The Monk who sold his Ferrari

“The Monk who sold his Ferrari” is a wonderful book that contains the wisdom which

helps you to achieve happiness in life through fulfilling the dreams and reaching your

ultimate destiny.

Background

The Story moves around a renowned lawyer Julian Mantle, a person known for his

successful career, his aggressive approach in the court room, his famous legal victories

and a lavish life style. A person, who wears most expensive suits, drives most expensive

cars and hangs out with young fashion models in the finest of the restaurants. He

achieved all this through sheer hard work as he worked for almost eighteen hours a day.

As his brilliance spread, he became more and more busy and as a result started to look

quite older than his real age. The stress took over his mind and finally one day he

suffered a massive heart attack in the middle of the court room leaving every body

shocked. After the heart attack he gave up the law practice, sold every thing he

belonged and earned through his legal profession and suddenly disappeared. He went

to India in search of peace where he came to came to know about the Sages of Sivana.

Sages who have mastered the art of living a peaceful and stress-free life and known to

know the magical secrets of life. Julian was able to find them and learn the 7 rituals /

principals of life from them. He came back as an amazingly transformed person, a

person who look 10 years younger full of abundance of energy and vitality. The book

contains the same wisdom and some simple techniques which anybody can apply in life

and become happy and enlightened.

The 7 rituals explained in the book can easily be remembered though the following story

mentioned below :-
 A Simple Story

Imagine that you are standing in a beautiful lush green garden, a garden full of beautiful

flowers. In the middle of the garden there is a six story Light House. Suddenly the door

of the Light House opened and appeared a 9 feet tall 900 pounds Sumo wrestler. The

wrestler was wearing a pink wire cable around his waist. As he moved ahead he

suddenly slipped on a golden shiny stop watch. For some moments he remained

unmoved on the ground suddenly awaken by the fragrance of yellow flowers. He got up

and found a beautiful path full of shiny little diamonds. He started walking on the path

and reached his ultimate destiny.

The Most Extra-Ordinary Garden

The first symbol in the story is a lush green garden full of beautiful flowers. The garden

represents nothing but our mind. As per the book, the first virtue of personal change is

mastering our mind and nurturing it with positive thoughts. It is important to master our

minds rather than our mind mastering us. Good thoughts attract the energy and vitality

required to improve our inner world. The principal is simple “Our thoughts become the

words, our words become the actions, our actions become our habits, our habits

determine our character, and our character decides our destiny.” In order to achieve the

control over our mind, the book talks about few techniques as well.

First technique mentioned in the chapter is called the “The Heart of Rose”. This

technique represents the power of meditation. By continuously practicing the same, we

can reduce the no of thoughts in our mind. On an average approx 60,000 thoughts came

in our mind on daily basis, and over 90% of those are repetitive thoughts having no use.

Thus by relieving our mind with such thoughts would increase its capacity.

Another technique explained is called “The opposition thinking”. If we could just

replace any negative thought that come in our mind with a positive thought, we can
remain positive though out the day. By thinking positively, we can nourish our inner

world effectively.

Last technique is called “Secret of the Lake”. The theory is to sit at a quite place in the

relaxing manner and think about the images of achieving our goals, imagining ourselves

doing the things we like and so on. By imagining such things we induce and motivate

ourselves for taking actions towards them and ultimately achieving them.

The Light House

Next symbol in the fable is the Light House which represents the purpose of the life. As

per the ancient principal “The Purpose of the Life is the Life of Purpose”. You can not

achieve the target you can not see. Thus, it is extremely important to know the ultimate

objective of our life. The technique explained in the book is called “The Process of Goal

Setting”. As per the book, the process is a 5 step method following which we all can

achieve our goals in life. Step 1 is to identify the goals. Apart from identifying it is useful

to visualize the same on daily basis. For this we can prepare a dream book and paste

the pictures which represent our dreams and goals. By regularly looking at the dream

book, we shall be able to visualize our dreams and ultimately achieve the same. Step 2

is to put positive pressure on ourselves. A public pledge is an effective method to put

positive pressure on ourselves. The pressure shall motivate us to strive towards our

goals. Step No 3 is to set a timelines with each goal identified. A goal without any

timeline is extremely hard to achieve. Step No 4 is to continuously act for achieving the

same for 21 days. It is said that if we perform a particular act for 21 days, the same shall

become a habit and would be as easy as to brush our teeth in the morning. Step No 5 is

to enjoy the process. As we start enjoying the process, it would become our passion.

The Sumo Wrestler

Next symbol in the fable is the 9 feet 900 pounds Sumo wrestler. It represents a process

of self leadership and self improvement. The process in Japanese term is called Kaizen.
Before we improve our outer world, it is important to improve our inner world and the

same can be achieved through a continuous process of self improvement or in other

words continuous cultivation of our mind, body and soul. The same can be achieved

through the following10 principals of radiant living:

1. Ritual of solitude – Spending some time alone in silence.

2. Ritual of physicality – Development of our body through regular daily exercise

3. Ritual of Live Nourishment – Eat healthy diet. If possible, be vegetarian.

4. Ritual of abundant knowledge – Through continuous reading of good books

5. Ritual of personal reflection – Spend some time for self evaluation in the evening

6. Ritual of early awakening – Start your day early and find extra time for yourself

7. Ritual of Music – Listening to good music refresh your mind and soul

8. Ritual of spoken word – Speak positive words to yourself, power of affirmations

9. Ritual of congruent character – Take daily steps to build & strengthen your

character

10. Ritual if Simplicity – Keep the life simple, slow it down.

The Pink Wire Cable

The Pink wire cable in the story represents the power of self control and discipline. By

increasing our will power we shall be able to exert more control over our mind and shall

be able to do positive things in life. The book mentions couple of techniques which can

enhance our will power. The first one is continuous repeating of the mantra “I am more

than I appear to be, the entire world’s power rests inside me”. Another technique

mentioned is called the Vow of Silence. By keeping silent for a day, we shall be able to

increase our will power tremendously.

The shiny golden stop watch

The next symbol in the fable represents the most precious commodity – the time. We

can significantly improve the quality of our life by spending the time more wisely. We can

save a lot of time by focusing on productive activities and reducing useless ones. We

must also learn to say No to the time stealers. Another technique explained is called the

Death bed technique which is spending the day as if it is the last day of your life. By

wisely spending the time, we shall be able to find the time for all the positive activities

important for personal growth and improvement.

The Yellow Flowers

The yellow flowers represent the virtue of contribution. It is important to contribute

yourself for the sake of others. When you practice the kindness, your own life reaches to

its highest dimensions. A simple technique of doing just 1 act of kindness daily shall

enable us to move towards more kindness.

The Path of Diamonds

The final symbol in the fable is the path of sparkling diamonds which represents the

journey towards our ultimate destiny. The book explain that just as the destiny is

important, so as the journey to achieve the same. Happiness itself is not a destination

but a journey. So, it is important to enjoy the present and savor each day of life.

The above principals explained in the book and the practical techniques explained are

indeed an effective way for self improvement and achieving the ultimate goal of the life.

Applying to the same shall improve not only our appearance but our mind and soul as

well.

Thank You