We live in the age of ‘busy’. Busy people not only do a lot, they also think a lot. Being lost in thought, thinking constantly about things that have to be done, or could have been done, judging what others did wrong, judging the self for what could have been, is not only tiring but also a brilliant way to waste energy.
Our mind, our ‘inner factory’, creates around 40,000 – 50,000 thoughts a day. Our life is a long assembly line of thoughts, patterns of thinking that have the potential to become reality through what we may say or do. As owners of this inner factory, we need to ensure every thought is useful. Just as a farmer checks the quality of seeds before sowing them, we need to first check the seeds of our thoughts before they come into sound and action. In other words, we need to take ownership of our thought factory. It is through the quality of our thoughts that we attain success, and high-quality and positive thoughts lead to a character of integrity, and it is this that brings fulfillment, not the skills and talents we may have acquired along the way, though of course those are useful tools.
Our every thought impacts our emotions; thoughts about our health affect every cell of our body; whatever thoughts we have about our relationships, reach the person we are thinking about; and the environment is affected by our thought vibrations that radiate out to nature. We can observe our thoughts for a minute every hour and classify them into four categories:
Positive thoughts – thoughts of peace, love, happiness, and acceptance.
Negative thoughts – are of ego, hurt, anger, hatred, or jealousy. Anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind, and it represses our love and tolerance.
Necessary thoughts – relate to daily activities. Thoughts of those things that need to be attended to but without the emotions of worry, irritation, fear, or anxiety.
Waste thoughts – about the past, future or other people deplete our peace and power. The past has a ‘filing cabinet’ which contains the dead weight of learned beliefs and all our mistakes. Saying farewell to the past is the sign of a human ‘being’ who lives for today and is alive to the possibilities of ‘the moment’, while fully aware that all they think, say, and do right now creates tomorrow.
To start to ‘be’ and not just ‘do’, we need to learn how to slow down the mind and charge the battery of the soul. When we practise meditation, we learn to inculcate new ways of thinking in our subconscious mind. When we study spiritual knowledge, we are able to create pure thoughts. A ‘human being’ first creates positive, pure thoughts and feelings within the mind that are transmitted through attitude and subtly reflected in the eyes and smile. Good wishes and pure feelings for others are like ointments that heal wounds, re-establish friendships and relationships, and create peace and prosperity.
Chirya Yvonne Risely is a Rajyoga meditation teacher, based at the Brahma Kumaris Peace Village Retreat Center, USA