Should I Ignore Nice Thoughts? | Eckhart Tolle

A positive thought is much less likely to become obsessive, some that you can't get rid of than a negative thought. Well, the first thing I think that would, anybody would probably say it's more pleasant to have nice thoughts than negative thoughts. It feels better. Certainly the body likes it more too, because negative thoughts, the negative thoughts influence the body in some way, obstructing the energy flow. You can test it out for yourself. When you feel stressed or got into repetitive negative thoughts, then your body doesn't like it, it reacts. Even mainstream medicine is discovering there is a link between. Well, some still say no, but there is a link between your predominant state of mind or consciousness and the physical functioning. Not that. Now you may also find that negative thoughts proliferate and multiply much more readily than positive thoughts. A negative thought wants to proliferate and it wants, and it wants to produce more negative thoughts. So. And then you may find a positive thought is quite happy to stand alone. There isn't the, the pull towards proliferation of more more of itself. A positive thought is much less likely to become obsessive, some that you can't get rid of than a negative thought. So when you are trapped in the mind, it's very rare if ever happens that you are trapped in obsessive good thoughts. You are usually trapped in obsessive negative thoughts because that is what negative thoughts love to do. They love to take you over. They want to for some reason. They are like certain insects that suddenly reproduce and become from one you get. They give birth to 50 and the 50 give birth to another 50 and suddenly you have millions and billions of them. And so the difference, fundamental difference then is a negative thought is actually first of all makes you feel better. It's easier to experience that which follows the thought because often after negative thought you just experience the reality of what the thought just pointed to. Life is beautiful. The person here mentions as an example of a, of a positive thought, life is beautiful. What's wrong with that thought? Because after that thought you're actually going to have, have a certain experience of life being beautiful. So the thought was no more than a pointer, a signpost. And that's perfectly fine. You use thought as a pointer. It does not absorb all your attention as a thought. It's quite happy to be just a pointer. Life is beautiful. And then perhaps for the next few minutes you appreciate everything that is around you and it becomes a true experience. So as a pointer, it can work beautifully and the negative one is just one. And after another after another it becomes obsessive. So but even if you change all your thinking from negative to positive, the most vital thing is to realize that which is beyond all thought, positive thought in itself is not yet liberating. It doesn't liberate. You can be nice, but it doesn't liberate you. Only to find the place that is beyond all thought liberates you. Now, does that free you from negative thoughts? Yes. After a while, the negative thoughts need your identification, which means your unconsciousness in order to proliferate continuously in your life. It's only if you identified with them, you give them your total attention. In fact, it's not only that you become them. They come out of your mouth when you speak. They're in your thoughts, they take you over, they possess you, you become them. And that's how they continue to grow and grow and take over your life. And it can happen. Some thoughts or thought patterns have the same function in the human mind, in many cases as a virus has in the body. A virus can proliferate and takes over the body. And so there are many mental viruses that people get taken over by and can't get rid of. Sometimes you have that virus your whole lifetime. Persistent, deep seated negative thoughts that occupy either your entire mind or a particular section of your mind. And sometimes the virus that can take over can take over collectively. An entire collective entity of human beings, be it a nation or a tribe or a religion or a section within a religion. It can be a political movement that suddenly has all the answers and knows who, where the enemies are. It happened when National Socialism in Germany was an infection of a collective mental virus, Soviet Communism, which started of course with good intentions. But of course there had been absolutely no change in consciousness. So good intentions are not enough unless there's a shift in consciousness. Good intentions will lead you to more suffering if there's no shift in consciousness. So Soviet communism became an awful thing and it took over as again a collective mental virus. China under Mao Zedong. A collective mental virus. Millions and millions died in China, in Soviet Commission, obviously Nazi Germany. Millions and millions in under Mao Zedong. Children would denounce their parents if the child was unhappy with their parents. They would talk to somebody at school and say, my parents are saying this and that. The next day they would be taken away to a labor camp and never be seen again. Total insanity. So a collective flowers were declared illegal. They had to tear out all the flowers. Bourgeois infection. We don't want flowers. And many countless things being taken over by a mental. An entire nation being taken over by A mental obsessed with certain mind forms and then it passes. It doesn't lasted can last a couple of decades. In Soviet communism lasted fairly long national socialism, the 1000 year rise lasted can't Donald 15 years or something. So it runs its course and then like a virus infection a while the virus disappears it's and a semblance of sanity returns. Certainly sanity compared to what was there before. There's still. There's still the normal insanity that's part of the normal state of consciousness, but not the extreme unconsciousness that can take over when thought form becomes a virus. And of course it happens to individuals they have then they interpret the world through their mental virus. You might have certain ideas. If you go on the Internet too much, you might see things that suddenly put the trans. The virus infection can happen by looking up certain things on the Internet. And you suddenly believe totally in what this. It could be a total fantasy, but it looks so convincing that becomes a thought form in your mind and then from there it grows. And after that you only have contact with those people who are also infected by that thought form. And you think that becomes a new reality. That is the case with many conspiracy theories. No, I'm not saying that 1 out of 10, 20 or 50 conspiracy theories may not be correct. It could be, but many of them are fictitious constructs. But of course the world is pretty insane. So it's probably more insane than you realize. And that includes particularly politicians and political power play and so on. So I'm not denying all that absolute. There is no conspiracy. There are quite mad things happening that we don't know about. And yet I wouldn't go that way. Even if it's true, don't get drawn into that. Your job is to be present. Your job is to embody a different state of consciousness. You cannot fight unconsciousness on its own level. You have to rise above unconsciousness. So good thoughts, yes, good thoughts are preferable to bad thoughts. But then go beyond thought also. And then negative thoughts will lesson in your life. Even if you have been around for a long time, as more presence arises, good thoughts can arise naturally. And a lot of your consciousness is no longer dependent on what thoughts you have. There's just more presence. And you appreciate life through presence. Rather than trying to convince yourself that you should appreciate life, you appreciate life directly. Gratefulness is another important thing. Gratitude is of course wonderful. A very transformative gratitude implies a deep appreciation of what you are perceiving around you. Whether or not you have the thought in your mind that accompanies that that says thank you. It's secondary. And after a while you don't need thank you anymore. But when you first practice gratitude, thankful can be helpful. When you say something beautiful. Thank you for things that otherwise you wouldn't even acknowledge. Thank you for how this, the light reflects off this table. Thank you for this shiny clock. I know it's not real gold, but it shines beautifully. Thank you for this amazing substance that we call water. Got these little tiny bubbles in it and here it is. I can look at it, drink it, it's alive, it's an amazing thing. And you can appreciate it. It's. It's filled with light, life giving substance. Why not appreciate it so, and whether or not you say thank you, it's up to you. It's thank you is not the main. The main thing is the, the act of giving it attention. That again is perceiving it through presence. And then everything is something to be valued that's around you. So you go, that's wonderful spiritual practice. And of course for a while it's a spiritual practice. Then it becomes second nature that it's how you live. So there is some association with certain thoughts, yes, expressing gratitude, but it's not the main thing. The thoughts are more like pointers towards that which is beyond thought. But in many people's lives, the beginning of spiritual practice and realization is that they suddenly realize how much they've been trapped in negative thinking over past years and they suddenly wake up to their own thought processes, whereas before they were trapped in their own thought processes. That's the beginning of spiritual awakening. If you realize what kind of thought processes have been predominant in, in your life over the past few years, on every day through which you interpret other people, the world, yourself, your life, and so on. And that's an amazing jump because it implies suddenly awareness or presence has emerged. It.