It’s funny how almost three years ago I received a year-long translation on the subject of the power of positive thinking, then lived on an island for the last year where people are constantly bombarding me with the same message, but somehow could not implement it. I’d be going through my daily chores often filled with negative and angry thoughts, such that occasionally I’d have to stop, focus to contain emotional developments of anger, repeat some mantra like “love, peace and happiness”, to slowly subside my anger and bring my emotional state closer to normal. In calm times I would occasionally experiment in repeating a mantra of positive thought, of what I wanted, and to bring happiness and peace to my soul. Recently negative things started to happen to me and a few people I ran into said it was because I did not love myself and hence I was attracting negative energy, and that these things would happen to me as a result. Perhaps out of karma, built up over the years of frequent thought-negativity. Another would talk about raising consciousness, and recently I ran into a therapist who was astounded by his reading of David Hawkins’ Power vs. Force, whereby Hawkins showed/proved scientifically how to raise one’s consciousness, and scientifically even proved the existence of God. Definitely on my immediate reading list. And that when you raise your consciousness it automatically affects people around you, their consciousness being raised as well. Jesus and Buddha are two examples who have raised this to a very high level and hence affected a very broad circle of people. Others speak of raising the body’s frequency. Our bodies are some 85% water, through which a lot of electricity and energy runs, through our nerves and so on. With trained meditation this frequency/energy flow can be manipulated such that we are able to accomplish astounding acts and states of our body. Apparently, if you are able to attain such a high frequency in your body, it creates an environment in which bad bacteria and parasites, which team within our walking ponds, find it very difficult to survive. Hence you need not ever get sick!
Anyway, that is a very large subject to get into, and I am learning these things with increased fascination, but back to my simple revelation today.
Up until now, for most of my life and especially the last decade, my thought patterns might have sounded like the following. I suffered much criticism during my upbringing and my instinctive thought patterns would sound like: “She’s WAY too pretty to approach. She would certainly never go out with someone like me.” Or, “Why am I such a loser? Come on man, get your act together!” I moved to this island a year ago as “the new kid in town”, so with a fresh clean plate. Everything was optimistic and happy. But over the year a poison seemed to creep in, until now I have a problem with a few people and it has been disturbing me increasingly. I believe that one local I used to play with stole my violin. When I confronted him about this he started punching me in the chest, because he was greatly insulted, and because he lost his Asian face. I was told that foreigners could end up dead in the ocean here and the locals or authorities would turn a complete and indifferent blind eye. I began to worry about this, looking back over my shoulder, and filled with thoughts of rage against this person. Contemplating daily on how I would have to react if confronted by him. Others would get drunk and attack me verbally. Sure, they might apologise later, or when I asked them meekly during their assault they would admit I was always nice to them and that I did not deserve such treatment. One person misinterpreted something I wrote to them in an email, wrote back a very venomous and poisonous letter and refused to read any of my responses. She is the type of person who manipulates others to take her side against someone she has a problem with. She tried this with me and because I did not take sides/support her she defriended me, venomous thoughts fermenting within her against me over the summer months, until she exploded in this email. So now, in addition to my lost violin, fear of being stabbed in the back and verbally assaulted by the occasional drunk, I now had a firmly established conspirator, socially active and entrenched on the island, who could go around spewing venomous lies about me and make my social life here an increasingly living hell. I’d no longer be the new kid in town who played a violin but “that a-hole”. I’d go on my daily, soothing walks along the beach filled with these concerns, arguments and conversations with these people running through my head until I’d be filled with angry thoughts and have to contain them again. I suffered such similar thoughts after I had left 6 years ago from a city I had lived in the previous 15 years. There too it was paradise for the first 8 years, but after the dazzle of shift from communism to capitalism had subsided and a large portion of the adventurous lot had either gone back home or moved on to more interesting pastures, there just wasn’t so many interesting things to talk about and the conversation seemed to shift to gossip and slander.
So for years, while I traveled around the world, often the new kid in town and treated with open arms and enthusiasm, the poison of the past would creep into my thoughts and I’d often find myself containing my anger and thoughts of rage. Until yesterday.
