Book Title: Family and Nation Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya, A P J Abdulkalam Publisher: Harper Publications IndiaPage 61
________________ THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS AND PAIN 47 This brings us to a most important factor in the situation, namely, the creative power of thought. This power is the most fundamental and potent factor in human life. The saying, Thoughts are things, is startlingly true. Every time we think a thought, we are making a thought form which may become a living force. It floats in our sensations and becomes a part of our mental atmosphere, a part of our very life. The next step in the activity of creative thought is that it clothes itself in the substance of desire and emotion. This step has two effects: first, it may lead to corresponding action; second, thought forms not calling for immediate action may be stored in the memory as patterns for future use. We have access to them at any time; thus they may eventually appear as physical realities in our environment, making it good or bad according to our thoughts. Therefore, if we wish to change our environment and our fortune, we must change our thoughts. By so doing, we will be making a new and good destiny. The destructive desires and emotions such as anger, hate, revenge and resentment—but particularly anger-disrupt and disarrange the thought forms and the thought creations of good which we have previously made, and thereby delay their materialization. When we have yielded to anger or revenge, for instance, and dissipated some mental creation of good, the corresponding thought form configuration has to reassemble itself before materialization can proceed. This takes time and delays the period of a favourable change in our environment or general fortune. How can one avoid harmful thoughts and desires and keep them out of one's mind? It seems almost impossible at times to keep them from slipping in. The answer is, thought substitution. It is based on the principle that two thoughts cannot occupy the mind at the same time, and is similar Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.orgPage Navigation
1 ... 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232