Question: How can we avoid tension when doing a project under pressure?¹⁶⁷

Sri Chinmoy: Before we enter into a project, we must sincerely feel that we have been given the necessary capacity to accomplish it. Then, once we undertake it, we have to bring to the fore our inner determination and inner faith. After that, in silence we must say to ourselves that the project that we have undertaken has already been done on the inner plane.

Let us take the inner plane as a higher plane and feel that we have a free access to this higher plane. Let us envision a tree right in front of us. The topmost branches, where the fruits are, we can call the higher plane. Once we climb up and pluck some fruits, we have accomplished our project on the inner plane. But this particular plane is not the plane of manifestation which is at the foot of the tree. So it is obligatory for us to climb down to reach the outer plane.

If we feel that we have already climbed up the tree and plucked the fruits and that now we only have to climb down, we will have much more confidence. If we are sure that something has already been achieved on the inner plane, it is much easier to manifest it on the outer plane. From beginning to end, the one thing that is of paramount importance is confidence. We have to feel that we can do something, that we shall do it and that we have already done it. If we say we can do it, we are not fooling ourselves; if we say we will do it eventually, we are not fooling ourselves. And if we say we have already done it, we are not deceiving ourselves either. For on the inner plane we have already done it on the strength of our inner faith and determination.