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
The guru made a very significant observation: "Nobody knows." One might say, "I know the members of my family, I know my neighbour, I know people in Delhi," but as a matter of fact, nobody knows anything. Each man is enclosed within the walls of prejudice and illusion which he cannot penetrate. We do not know the man in front of us; we only have an image about him. It is always the images of our own creation that we deal with; reality is far off. We only perceive the shadow, the substance is ever out of our reach. There is no real contact between man and man; it is all a relationship between images which ever breeds conflict. Reality eludes us and we are caught in mere images, shadows without substance!
While crossing a road we saw the solid front wall of a house with a huge lock on its door. Quite impenetrable it seemed, nobody could enter that house. But as we went a little further, we saw the house was a ruin, with its back and side walls all gone. Only the front wall stood with that huge lock on the door which seemed impenetrable. No side walls, no back wall, nothing whatsoever. No basis for living. Only a huge (but utterly useless) lock on the front. Man's condition is not very different - only a shadow of a house without any substance!
To find substance in a world of shadows is not easy. All friendship or enmity is imaginary. We really know neither our friends nor foes. The man we call our friend turns out to be a secret foe, and he whom we look upon as our bitterest foe reveals himself as a friend. We command no purc vision; our perception of friends and foes is faulty. In trust lies the greatest danger, and the greatest security is to be found where danger is. All this reversal of values is the outcome of par, 'the other'. Our approach towards another is such that the very word, "the other" has become synonymous with danger. On the contrary, the word swa, the self, seems to offer us the greatest satisfaction. How did we come to have such a view? Obviously because of prejudice; because of lack of understanding. It is the attitude of like and dislike which colours all our relationships.
The thinking of a meditator undergoes a transformation. becomes refined; his approach changes; he comes to realize the unique individuality of the other, which is a great breakthrough. Generally a man, preoccupied with himself, is incapable of recognising the independent existence of another.
The father says he loves his son. But he does not recognize the son's right to an independent existence. Any free move on the part of the son causes the father great perturbation. The husband would not admit his wife's free and separate existence. The master, likewise, would give the servant no freedom; he would curb cach and every want of his. We have evolved all kinds of controls because we