Engaging with Thoughts

Buddha said, "All that we are is a result of all that we have thought." Our thoughts might not singularly decide our destiny, but they definitely influence our future. That is why we always aspire to nurture productive and positive thoughts in our minds. But mostly this is not the case. Without our willingness, unwanted thoughts enter our minds and echo there to strengthen negative mindsets and weaken the joyfulness of our lives. 

Let us reflect on how to regulate and manage unwanted thoughts. 

What do you do when you are sitting at home, doing some important work and someone knocks at the door? You have a choice of not opening the door but that also can mean missing a potentially good opportunity. The person can also be persistent and may keep knocking at the door, and finally, you will open the door. 

If the visitor is unknown and unimportant to you, you may finish your interaction at the door only and close the door to move on with your important work. Now, if the visitor is a person of importance, you will invite him inside to find out the purpose of the visit. If the purpose is of interest and benefit to you, you may engage with the visitor for a while; but if it is a social visit without any important purpose, you will not engage in deep conversation to keep the engagement short. 

We don't control who knocks at our door, but we have the choice of opening or not opening the door, inviting the visitor into our home or saying bye at the door, and engaging with them in a long conversation or not. 

Similarly, the origin and nature of thought are not fully in our control. But if we are aware of thoughts appearing in our mind and we are consciously evaluating their nature, we have the opportunity to manage them the way we manage visitors knocking at our door.  When a thought crosses your mind, it is important to acknowledge it and evaluate its nature. Then it is up to your wisdom to decide if the thought knocking at your mind's door needs to be entertained further and reflected upon or if you should be saying goodbye to it at the door itself. Some thoughts are also like false friends. They appear important but after evaluating you figure out that they will cause harm in the long run. We should disengage immediately from such thoughts and friends. 

We human beings have been blessed with the power of self-consciousness, introspection, and free choice. We should use this power to allow only positive, progressive, and inspiring thoughts into our mental engagement arena. 

In the coming weeks, when you become aware of a thought knocking at your mind's door, allow only the beneficial ones to enter into your heart. 

Wishing you a joyful life ! 

Handling Difficulties in Life

You might have noticed many times that people including yourself complain: "I didn't have a good day". Often the root cause of this feeling and our other complaints from life is not getting the desired experiences in the course of the day. When our desires are not fulfilled, the unwanted experiences of unfavorable circumstances make us feel as if our lives are joyless and we are unlucky. 

I believe that a happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. I read a thought recently that connected with me well, "We don't get what we desire, we get what we deserve." And to deserve desired results, we have to make an important change in our way of thinking. Instead of living the effects of our unwanted life experiences, we will have to become the cause of the desired experiences. 

Unfortunately, we are often only interested in favorable results and not concerned about required efforts. And the irony is that we only have effort in our control, not the desired result. I invite you to reflect on this thought. Let us not just live with the desire for a happy life, but also put our best effort to become the cause of joyful experiences in life. 

A happy person is one who has the least number of complaints in life. 

Let us light a lamp of positive efforts to drive away the darkness of unwanted experiences from our life.