Positive Thinking 20 – Smart expectations 1- Hotel or Hospital?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. So today we are continuing our discussion on positive thinking, we discussed the principle of cultivate smart expectations, so the foundation for understanding this will be the principle of observing the world not as a hotel but as a hospital, when we go to a hotel, we expect to be served, we expect that we can give orders, and there will be a menu card which we can choose from, and based on our choice we give order, and someone will scurry around to give us things according to the order that we make, and this expectation is often frustrated in real life, your life does seem to offer us a lot of options, especially these options seem to have dramatically increased in our present age, with its multiple high-tech technology or high-tech options, but still things don’t always work according to our plans, in fact quite often things do go wrong, no matter how much we plan, no matter how much we invest our time and energy and thought, as they say according to Murphy’s law, everything that can go wrong will go wrong, of course that may be sometimes seen as ultra pessimistic, but still the point remains that things often don’t go according to our plan, and at that time if we approach the world with a hotel world view, then we may start shouting and if we don’t shout at others, we flagellate ourselves, we beat ourselves internally thinking that nothing that I do ever works, I’m good for nothing, actually it’s not that we are good for nothing, our world view itself is wrong, so if we approach the world as a hospital, understanding that now when we go to hospital, we don’t have a choice of menu, in the hospital they provide some diet usually a regulated diet, moderate regulated diet that is best for our health, it may not be pleasing for our tongue, and further when we go to a hospital, we are not in control, the doctor may tell us take this medicine, doctor may subject us to this test, that medication, sometimes even a surgery, and we are not in control, but that does not mean that in the hospital we are helpless, we also can and should actively participate in the treatment plan, doing our part as well as we can, and that will accelerate our cure, so right now if we see, we may say that why should I consider this world to be a hospital, I’m not sick, yes we may not be sick physically, but quite often emotionally and spiritually, our thoughts gravitate towards sickness, we discussed in earlier talk about how Emerson said that, the tendency to see good everywhere is a sign of mental health, and the tendency to see negativity and bad everywhere, conversely the sign of mental sickness, so quite often if we see our own thoughts, our own desires act as our worst enemies, this is quite often seen graphically in sports, when a person, when a sports player on the spur of a moment, plays a rash shot, and just squanders a winning situation, and may say that this person is choked under pressure, so this is because sports are a high visibility avenue, so often we may see such things in sports, but these happen even in real life, and when they happen in real life, we get caught, we sabotage ourselves, so if we understood, when we say that this world is like a hospital, that doesn’t mean that we are helpless, it simply means that in a hospital, problems are to be expected, when we go to a hotel, we don’t expect problems in the hotel, we expect to have an enjoyable experience, if we think this world is like a picnic, where we are a hotel, where we will have enjoyable experience, then we set ourselves up for frustration, but if we start with the understanding, this world is like a hospital, and a hospital, yes, if I am in a hospital, then it means that probably I have some disease, I will have some pain, some things will go wrong, but still, just because things are going wrong, doesn’t mean everything in the hospital is wrong, still there is a doctor, there is a prescription, there is a treatment, and if I participate properly with it, then I can be cured, so just as in a hospital, we moderate our expectations, and to some extent, expect to live with problems, live with pains, live with inconveniences, while we are being treated, similarly, with the hospital world view, we learn to live in the world, with a regulated, with moderate expectations, without unrealistic expectations, we expect problems, not that we dwell on the problems, but we are not jolted by the problems, because we understand this world is a place, where things can and can go wrong, but still, if we don’t have unrealistic expectations, if we expect that things will go wrong, then we will anticipate and prepare, and do course correction as quickly as possible, and as effectively as possible, in the situation, so for example, when people who have lived with constant comforts, when things start going wrong for them, then quite often, they just get frustrated, the more we have an illusion of control, quite often, technology gives us a lot of control, far more than what past generations have had in the recent past, and still, we see that people who use technology, often also have lot of emotional issues, lot of mental problems, mental health is becoming one of the biggest health challenges in the world today, the WHO says that the mental health is the biggest health challenge in the current century, and possibly in the current millennia, so now, why is this? if technology gives us more and more control, why is it that we feel, we have mental problems, we feel depressed, we feel irritated, we feel frustrated, all that is because, technology creates the unrealistic expectation of a high-tech paradise, where everything will work according to our plans, and when things don’t work according to our plan, then we get exasperated and frustrated, so that causes negativity, yes, technology can enhance our control, but if we go in with the moderated expectation, things are not going, this world is not a hotel, it’s a hospital, then, even if things go wrong, we will deal with it, we will not get jolted by it, we will not get disgusted by it, we will not loathe the world, nor loathe ourselves, because of things going wrong, rather, we will persevere, and quite often, people who have come through tough circumstances in their lives, that means, they have lived through difficulty, flourished amidst adversity, coming from backgrounds of hardship, when they achieve prosperity, they are able to use it properly, they appreciate it and they use it, so even when things go wrong, it’s not the end of the world, they can tolerate and persevere, so, Srila Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON states that, one’s greatness has to be estimated by the ability to tolerate provoking situations, this world is going to present us provoking situations, we are going to get provoked, and to the extent, we learn to tolerate these situations, we learn to go beyond these situations, not letting ourselves cave in because of the situation, and not letting ourselves getting devastated by the situation, but persevering, so tolerance here doesn’t mean importance, tolerance means perseverance, so we endure it and we move onwards, that is what will enable us to tread the path towards success and greatness, so, a fundamental understanding that this world is not a hotel, it is like a hospital, can help us to moderate our expectations and persevere amidst frustrations, thereby giving us positive energy even amidst negativity, thank you,