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Personality Development

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT   Personality is the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others. Or Personality…

POWER OF THOUGHTS


POWER OF THOUGHTS

The divinity that shapes our ends is in ourselves …. All that a man achieves or fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.
                                              ….James Lane Allen

Let a man strive to purify his thoughts. What a man thinketh, that is he; this is the eternal mystery. Dwelling within his Self with thoughts serene, he will obtain imperishable happiness. Man becomes that of which he thinks.
                                           …… Upanishads

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
                                       …. William Shakespeare

All that a man does outwardly is but the expression and completion of his inward thought. To work effectively, he must think clearly; to act nobly, he must think nobly.
                                      ….. William E. Channing 

Thoughts Are Living Things 

Thoughts are living things. A thought is as much solid as a piece of stone. We may cease to be, but our thoughts can never die.

Every change in thought is accompanied by vibration of its matter (mental). Thought as force needs a special kind of subtle matter in its working.

The stronger the thoughts, the earlier the fructification. Thought is focussed and given a particular direction and, in the degree that thought is thus focussed and given direction, it is effective in the work it is sent out to accomplish.

Conservation of Thought-energy

In physics you have the term ‘power of orientation’. Though the mass of energy is there, the current will not flow. It must be connected to the magnet and then the electric current will flow through the power of orientation. 

Even so, the mental energy which is dissipated and misdirected in various worthless unproductive thoughts should be well directed in proper positive and creative channels. 

Do not store in your brain useless information. Learn to unmind the mind. Unlearn whatever has been of no use to you. Then only can you fill your mind with positive or creative thoughts. You will gain new mental strength as the dissipated mental rays are collected now. 

Thought—Its Power, Workings and Uses

Thought is a vital, living dynamic power—the most vital, subtle and irresistible force existing in the universe.

Through the instrumentality of thought you acquire creative power. Thought passes from one man to another. It influences people; a man of powerful thought can influence readily people of weak thoughts.

Friend and enemy, virtue and vice are in the mind only. Every man creates a world of good and evil, pleasure and pain, out of his own imagination only. Good and evil, pleasure and pain do not proceed from objects. These belong to the attitude of your mind. There is nothing good nor pleasant in this world. Your imagination makes it so.

World—A Projection of Thought

Careful reflection will show that the entire universe is in reality the projection of the human mind—‘Manomatram Jagat’. Purification and control of the mind is the central aim of all Yogas.  Mind in itself is but a record of impressions that keep expressing ceaselessly as impulses and thoughts. The mind is what it does. Thought impels you to action; activity creates fresh impressions in the mind-stuff. 

Yoga strikes at the very root of this vicious circle by a method of effectively inhibiting the functions of the mind. Yoga checks, controls and stops the root function of the mind, i.e., thought. When thought is transcended, intuition functions and Self-knowledge supervenes. 

Thought has the potency of creating or undoing the world in the twinkling of an eye. Mind creates the world according to its own Sankalpa or thought. It is the mind that creates this universe, (Manomatram Jagat; Manahkalpitam Jagat). Through the play of the mind, a Kalpa is reckoned by it as a moment and vice versa. Like a dream generating another dream in it the mind having no visible form generates existent visible. 

Thought-control by Napoleon’s Method : Napoleon controlled his thoughts in this manner: “When I want to think of things more pleasant, I close the cupboards of my mind revealing the more unpleasant things of life, and open up the cupboards containing the more pleasant thoughts. If I want to sleep, I close up all the cupboards of mind!” 

AS A MAN THINKETH

James Lane Allen had long been impressed by the ancient philosophy that a men becomes what he thinks, that a man’s character is the outward expression of his inward thoughts. He had traced it back to the Upanishads, sacred literature of the Hindus : “Man becomes that of which he thinks.” He had found it eloquently expressed in the writing of Buddha : “The mind is everything; what you think you become” …. and in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius : your life is what your thoughts make it.” He had found the same basic idea in the writings of Confucius, Mohammed, Aristotle, Socrates, scores of others. And he knew it, of course, in its most familiar form- as millions did-from the Bible : “ As he thinketh in his heart, so is he”.

All the great teachers of every age had declared this simple truth : that a man’s life and character are the result of his own inmost thoughts and ideals. It was a philosophy as old as civilisation, but ever fresh and new. Surely he had proved the truth of it in his own life, James Allen reflected.  He had been very poor in his youth, had known none of the advantages so many young men count essential. He had started out with nothing to build on except what was within himself. But he had known what he wanted to do and be; he had kept his dream, his ideal, everlastingly before him; he had tried to live the life he imagined- and in the end his dream had become a reality.

As a man thinketh, so is he.

It was a simple, obvious truth, he wondered how anyone could fail to see it. People were forever complaining about things outside themselves, blaming their condition and circumstances on everything but their own thoughts and ideas. Didn’t they realise that they made their own ‘good fortune’ that their lives were the result of their own thinking? Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit- and man is his own gardener.

He became intrigued with this symbolic idea of the mind as a garden, each man cultivating the soil and seed of his own life. It was the same ancient philosophy, of course, but in new dress.

Following are the paragraphs that are most frequently quoted from his book As a Man Thinketh. They reflect the heart of the book, and essence of James Allen’s philosophy.

“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of his thoughts.

As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them… Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry….

A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein and will continue to produce their kind.

Just as the gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and fruits of right, useful and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought forces operate in the shaping of his character and destiny…

Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realises that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself…..

Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.

A man will find that as he alters his thoughts towards things and other people, things and other people alter towards him… Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life.

Men do not attract that which they want, but which they are… The divinity that shapes our ends is in ourselves. It is our very self …. All that a man achieves or fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thought….. A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He remains weak and abject and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts ….

A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralising point of his thoughts …. He should steadily focus his thought forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longing and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.

Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration…..

The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing only the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and chance. Seeing a man grow rich, they say, “how lucky he is” Observing another become intellectual, they exclaim, “How highly favoured he is!” and noting the saintly character and wide influence of another  they remark, “How chance aids him at every turn!”  they do not see the trials and failures and struggles which these men have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience; have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they have put forth, of the faith they have exercised, that they might overcome the apparently insurmountable and realise the vision of their heart. They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; they only see the light and joy, and call it “luck”; do not see the long and arduous journey, but only behold the pleasant goal, and call it “good fortune”; do not understand the process, but only perceive the results and call it “chance”

In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of effort is the measure of the result. Chance is not. ‘Gifts,’ powers, material, intellectual, and spiritual possessions are the fruits of effort; they are thoughts completed, objects accomplished, visions realised.

The vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by. This you will become.” 

1 comments:

  1. Very informative, keep posting such good articles, it really helps to know about things.

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