A very simple procedure which seems to work miraculously. I got tired of all these dark concerns, which were troubling me and possibly attracting negative events to my life, and came to the conclusion that, whenever a negative thought will surface to my mind, I will simply drown it out with a positive thought, or better yet, a positive image. But what image to choose? So I imagine Jesus up in the sky, arms stretched out and radiating light energy. Rather then bury myself with these petty and dark concerns, I simply imagined something positive and beautiful. Or a beautiful woman, her hair flowing in the wind, smiling blissfully at me. By the time I got back from my stroll along the beach I felt at total peace and like a radiant ball of light. In the evening I went to a jam session, had a few beers, but immediately left when one of the negative persons arrived. I did not want to be exposed to his negative verbal assaults. As I lay sleeping I’d say to myself, “Stop being such a drunken fool.” Now, the principle of positive thinking is that your subconscious mind, which might make up some 90% of your mind (our conscious awareness consumes a small percentage of this), does not understand “not”, “no” or negation in general. If you say, “Don’t be such a stupid idiot” it understands it as “You are such a stupid idiot”, and you go throughout your days with your subconscious thinking this about you, which inevitably filters back into your conscious awareness and it perpetuates this thought about yourself. But if, instead, you say to yourself, “You are a positive and beautiful person,” and so forth, you are reprogramming your subconscious, and this eventually filters back to your awareness and how you perceive yourself. So instead of constantly saying, “I really need to drink less beer. Stop being such a fool,” I started saying, “You are sober and clear-minded, people will enjoy your company.”
Apparently, the power of positive thinking is stronger if, instead of saying, “You will find a beautiful partner and be happy,” you say it like it has already happened, that you are enjoying it, and even stronger if you visualize it. And I must say that today has been a full day of peace without turmoil of thought. I felt at ease in the bar. I felt that, if I had met the local who may have stolen my violin, if he saw how at peace I was, it would melt his anger. I was no longer troubled by the loss of my violin. It was a beautiful marriage for ten years, but now it was simply gone. It was not a concern.
This is just the first day, but I will continue along this path. Any time any negative thought surfaces I will not try to shut it out, because you are giving it focus and energy that way. Like holding up a dam against a wall of water. Your full focus is on that wall of troubles. Instead, I simply focus on something beautiful, on what I want. I imagine that I already have it and am enjoying all the beautiful things I ever wanted. I smile back at the beautiful girl as her hair flows in the wind. I look up at Jesus hovering in the sky, light and love emanating from him in all directions, him smiling with love down at me. I imagine meeting the venomous woman and having a forgiving, healing conversation with her. This is what Jesus meant by offering the other cheek when slapped. Up until now this for me represented a swallowing of my pride and forcefully offering my other cheek. But when I would think how I might react when forcing myself to do so, or to offer my tunic to a thief who just stole my scarf, the struggle of containing my pride would well up rage within me and I could not possible imagine containing myself. But after today, I understood it is not about containing or suppressing my pride but about being filled with such peace and basking in a higher consciousness that these things simply would not concern me. My violin was gone and it did not matter. Some evil, venomous person was assaulting me, but I felt sorry for her. Like Jesus, who hung there on the cross, thorns pierced into his skull, spikes pierced through his wrists, dehydrated, the sores of brutal lashing deep into every muscle of his body, while the guards below chastised him and pierces his flesh with their spears. Any “normal” person would suffer in agony, but Jesus could only look down at them in pity and ask God to forgive them, “for they know not what they do”. He wasn’t trying to be a hero and show us how it’s done, but his response was simply a result of his higher consciousness. And, by imagining this healing conversation with this venomous woman, I felt that her anger was subsiding against me, even though she is presently on the other side of the country (but will return soon). Her upcoming return no longer concerned me and I imagine receiving her with an amicable smile. “Love thy enemy,” so the saying goes. There are reasons for this. If you try to be a good Christian and force these principles on yourself, their fruits will not be as strong. It has to come naturally, from within. As a result of your purified mind and peace of heart. Time will show I guess, but it’s working miraculously so far. And even if it is not affecting these people in some miraculous way, such that our next meeting will be much more positive as a result, just the peace that I have attained in my own heart is well worth it.
beautiful!!!!