“The Candle Flame”

By Ron Stultz

13 September 2005

I remember than when I was a kid of maybe 8 or 9, I really, really, wanted to be able to start fires using only my mind. Now, I do not remember having this thought, idea, wish, goal, seeded into me via some Saturday morning kid’s show, but I must have, I guess. Anyway, whenever I was trapped in the house for long periods of time, like when it rained all day or at school in some class, I would stare and stare at an object and try to get it to ignite into flames. Had no idea what I was supposed to “think” as I stared, if one “thinks” about something at all as whom do you know who can start fires simply by using their mind that could tell me? And I had no idea what I would have done if something I was staring at had actually burst into flames.

Eventually, I gave up on the idea, desire as I just could not do it but then later and much older I came across the fact that Buddhist Monks apparently can visualize in their mind a candle flame in a dark room and stay focused on it for hours and hours and so I thought perhaps I could do that. Nope. I can get the flame there in the darkness but before very long, other thoughts invade and the candle flame disappears. What is wrong with me?

About a year ago, I was doing the candle flame exercise again as I have never given up on it when all of a sudden the flame was replaced with a sphere moving in a circular track in my mind and I found it easy to keep the sphere moving around and around and no other thoughts invaded. Not only could I keep the sphere moving, like the earth around the Sun although in my mind there was no center object like our Sun, but I could speed up the rotation, reverse it, make the sphere larger or smaller, tilt the plane of rotation anyway I wanted and still I could keep the rotation going without other thoughts crowding in to demand attention.