Positive Thinking 06 – Don’t just see reality positively – see the positive reality

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Transcript

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welcome back to our discussion on positive thinking we have discussed till now about how positive thinking has significant power and how that power can be complemented when we think not just positive but also spiritual now we will move deeper into an understanding of how we can think spiritually where we can get substance for giving our thoughts spiritual orientation so let’s look at a quote by the American thinker Henry David Thoreau whenever I have read any part of the Vedas I have felt that some unearthly and unknown light illumined me in the great teaching of the Vedas there is no touch of sectarianism it is of all ages, climes and nationalities and is the royal road for the attainment of the great knowledge so we need to go beyond positive perception of reality to the perception of positive reality positive perception of reality means that yes there is a glass of water which is half empty and we can see it positively as half full but might there be some other glass of water entirely instead of just agonizing oh this is not half empty this is half full might there be some other glass which is already full and it is waiting for us so that is the prospect that the spiritual dimension of life opens for us as we have a material dimension to life and there we need to look at what is the positive things available for us that will definitely help but at the same time as we discussed the material level things do end in the temporality of everything material means that things are going to end in death and that is a negativity which we cannot work our way around it will catch us eventually so is there any side to our life which is indestructible which is eternal and that is the spiritual side and that is what we will consider now so now spirituality is it something which is just a material conception or some people believe that it is spiritual I don’t believe in spiritual stuff you believe in spiritual stuff not like that we have the MNM mathematician E.C.G. Sudarshan says spirituality is the reality of our existence physics lives inside it only so what does it mean? so if you consider a set or the world that we live in, we experience it like one set but there is a super set of which this world is a part and science studies one part of its world, say physics studies one set but spirituality is the super set of which the world is one set within that so like that physics lives inside spirituality spirituality is the totality of our existence and it is this totality that we need to understand explore so spirituality is not unscientific it is trans-scientific unscientific means something which is which contradicts science or rejects science or militates against the spirit of science so spirituality is not any of these spirituality is trans-scientific it goes beyond the scope of science science, at least the mainstream science as it operates today it operates in the premise of methodological naturalism that means as a matter of methodology, science looks for natural explanations for natural phenomena and by thus looking for natural explanations for natural phenomena science tries to find natural or material solutions to material problems but beyond that science doesn’t look for anything non-material but that doesn’t mean there is no non-material reality existing, there is a non-material side to our existence that non-material side is our spiritual essence it is who we are we will discuss what all comprises this non-material side but essentially it is not unscientific, it is trans-scientific and this is about when we look at the spiritual side of our reality then we go beyond the positive perception of reality the perception of positive reality that means as I said we go beyond the looking at the half empty glass and trying to see it as half full to looking at an entirely different glass which is actually truly full so now move beyond how do we know about the spiritual dimension of life just as for learning about any subject we need to look at textbooks which describe the knowledge about that subject there are textbooks about physics and there are many books which will be written about physics we look at books which gives authoritative comprehensive knowledge if you want to learn that subject properly similarly there are many atheistic traditions in the world there are many spiritual traditions in the world there are many broad wisdom traditions in the world if you want to understand life’s spiritual side the vedic literature of ancient India especially the bhakti tradition they give us a very systematic coherent, cogent comprehensive understanding of life’s spiritual dimension and by turning to the literature we can actually enrich ourselves spiritually now at this point someone may argue no but this is sectarian shouldn’t we be universal and non-sectarian yes we should be universal and non-sectarian that means that we should not impose anyone who groups dogma on others but if we want to learn and there is important knowledge available to learn why not learn it from wherever it is available for example if some researchers discover some medicine and they find that that medicine is capable of curing diseases anywhere and everywhere then will Indians say if a medicine is developed in China will Germans refuse to take that medicine or will Americans refuse to take that medicine saying that this is Chinese no knowledge is knowledge knowledge is universal similarly spiritual knowledge is also universal and why should we deprive ourselves of knowledge if it can empower us if it can help us move towards mental health we discussed earlier how Ralph Waldo Emerson said that the tendency the capacity to see good everywhere that is a sign of mental health so if there is some wisdom literature that enables us to develop the virtue of positive thinking with the spiritual dimension spiritual foundation then why deprive ourselves even if it is come from a particular tradition it is not the monopoly of that tradition that tradition is simply the route through which that knowledge is becoming available to us so the way the bhakti wisdom is the very tradition that is actually universal and some people feel that oh this is pessimistic because you are talking about death and if death is the impetus for turning towards spirituality and already we are looking at the negative side of life aren’t we being pessimistic no if you look at the Vedic literature their mood is not pessimistic their mood is overall optimistic they talk about certain miseries of life but the focus the thrust and the focus is not on analyzing the miseries the focus is on enabling us to go beyond the miseries its like if a patient is sick and the patient goes to a doctor and the doctor tells oh you have got cancer and the patient says no I don’t have cancer I am perfectly alright no the doctor says you have got cancer the patient says no I don’t have cancer well denying cancer is not going to cure it its only going to worsen the disease and its going to terminate the life of the patient so denial is not optimism it is stupidism on the other hand the patient agrees that ok I have got cancer what can I do the doctor says don’t worry its in a curable state right now and you have got good treatment just take the treatment and you will be cured then is the scope for positive thinking at that time the patient can think that oh yes I am with a competent doctor there is a tested medicine available let me just diligently execute the regimen for the treatment and then I will be cured so that is the scope of positive thinking denial is not positive thinking determination to apply is positive thinking determination to deny is not positive thinking determination to apply is positive thinking so similarly the spiritual wisdom tradition it offers us practical means by which we can cure ourselves by which we can free ourselves from the negativity that afflicts us in life and by which we can move onwards closer towards the absolute life’s ever positive everlasting spiritual dimension and thus we can empower ourselves so by empowering ourselves by equipping ourselves with spiritual wisdom from the bhaktivedic tradition of India we can actually empower ourselves in a non sectarian way for our own all round development for our positive contribution to others how this is so we will discuss what that spiritual wisdom is and how it applies to our life we will discuss in our future sessions thank you