Positive Thinking 34 – No time?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna welcome to our discussion on positive thinking we discussed today the last section on no time some people make things happen some people watch things happen and others wonder what happened Mike Davis and film pure Montessier said this essentially we all have to make choices in our life what is most important for us what is most empowering for us what is most consequential for us we discussed various principles for positive thinking and then we discuss various practices by which we would be able to apply those principles and make our thinking more positive and make our life more productive but for practicing any practices for example we discussed about mantra meditation for practicing any such practice we need time and we are haunted in our modern and post modern times by a huge amount of pressure on our schedules we are over stressed we are over scheduled we are overworked and we feel that we don’t have time so how can we manage to find the time to practice mantra meditation amidst our schedules could it be that we don’t have time because we don’t make time for the things that will save our time I repeat could it be that we don’t have time that we are always short of time because we don’t make time for the things that will save our time what does this mean let us consider suppose a person is working on a computer and that person is typing something and there is virus in the computer which is going to delete whatever files are going to be saved in the computer this person has typed earlier and the file has got deleted and now typing again and the file is getting deleted and then someone comes to help and says sir get lost I don’t have time for you I am busy typing can’t you see no sir whatever you type that will get deleted there is a virus in the computer we need to fix the computer we need to install antivirus and clean the computer don’t be such a pessimist I want to work get out don’t be so negative the file won’t get deleted no but sir the file will get deleted I won’t believe your negativity I am an optimist get out now if someone starts arguing like this how can we help such a person we all might be in that situation when we say we don’t have time it’s true that many of us most of us possibly have too many things on our plate we are balancing too many balls if you are playing a game of tossing balls you are balancing too many balls but still often we have negative thoughts negative emotions these are like viruses in our mind and we often think that I don’t have time and that we think because we think of time only in terms of activities ok I have to do this in the morning I have to do this before noon I have to do this afternoon I have to do this in the evening I have to do this at night where is the time that I have I don’t have any time so what this means is that actually yes we do have activities that may fill our schedule but our time is taken not just by activities it is also taken by desires by thoughts by emotions suppose we are going for a class we have a tight schedule one class, second class, third class, fourth class suppose we are students or we are doing some advice training or whatever and suddenly before going for a class someone insults us now that insult just keeps ringing in our head we are sitting in a classroom we are looking at that instructor and not one word goes inside so from the point of view of the schedule that one hour went in the activity of attending a class but that time really did not go in the activity of attending the class because we were physically present in the class we are mentally present at the arena of the insult reliving it envisioning various revenge fantasies seething at the insult so that one thought of the insult can consume an hour not just an hour it can consume much more time also so the point is that our time is also taken by our desires, our emotions our thoughts one thought can lodge itself, etch itself in our consciousness and it will just prevent us from doing anything for example nowadays with technology making or providing unrestricted access on the internet to all kinds of content sometimes people may see some obscene images and one image may be seen in 10 seconds but then it just etches itself in the consciousness in the brain and whenever they want to concentrate and do something constructive that image keeps haunting them so externally they are doing the activity of some other activity but the mind is not there and the activity does not translate into productivity because the mind is not there and that’s why we need to recognize that if we could discipline our thoughts, if we could regulate our emotions if we could manage our desires then we would actually save a lot of time that is invisibly dissipated in our thoughts, desires and emotions and our spiritual practices especially the practice of meditation works for taking care of these negativities meditation streamlines our inner life and it enables us to discipline our thoughts, desires and emotions so rather than letting ourselves get carried away by whatever thoughts, desires, emotions, karma in our consciousness we learn to screen them, we get the inner alertness and the inner toughness the inner muscles to check those desires emotions, thoughts and regulate them so if we make time for meditation then meditation will become like a time saving activity because it will enable us to control our thoughts, emotions and desires and thereby we will actually gain time, the time that was invisibly being sucked away by stray thoughts, desires, emotions that will be saved and that will be available for us to use so therefore we won’t lose time rather we will gain time this is an investment, practicing mantra meditation is an investment which will give us rich returns and this is not just some religious dogma millions of people throughout history and millions of people even now have experienced the purifying, elevating potency of mantra meditation they have experienced the cleansing of their heart, the clearing of their consciousness, the sharpening of their intellects and the warming of their hearts the positivity that comes from attentive, prayerful mantra meditation is something which each one of us can experience and thus we can empower ourselves so rather than putting meditation off by saying that we don’t have any time, we can instead focus on making time and then discovering how we have saved so much time by making time for this one activity so in our last session we will have a recap of the journey that we went on on this positive thinking series thank you very much Hare Krishna