Become what you think

VITHAL C NADKARNI 

    GEORGE Bernard Shaw said the world has two kinds of people. First category are those who blame their circumstances for what they are. Second are folks who get on in this world, people who don't believe in circumstances. If these fellows get into circumstances they don't like, they get out of ‘em and begin to look for the circumstances they want. If they can't find them they make the circumstances of their choice. 
    In hindsight, this seems pretty self-evident. But everyone who has fought with circumstances and wrestled to them to kneel to his or her knees tends to believe that they are the first to have stumbled upon the well-concealed secret — that we can become what we think about. Conversely, the person who wobbles along without a goal, without a clue about mastering the thoughts of anxiety and fear assailing his senses, how does he fare? If he thinks of nothing, does he reap nothing? How does it work? How does the quality of our thinking have such a powerful effect on our lives? 
    Sages have used the allegory of the seed to explain the phenomenon. “Sweet is the fruit of pure seed,” says the mystic poet Sri Jnandev. So by corollary if one plants impure seeds or thoughts, impure are the tangles of thought-forests that will spring from the loam of their mind. So in practical terms, the mystic master is comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant. 
    So? Be grateful for even small mercies. Try to keep away from toxic thoughts. For there is a growing body of evidence to show that people who regularly experience grateful thoughts or deliberately cultivate positive attitudes reap numerous benefits. Such individuals have closer and more life-giving relationships with those they love, and have fewer bouts of depression, writes psychologist John Buri in How to love your wife. They also heal faster when they are sick or hurt and tend to live longer and healthier. 
    What's more, they repeatedly experience success in school, sports and work that exceeds their natural abilities. One can harness all this through the Buddhist practice of Metta, also called meditation on loving-kindness to calm down a distraught mind that serves as an antidote to anger. Try it the next time your boss shouts or when the significant other fumes at you. Home Shanti.

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