We all are well-aware of the power of positive thinking; how it brings us happiness, how it fills our life with confidence and optimism, how it helps stimulate people around us, and how it can even transform the whole world through its powerful vibrations.
But do you know, to develop this power, we need to win over the negative with the positive.
What do we do if we want to win over the negative with positive?
What do you do if you want to take out air from a bottle?...
Fill it with water.
So, just like the air automatically comes out of the bottle when filled with water; negativity will automatically leave from within you when filled with positivity – a simple tip for positive thinking!
Let’s try it out with a small exercise to build up the positive levels.
Close your eyes, look inward and try to introspect -how has your vision been through the day, today? In what instances did you maintain positive outlook and where all and for what reason did your vision become negative?
Say, you see in your introspection that someone gave you 2 bad words today and immediately negative thinking had arisen in your mind about that person.
You want to now replace this negative thinking by positive thinking...
So, just imagine you are put in a catch 22 position where you have only 2 options open to you: either someone will give you two bad words or will give you two tight slaps on your face. Which one would you choose?
2 bad words... Obviously.
And after those bad words are done with, think about it how relaxed you would feel... yes, relaxed now that you got released from your punishment.
It means there was no pain associated with the bad words said to you. It was only because of your incorrect perception that negativity arose inside you, which you can now change, and be happy.
How? When 2 bad words are said, you feel “Oh! So nice it finished with only 2 bad words, good he didn’t come and hit me.” - this is what we call a positive outlook! By following the negative path, the internal distance with the other person increases and nothing is achieved out of it. And when we choose to think positive, we can easily adjust with anyone and everyone and peace prevails within.
So, here’s one more tip for positive thinking. Let’s grab it!
In every situation, set your eyes on profit, not on loss; on what is remaining, not on what is gone.
Lord Mahavir taught his disciples that if people happen to hit them with a stick, they were to take it positively as, ‘It is only a stick; at least the hand is not broken.’ And if someone were to break one of their arm, they should be grateful that at least he did not break the other arm. If both their hands got cut off, they should say at least they have their legs fine. The Lord thus showed the way to be happy by seeing benefits even in adverse circumstances. The one who has positive thinking is able to find out happiness from amongst any kind of difficult or sorry situation that he may be put in.
Our goal is to reach a stage where we can see ourselves having positive thinking:
- for every person we interact with, in our life,
- for every external circumstance that comes forth in our life,
- for every characteristic of our own self (our inherent nature) too.
To get there, we must first understand in clear, sure and precise terms...
That the main factor responsible behind people’s behaviour with us, the external circumstances we encounter and our personality traits is: our own actions done in the past, our own karmas.
Just like if we have sown a mango seed, mango tree only would grow from it and it would give us delicious mango fruits to eat; and if we’ve sown cactus seed, it would give us thorny cacti too; similarly our karmas too bear fruits depending on whether we bound good or bad karma. The happiness, unhappiness, praise, insult, money, good health, illness, friends, foes, good or bad circumstances in our life are all fruits of our own karmas, of our own deeds done in the past. And the way a seed requires so many evidences such as, soil, water, sunshine, fertilizer, heat and time to fructify; similarly our karmas too require lot of evidences to fructify.
Say, one day while you are travelling by train, a pick picketer comes and picks your pocket.
To arrive at the right understanding, ask yourself:
There were hundreds of people travelling in this train - why was only my pocket picked?
I travel this route every day, year in and year out; then why did it get picked today only?
There was another wallet too lying in my other pocket which had only Rs.200 in it. Then why was the pocket that had Rs.2000/- picked? Who showed the thief that this pocket has more money in it?
It means:
- With all the evidences having met, my bad karma of losing Rs. 2000/- came into effect today.
- The thief is only an instrument through whom my karma got discharged.
- I am grateful to the thief for he helped the release of my karma and got me liberated from it.
- By thinking negative of the thief, I do not want to bind new karmas which will make me suffer one way or the other.
- Instead, I pray to God to grant him the right understanding so that he does not have to suffer the brutal effects of his karma.
With this right understanding, the positive thinking manifests automatically.
Following are some of the best tips for positive thinking:
- Whatever occurs in our life is because of our own past karma coming into fruition. No one in this world is at fault.
- The other person is merely an instrument to deliver this fruit to us.
- The other person is liberating us from our mistake of past life, and therefore we are grateful to him.
- Adjust everywhere. Positive means we are always pleased. When we adjust well, no worldly difficulties affect us, and thereafter, such an adjustment becomes established within.
- Adopt one principle in life - always remain positive, never support negative. Whenever any negativity arises, remain silent. Never listen to anything negative being said about anyone; it is very dangerous. Negativity wastes our time, creates entanglements, and does not let us experience happiness.
- Keep repenting for all negative thoughts. We have committed mistakes in the past, due to which these thoughts crop up. Freedom from mistakes begins from the moment one starts doing hearty repentance. Also, immediately erase the negative thought with a positive one.
- Avoid clashes to remain happy. Negative thinking leads to lot of internal suffering, and lot of internal suffering means lot of bad karmas get bound. With positive thinking, the solution comes very soon, the karmas get settled quite quickly. But with negative vision, heaps of karmas continue to rise.
- Whatever we see happening externally in our life is all the fruit of past actions, but based on our intent and emotions, at a very subtle level the new seeds of karma are also getting sown inside us. Our positive intent will bind positive karmas and our negative intent will bind negative karmas. Positive karmas will yield fruits that make us happy, whereas negative karmas yield fruits that make our life miserable. So, how can we spoil our intent and emotions and invite suffering, after such an understanding?
Beyond the positive and negative:
Positive vision is enabled through good intellect; and through Gnan from Gnani we attain pure vision. There is no higher vision in this world than the pure vision – the vision of the Soul!
The wrong belief of ‘I am the name’ is egoism. Use that egoism positively if you want worldly comforts; use that egoism negatively if you want miseries. And if you want liberation, come to Gnani and become the Self. When we become the Self, become who we really are in the original state, then positive and negative energies will not touch us or affect us.
And with the divine grace of the living Gnani, anyone in this world can procure the pure vision without any effort of his own. All our life, we have tried, tried and tried to get rid of the darkness of ignorance within us, but without much success. Now, all that we have to do is come to Gnani and He kindles the light of knowledge in us such that the darkness disappears automatically!!
