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

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. Once we feel that our inner determination and inner faith have come to the fore, then in silence we must say to ourselves that the new project we have undertaken is already done. On the inner plane it is done.

Let us take this inner plane as a higher plane and feel that we have a free access to this higher plane. It is like this. Let us envision a tree right in front of us. The tree has quite a few branches and on the branches there are quite a few fruits. The top branches, where the fruits are, we can call the higher plane. In order to get the fruits we have to climb up the tree to the higher branches. Once we climb up and pluck some fruits, we have accomplished our project on the inner plane. But that particular plane is not the plane of manifestation.

The plane of manifestation is at the foot of the tree. Therefore, it is obligatory for us to climb down. As soon as we climb down, we have to feel that we have reached the outer plane.

In the inner plane, if we are sure that something has already been achieved, then it is much easier on the outer plane to manifest it. From the beginning to the end, one thing is of paramount importance and that is confidence. We have to feel that we can do something or we shall do it or that we have already done it. If we say that we can do it, we are not fooling ourselves; if we say that we will do it eventually, we are not fooling ourselves. And even if we say that we have already done it, we are not deceiving ourselves. For it is already done; it is already done on another plane. And it is we who have done it on that plane on the strength of our inner faith and inner determination.