Little Deep Thoughts

A good thought has three important applications: 1. It benefits the thinker by improving his mental body. 2. It benefits the person about whom it is entertained. 3. It benefits all mankind by improving the general mental atmosphere. On the contrary, an evil thought has three important disadvantages: 1. It harms the thinker by doing injury to his mental body. 2. It harms the person who is it’s obejct. 3. It harms all mankind by vitiating the whole mental atmosphere. Every evil thought is as a sword drawn on the person to whom it is directed. If you entertain thoughts of hatred, you are really a murderer of that man against whom you foster thoughts of hatred. A mind tenanted by evil thoughts acts as a magnet to attract like thoughts from others and thus intensifies the original evil. Evil thoughts thrown into the mental atmosphere poison receptive mind. To dwell on an evil thought gradually deprives it of its repulsiveness and impels the thinker to perform an action which embo...

The problems we face fall in one of the three areas: direct control (problems involving our own behaviour); indirect control (problems involving other people's behaviour); no control (problems we can do nothing about, such as our past or situational realities). The proactive approach puts the first step in the solution of all three kinds of problems within our present Circle of Influence. Direct control problems are solved by working on our habits. They are obviously within our Circle of Influence. These are the "Private Victories". Indirect control problems are solved by changing our methods of influence. These are the "Public Victories". Most people have only three or four of these methods in their repertoire, starting usually with reasoning, and, if that doesn't work, moving to flight or fight. How liberating it is to accept the idea that I can learn new methods of human influence instead of constantly trying to use old ineffective methods to ...

Because our attitudes and behaviours flow out of our paradigms, if we use our self-awareness to examine them, we can often see in them the nature of our underlying maps. Our language, for example, is a very real indicator of the degree to which we see ourselves as proactive people. The language of reactive people absolves them of responsibility. " That's me. That's just the way I am." I am determined. There's nothing I can do about it. " He makes me so mad !" I'm not responsible. My emotional life is governed by something outside my control.  " I can't do that. I just don't have the time." Something outside me --- limited time --- is controlling me. That language comes from a basic paradigm of determinism. And the whole spirit of it is the transfer of responsibility.  I am not responsible, not able to choose my response.  REACTIVE LANGUAGE PROACTIVE LANGUAGE 1.    There’s nothing I can do. Let’s ...