Book Title: Art of Positive Thinking
Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Health Harmoney

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Page 31
________________ 20 THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING The field of thought is grossly perverted. A man goes on committing one folly after another, without once realizing that he is being silly. On the contrary he seeks to justify every action of his, even though it be riddled with all sorts of contradictions and incongruities, rank foolishness often appearing in the garb of wisdom. No such thing in the inanimate world. There are three different states of thinking--(i) Irrational (ii) Rational and (iii) Supra-rational. The state of irrationality is that in which an individual is simply incapable of thought. Sub-human creatures know not how to think. Even among humans there are idiots-these do not know how to think; they are simply incapable of thought. The second state is that of thinking in which a living being exercises his mind, entertains impressions and opinions. The third state is that of thought transcended. This is the state of meditation where all thinking comes to an end. No imagination, no memory, no reflection! This is the state of thought-transcendence. The experiencing of such a state in which thought is complctcly absent is a wordless realization which brings forth a super-consciousness which is beyond the senses, the mind and the intellect. This superconsciousness is an extrasensory state of mind. Here the soul is the only object ofexperience, all other memories vanish. It is an ultrapsychic condition which no words can describe. This state can only be experienced. All that falls within the sphere of the intellect can be expounded in words, but the world beyond the intellect is beyond language. All expression thereof is inadequate. At the same time, one cannot remain silent about it; it seems to demand expression. To talk about it or not is man's dilemma. However, the world we live in is a world of intellect and thought which is beset with many paradoxes; a person says one thing today, and something quite different tomorrow. Churchill once said, "A perfect politician is he who says one thing in the morning, repudiates it in the evening, but with such tact as to convince his hearers that he spoke the truth on both occasions." Contradiction is inevitable in the field of thought; each argument can be countered. Logic is ever exposing contradictions. That indeed is the office of logic. However, logic or thought is never productive of unanimity or harmony; instead, it creates paradoxes, for that is how thought moves. To expect stability in the dualistic world of thought is to be caught in illusion. It is to be far removed from fact, for conflict is inherent in thought, contradiction being its chief characteristic. We are here considering the nature of thought which is sometimes good, at other times evil; sometimes constructive, at other times destructive. We are interested in reducing to the Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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