Art of Positive Thinking

SR No.: 006586
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Health Harmoney
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 246
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 11 MB

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THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING
We have been talking about how fear comes into being. We might now concentrate upon ways of getting rid of fear. What are the methods, factors and sources which help a man attain freedom from fear? Is it possible for a man never to entertain fear, not to be disturbed or to become anxious even when placed in a fearsome situation; to remain firm and steady even when the whole environment is charged with fear; not to be upset or vexed in the face of disaster?
It is certainly possible. Preksha furnishes one way of getting rid of fear. Kayotsarg embodies a means of becoming fearless. Those who practise preksha meditation are actually seeking a means of freeing themselves from their ills. A discussion of the disease implies in itself a search for the cure thereof. The calamity and the way of meeting it arc intimately connected. One cannot find a cure without knowing the disease, and one cannot get rid of the disease without finding a cure for it. If we are seeking to conquer a disease, we must know the means of curing it. We shall also have to know everything about the disease before we can cure it. If we want to get rid of evil, we must intimately know how that evil functions, how it comes into being. Evil can be known; it is not something unknowable. How can we end something of which we know nothing? Insofar as knowing is concerned, the good and the evil are on the same level. If it is a question of what is harmful and what is beneficial, we say the evil is harmful and the good is beneficial. But we must know both. Only then shall it be possible for us to give up evil and to accept the good.
It has been concluded on the basis of psychological experiments that attention wavers, that the mind cannot concentrate on one object for more than four seconds. But there is a theory of meditation which does not accept this. According to some believers in that theory, a man can concentrate on one subject for five to ten hours, even more. However, the mind of a person who has never practised meditation cannot be steady; it continually changes from one object to another. In view of this, we are willing to accept the psychological theory of attention not going steady for more than a few seconds. The mind of a person who does not practise meditation cannot concentrate on one spot for more than four to five seconds. Most probably it changes every second; it may even change in a fraction of a second. The mind moves very fast. Within a second, it wanders all over the world. Such a conclusion about the mind's rapidity of movement is perfectly valid, and yet there is no finality about it. If we look upon it as the ultimate conclusion, we might easily go wrong. The moment we accept a conclusion as final, our exploration comes to an end. The process of awareness is then abruptly concluded; the continuity of meditation stands