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THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING
bus fails, the passengers get down and give the bus a push so as to restart the engine. So far so good. But you have to go far. Will you keep pushing the bus all the way for a hundred miles? It is just not possible. The engine must work by its own power. An occasional push may be in order, but pushing all the time would be utter madness.
Total freedom from fear is our ultimate goal. We must be brave, without fear of any kind. The thinking of a person afflicted with fear can never be right, it stands vitiated by his fear.
• Equanimous thought is balanced thought. Any kind of superiority or inferiority complex results in perverted thinking. The one great criterion for wholesome thinking is to determine whether thought is born of equanimity or not. It seems to me that two kinds of feelings, dominate a man's life-like and dislike; craving and aversion. All thought is actuated by like or dislike. Totally unconditioned thinking is rare. Someone dear to us says something and we appreciate it fully; but the same thing uttered by an adversary inspires in us a feeling of contempt or fear. Why? We are enquiring into the nature of wholesome thought. Thought conditioned by feelings of like or dislike is not wholesome at all.
Many things happen in the course of life. Two factors influence them all-like and dislike, approval and disapproval. All our action is conditioned by these. Passion or disgust, approbation or disapprobation, attachmentor indifference, attraction or revulsion. There is no mot for thought.
Man indulges in evil deeds or doubtful conduct; deceives others. Wherefrom do these tendencies originate? On the one hand operates attachment such as, "This is my family, my son, my wisemay they be happy! Let there be a bigger house, more money, no lack whatsoever." On the other hand, aversions prevail. Where there is "Like', 'dislike' is bound to be; the two go together. A man goes to the market and after a great deal of effort obtains pure ghee, because he does not want his son to partake of impure stuff. He does not want that his wife or other members of his family should consume adulterated foodstuffs. All because he is greatly attached to them. And yet the same person sells adulterated medicines to others, because he is indifferent to their fate; because he is not attached to them. Due to lack of affection, he indulges in corruption without any scruples. This feeling of attachment/unattachment powerfully af. fects one's approach and all perversions in thought and action originate therefrom. Without equanimity, all thought becomes shabby and the contradictions therein can never be resolved.
The chief function of meditation is to help a man go beyond like and dislike, beyond craving and aversion. It is to awaken in him a state of dispassion. Impartial and alert passivity in an individual is
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