Introductions
The story of the monk who sold his Ferrari is a story, which gives an organized approach to life with better joy, courage, abundance, and balance. The story layout helps to add attention to what could come to be a boring listing of every good things we ought to be doing for our own good but we are not. Its guidance is very important, but told in a story way, making the points pointed out easy to memorize. Even though most of the things mentioned in the story can be found in many other life situation such as on personal growth, self-help and spirituality, the author’s way of putting it all at one story helps to keep a reader on track.
In a magnificently written story the author tells the extraordinary story of character (Julian) a lawyer forced to encounter a spiritual tragedy of his un-balanced life. He moves to a very old culture, which shows to be a life-transforming odyssey. In the course he discovers realistic, wise and powerful lessons that direct us to pursue our life’s aspirations and objectives, value time as the very vital commodity, treasure our relationships, create joyful thinking and live fullest, day by day.
In chapter eleven carefully planned chapters he explains the story. Julian a successful lawyer who got everything most he could ever need. Things like a stellar professional status, seven figures salary, an amazing mansion in a estate favored by superstars/celebrities, a personal jet, a summer house on a tropical isle and his prized red Ferrari parked in the middle of his driveway and his modification from all this to a monk committed to improve the life of others and that of his own.
In chapter one the author gives the background life of Julian when he was an amazing lawyer. A co-worker and friend of Julian (John) describes the life of Julian how his disgraceful courtroom theatrics frequently made the newspapers front pages. His mid-night visits to the city’s best restaurants with sexy and beautiful young models.
The story begins with the Julian fainting and collapsing in the courtroom the famous lawyer shivering and sweating like a baby. And he taken to the hospital due to a heart failure, which was anticipated because of his passion of his work, the past few years Julian Mantle worked night and day without considering his physical and mental health.
All this hard work made him earn a lot of money and made him a very famous lawyer but cost him his mental state and physical health. Julian at the age of 53 looked as if he was 70 years old and lost his sense of humor. When he was hospitalized Julian refused to see any of his colleagues and friends and then declared his resignation from the law firm that he was going.
Because of his heart attack Julian left his home sold his assets and fly to India. No News from Julian for three years until one day he showed up to his former colleague and friend (John) who was now a rather pessimistic aged lawyer. There was an immense difference in the Julian who had a heart attack in the courtroom and the new Julian who came from India. Julian in the past three year transformed unbelievably into spiritual strength man and physical vitality who looked very young.
In The 2nd and 3rd chapter of the book the author tells us about the journey of Julian to India and how he met the sages of Sivana who changed his life for good. Julian Mantle in the 5th chapter starts sharing his story of transformation with his friend John who Julian thinks needs to know about the secrets of a happy and fulfilling life. Julian starts with telling John about the sages of Sivana, a small number of people living high in the mountains in the great Himalayas who knew all secrets of how to live a happy life and how to fulfill the dreams and reach the anticipated destiny.
Julian tells John about Yogi Raman the leader of the sages of Sivana and the person who taught Julian the secrets of a happy and fulfilling life. But only in the 6th chapter Julian starts sharing the secrets. He narrates to John the fable that contained the seven virtues for a life overflowing with inner peace, joy and a wealth of spiritual gifts. The following chapters revolve around this fable. In the 7th chapter Julian tells John the techniques that he learned from Yogi Raman on how to master our own mind with the simple techniques like the “heart of rose technique” or the “secret of lake technique”. He tells John how to cultivate our own mind, how to see setbacks as opportunities for personal expansions.
In the 8th and 9th chapter of the book Julian tells John how to follow our own purpose and teaches John the ancient art of self-leadership with techniques such as “do the things you fear” and the “5 step method for attaining goals”.
In the 10th and 11th chapter of the book Julian tells John how to live with discipline and to respect time. Again he teaches John many techniques like the ancient rule of 20, the vow of silence, he also teaches how to focus on the priorities and maintain balance and how to simplify the life. And he educates John through giving models that determination is the essential asset of a fully self actualized life.
In the final two chapters Julian interprets to John the desirable quality of serving other people and how to embrace the present and asks John to live now, never to sacrifice happiness for achievements and to savor the journey and live each day as the last one. At the end Julian asked John to spread the secrets that he shared with John for the betterment of other people. Then he embraced John like the brother he never had and left.
References
Robin S. Sharma (2003). Leadership Wisdom from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: The 8 Rituals of Visionary Leaders, Hay House, New York
