Positive Thinking 05 – Think positive – think spiritual

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Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Welcome back to our discussion on positive thinking. Positive thinking, the spiritual dimension This is off quoted saying attributed to different people P. Tilha Desharden R. Stephen Covey also We are not human beings on a spiritual journey We are spiritual beings on a human journey We discussed about how positive thinking is so important based on how it has physical effects how it has actualisational dimensions how what we think about that shapes our destiny in the long run So now we will look at So we will look at the power of positive thinking.
Now we will look at its scope The delimiters Sometimes some people make positive thinking into a God and they think if we just think positive then they claim and they indoctrinate that if we just think positive we can achieve anything and everything. But is that really true? Is positive thinking like a magic wand by which everything, anything and everything can be achieved? Not exactly Positive thinking, no matter how good it is, it has its limitations One of the most important examples of positive thinking that we could have is Helen Keller Despite being severely limited in her body capacities with her positive attitude she achieved substantial things. So let’s look at two of her quotes which illustrate both the power of positive thinking and the limits of positive thinking So the power of positive thinking If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist I should be undone.
I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation It’s noble thought, it’s our duty to ourselves and to others to be happy We can sit morose because this has gone wrong in my life, that has gone wrong, this person has treated me like this, destiny has treated me wrongly But it’s our duty to be happy, to be a positive influence in our lives and the lives of others So this is how a person can think positive, but at the same time, there is a limitation to positive thinking and that is, it is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil because by making people neglectful, it lets in disaster There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference So here, the dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference that means, suppose say there is a dam which has got a hole in it and that can cause the hole in the dam to break and it can flood the water of this dam that is preserved behind, may flood and devastate the adjoining areas In some way, those who are in charge of the maintenance of the dam just say that we will be optimistic, nothing will go wrong, the dam will hold its strength Then that will not work There can be devastation and destruction which can result because of neglecting the danger over there So this is a dangerous optimism based on ignorance and indifference Ignorance means we don’t know and indifference means we don’t care So we are not interested in that kind of optimism So let’s take a standard example of optimism and pessimism to understand this point that if we consider a glass If the glass is half full and we say it is half empty that is pessimism but if the glass is empty and we say it is full that is not optimism that is stupidism, that is stupidity As long as we keep believing that the empty glass is full until that time we have no chance to actually fill the glass and having no chance to fill the glass we end up hurting ourselves by remaining thirsty We are never able to quench our thirst So in contrast if the glass is empty and somebody tells us that this glass is empty and if we tell them you are a pessimist and no, that person is not being a pessimist, that person is being a realist It is this acknowledgement of reality and that acknowledgement of reality is the necessary foundation for the rectification of the reality Then one can find water and pour water in the glass and then as the glass is full one can drink the water So the optimism of ignorance and indifference is the optimism which imagines an empty glass to be full and that is an angel’s optimism So now if we move forward, what do we really mean by this kind of optimism of ignorance and indifference It refers to our having a wrong map Let’s take another example In the Talmud, it is said that we don’t see the world as it is we don’t see things as they are We see things as we are So the world is a mirror of our consciousness As we are, so we see the world around us Now what does this mean Let’s consider First of all if we look at Consider an example of a map Say we are in Mumbai and we want to find out a particular landmark, say the Gateway of India where is it in Mumbai or say Hotel Oberoi, where it is in Mumbai Whichever important landmark is there and then we are in Mumbai and we have a map with us and we are searching on the map but unfortunately if we have got the map of Pune then we are just searching and driving We will never reach the destination because our map is wrong Now suppose the map is wrong and then with the wrong map we try to improve our attitude or think positive Thinking positive is not going to help us Not really Thinking positive is not going to help us because the map itself is wrong Yes, positive thinking may help us avoid getting discouraged when we find that we are not reaching our destination it may prevent our spirits from sinking but that same positive attitude might, if we just if that becomes a stubborn attitude then the positive attitude may prevent us from thinking could there be something fundamentally wrong might my map be wrong so the positive attitude just makes us keep endeavouring without examining our map then that positive attitude can be actually harmful for us so moving onwards what do we learn from this map a map is a representation of the territory around us it is certain features from the territory are taken and for the purpose of travelling, navigation certain features are represented in the map so just as there can be maps of the territory or outside, similarly there are maps of our self conceptions of our conceptions of life, of success based on our conceptions and definitions, they are all maps so for example if a student has a map that all I need to do is just somehow crack the, somehow somehow get marks in the exam and the student’s definition of success is just that, that’s the map and the student may somehow cram stuff before the exam and by cramming stuff before the exam, the student may get and is regurgitated vomit it out during the exam and get good marks, but that won’t enable the student to either get deep knowledge of the subject or develop an educated mind it will actually lead one only to the the just the wrong definition of success and eventually when the student has to work in that field and there is no proper knowledge of the subject and there is no educated mind the student will be in trouble in every field to succeed there is a process that needs to be followed, similarly a process needs to be followed which cannot be altered so the right map is the right understanding of what it takes to achieve success and similarly in a broader sense a wrong map could be a materialistic conception of life if we think of ourselves as only material creatures and think of our happiness and success in terms of our acquiring material goods then we end up setting ourselves up for failure because at the material level no matter how much success we achieve at the end there is the grim reaper, there is death and death takes everything away from us death is the undeniable brutal reality which just rips everything away from us and thus we are left with nothing so that’s why actually no matter how positively we think if we get a terminal disease yes we might suffer less but still we will have to die if our loved one gets a terminal disease or dies in an accident how much can positive thinking help us now we are just faced with the pointlessness of it all we live, we suffer, we die what is the point of it all it is only when we recognize that there is an eternal spiritual dimension to our life does positive thinking become truly meaningful so positive thinking which is based on a materialistic conception of life is like travelling with a wrong map and we need to correct that map positive thinking is not going to change the temporary nature of material existence and that’s why we need to complement our positive thinking with spiritual thinking then positive thinking will become truly empowering and truly transformational how, what the spiritual dimension is and how that can be added in our life we will discuss in our future talks thank you