fixed arrangement of acts in Space and Time.

Our field is social development. How the society is constituted, functions, grows and evolves is our theme. In this field we meet with concepts like organisation and institution. They are preceded by terms such as systems, acts, activities and are succeeded by culture, custom, usage and consciousness. We can construct the full link from an act to consciousness. These are not words that enjoy a particular definition in a given context. Presently we are using these words in the common linguistic sense. It is up to us to award each of these terms a fixed connotation for our future use.

Act - Activities - Systems - Organisations - Institutions - Customs - Usage - Culture - Consciousness.

  • A chain of activities is composed of several types of acts.
  • Activities directed will constitute a system following fixed rules.
  • Several systems become part of an organisation that takes the physical work in the subtle realm endowing them with vast power as a lever lifts a great weight with a small force.
  • Organisations are centrally directed by an authority from above whose rules are laid down from the centre. Usually it is a pyramid.
  • Institutions are organisations that are not centrally directed by an authority from above but self-directed by an individual authority internalised as social or cultural values.
  • By long centuries of history institutions mature into the population as socially sanctioned customs which everyone will value and honour.
  • Man maturing from his physicality to vitality of enjoyable collective human relationships, what was erstwhile custom becomes the usage of a population which no member of the community will bring himself to dishonour. They are sacred to the community and are sacrosanct.
  • When decades of usage pass into centuries of existence, culture is born as a solid entity.
  • Culture lived in one's blood and becoming a way of existence is the consciousness of that people.

Most of these are self-evident, but others may need elaboration, explanations, and illustrations. There are demands made on the comprehension on various occasions to precisely distinguish between two terms - custom, usage - and that may vary from culture to culture. In founding a new science or a body of knowledge, such clear distinctions are essential and all those who contribute to that must agree to conform to the usage so agreed upon. From such a point of view, this section needs expansion on very many lines.

(48)         An act is composed of several organisations.

The idea is not to go beyond an act into a philosophical dissertation. Still, to know essentially or briefly what an act is not out of place.

  • Earlier we said an act is a universe by itself.
  • Acts exist on every plane, physical act of motion, vital act of relationship, mental act of thought, spiritual act of being, supramental act of instant positive accomplishment in goodness.
  • Acts move; movements are governed by rules of that plane.
  • It is energy that acts.
  • Energy by itself diffuses, unless directed by a will.
  • Energy directed by a will becomes force.
  • A force can move, be forceful, but cannot by itself, produce results.
  • To produce results first it must become power.
  • Force is converted into power when it passes through an organisation such as a motor or psychological organisation as character. In one case it becomes mechanical power and in the other psychological power.
  • This power when acted upon by skills produces results.

An act that accomplishes contains energy, force, power and skill. Energy is released by aspiration, it is directed by will, made into power by an organisation and results issue out of skills.

Energy             Force              Power                   Results

                  ->                 ->                            ->

Aspiration       Will               Organisation          Skills

Aspiration is determined by the final goal, will is determined by the human mind, organisation is contrived in matter or mind; skills are productive by the attitude they exhibit.

The Act that is a unit of Life comes into existence by all these aspects to become an act into which we choose not to go. To know that an act is a miniature universe and how it came to be originally constituted is all that we need to know at this point.

Energy, force, power, skill, aspiration, will, organisation, skills, attitudes - each of these is an organisation by itself as we see energy is the result of movement.



story | by Dr. Radut