2012-06-28

Positive Attitude vs Life Problems

  • How do we see the world around us?
  • Does it pose too many threatening aspects that we are constantly reacting to?
  • Do we think that if we look at things with a positive attitude then our life
    will improve for us?
  • What do we mean by a POSITIVE ATTITUDE?
  • Can our mind somehow become a positively oriented instrument?
  • There can be numerous questions in the realm of POSITIVITY versus NEGATIVITY.
    What do we really understand about all this?
  • Have we been taking other people's ("AUTHORITY'S") opinions on POSITVE THINKING?
  • A better understanding of this subject could have far-reaching effects in how we understand and perceive our experience of life.
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The emphasis on POSITIVE & and POSITIVITY is a fad
that has been going on for at least 50 years
and more so in the last 25 years.

Of course it is always much pleasanter experiencing in the
limelight of POSITIVITY. But things change, and one's view
of what works in a 'positive sense' can always change to a
negative.

For example sugar is nice and pleasant to sweeten up some
favourite food. This may put one in a positive state.
However, too much sugar and the effects may be quite
negative.

So, the very same thing can be positive at one time and
negative at another time, or positive in one circumstance
but quite negative in another.

To a golfer rain is not a very positive circumstance for a planned
one day golf outing. However, that very same rain may be a
blessing to the farmer who is waiting to market a healthy, income
producing crop of corn. So again, the same thing -rain- can be
positive or negative, depending on the circumstance.

When we rely on the dualistic nature of things in our life experience
to fulfill us, or to make us happy then we are never certain what the
next experience will bring.

Our mind and emotions are dualistic in nature. We react in such a
way as to shy away from that which discomforts us and towards that
which gives us pleasure. The dualistic nature of the mind and emotions
is constantly juggling with good-bad, nice-ugly, rich-poor, positive-negative
and so on.

Therefore, it is not a positive attitude that will make you happy, or bring
you peace in your life experience - because, as we have seen, the direct
opposite can quickly manifest and confront us just when we are least
expecting it, or our positive may really peeve the person we meet if for
that person our positive is seen as a negative.

In actuality POSITIVE THINKING is an illusion the mind creates for itself to
feel some comfort - but actually isolates it from interaction with the rest
of the world.

The mind by its very nature is, in the main, a reactive instrument. If we
put ourselves in the position of a detached 'witness' of events going on
around us then we reserve judgement when it is unnecessary and attain
a much more peaceful attitude in our life experience. There will always be
so-called POSITIVE & NEGATIVE things/thoughts presenting themselves to
our awareness, and addressing from only a positive attitude, which may seem
productive at first, will eventually succumb to the mounting 'negative' aspects
that we tried to overcome by the positive attitude.
We unconsciously judge these negative attitudes to be wrong or unpleasant
or as "this shouldn't be" and so on.

The attitude of equanimity, frees one from the entanglement of the
opposites in the experiencing of the dualistic nature of manifested life.

As the enlightened teacher Ramesh Balsekar explained it:
There are two kinds of mind manifesting in our life experience.
The "thinking mind" and the "working mind".

The "working mind" is the one that does not get INVOLVED in all the "dramas"
of life experience that bring suffering (mainly on the psychological level). The
"working mind" is the mind that attends to the business of survival, and
truly meaningful accomplishments.

The "thinking mind" on the other hand, is the source of all of humanitiy's
problems. It is the reactive mind, the mind that takes offense, the mind
that can feel insulted or unloved, the mind that constantly seeks perfection
but invites more suffering by doing so. It is the personal mind, the
possessive mind and so on, and so on, and so on.

Creativity can be sourced through the working mind but never through the
thinking mind which has a reactive character. The world of cause and
effect is the occupation of the thinking mind.

Take this as you will.