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

Page 240

TOTAL FREEDOM FROM FEAR
225
of violence is inevitable in the nature of things, but to be possessed by violence is quite another matter. There may be occasions when one cannot speak the truth, but to be wedded to untruth and to believe that one cannot survive in the modern world without telling lies is most questionable. What creates problems is our deep attachment to things and persons. There is a subtle dividing line between necessity and desire. Material things are necessary, one cannot do without them. Even a monk has a few possessions. He must have a piece of cloth to cover his body, he carries a bowl, and he has books. He also has pupils. Things and persons are inevitable there in any course of life; one cannot isolate oneself completely from these; indeed one must live with them. But if a man does not attach himself to things or persons, he remains calm under all circumstances and the desire for accumulation has no ground to strike root. On the other hand, any kind of attachment results in acquisitiveness and accumulation. Even a piece of cloth, a book, if one is attached to it, becomes a source of corruption. Preksha helps to make it clear how far our infatuations for objects has relented, how far our attachments are weakened. Preksha is the means of wcakening one's attachments, it is the means of awakening latent energies, of awakening bliss. Not mere power, but power that is roused with full consciousness and bliss. Awareness and bliss are the two banks between which the stream of energy flows. Such power is universally beneficial. But divorced from joy and consciousness, mere power for its own sake is very dangerous. Electricity is very useful, but at the same tirne dangerous. If one is careless and touches a naked wire carrying an electric current, it would be suicidal. So let there be an awakening of consciousness, let there be full awareness, let the mind be purified, let the heart become entirely innocent. When consciousness is pure, the state of non-fear will arise of itself. The very experiencing of the movement of consciousness constitutes in itself total freedom from fear.
A monk was meditating in the forest. He stood still in meditation. A serpent came and bit him and slipped away. A man happened to be passing there and he saw the serpent bite the monk. So he approached the monk and said, "Sir monk, a black serpent has bitten you. Are you aware of it?" The monk said, "I don't know." The man said, "But are you not afraid?" The monk said, "No, I know no fear." The man said, "How is it you show no fear? Are you not afraid of death?" The monk said, "I'm perfectly at home. There is no serpent here. It is possible the serpent was elsewhere, and has bitten some other person. I am quite all right."
In a state of full consciousness, even a snake bite does a man no harm. It is only in a particular state of mind that the poison affects a man. It is common knowledge that after a snake has bitten, the
.