The Fallacy of Positive Thinking

Many gurus teach that if you think positively, you can have or achieve anything you want. Many books, seminars and programs have been sold to people who want to improve their lot in life, based on this theme.

Positive thinking is necessary. It is the basis of hope. Negative thinking is destructive to one's life.

However, just by thinking positive, and visualizing what you want, you will not achieve your goals. This is cargo-cult thinking and many people get disillusioned after following a positive thinking program and do not achieve any results.

Positive thinking is the first step. One must follow that with knowledge, a rational planning process, and then finally positive action. Incorporated into all of this, is a constant feedback loop to correct minor aberrations to prevent them from becoming large errors that take you off your course.

Positive thinking is not enough. One must follow it with positive action.

If you believe in fate ...

If you believe in fate or astrology or things pre-ordained, your beliefs are wrong.

If all has been decided by destiny, both good deeds and evil deed are predestined. Weal and woe are predestined. Nothing exists that has not been predestined.

Then, all human plans and efforts for improvement and progress would be in vain, and humanity would be without hope.

Three Wrong Viewpoints of Life

There are three wrong viewpoints of Life.

1) Some say that all human experience is based on destiny.

2) Some say that everything is created by God and therefore controlled by the will of God, and we have no choice over God's will.

3) Some say that everything happens by chance without having any cause or condition.

All of these three viewpoints and pseudo-explanations of the human condition are wrong.

Shadows of the Mind

Many, many things of this world, are but shadows of the mind.

It is up to us individually to identify the real true things that are not cultural or mental ephemera, and then use those things in our daily life.

A Whole Body of Delusions

People are always losing the wrong viewpoint. People are always thinking the wrong thoughts.

They cling to their ego. They take the wrong action.

As a result, they grasp and become attached to a whole body of delusions.

Ignorance and False Inventions

The reason that there is ignorance and false inventions to explain the world, is that the human mind rejects with what does not fit into its limited view.

The average human mind doesn't want to know or refuses to accept truths that do not fit into their mental maps.

Greed

If one considers all of the facts, what becomes apparent is that one of the major factors that contributes to human suffering, is greed.

If greed could be mastered in our society, then suffering would be be abated.

Our desires should not be fulfilled at the expense of other human beings.

How To Get Out of an Impossible Situation

This aphorism is for Courage in Daily Living.

If you find yourself in an impossible situation with seemingly no way out, there is still something that you can do.

You can rely on the humanist sympathetic instincts in all of us. You must go and tell someone that you are in a position with no way out. If that person holds the key to your situation, it is even more important that you do so.

For example, if you cannot meet next month's rent, you must go and tell your landlord as soon as it becomes apparent. You must explain all of the factors, and then ask for help.

Most sentient people will react to cries for help if it is in their power to help you. If it is not in their power to help you, then you must find the person who holds the keys.

The worst thing that you can do, is nothing, and wait for your fate. You are the captain of your fate. Do not wait for events to transpire that make your situation more grave. You can lessen the gravity by confronting your fears and dealing with the issues and people involved in your situation.

There is a simple metric here. In this world, if you need help, you must ask for it. It is not a matter of pride. It is not a matter of ego. It is a method of problem-solving.

And if you are a humanist and a Buddhist Bright, if it is in your power to help, you must show compassion and do so. It is as simple as that.

Changes ...

Blossoms come about because of a series of conditions leads up to it. Leaves are blown away because of a series of conditions leads up to it. Blossoms do not appear spontaneously, nor does the leaf fall of itself. Everything has its coming forth and passing away. Nothing can be independent without any change.

It is the everlasting and unchanging rule of this world that everything is created by a series of causes and conditions, and everything disappears by the same rule.

Everything changes. Nothing remains the same without change.

Connectedness

As a net is made up by a series of ties, so everything in this world is connected by a series of ties. If anyone thinks that a mesh of a net is an independent isolated thing, they are mistaken.

It is called a net because it is made up of a series of connected meshes, and each mesh has its place and connections in relations to other meshes.

This is the paradigm of the world that we live in.

Vast Concurrence of Causes and Conditions

Everything in this world is the result of a vast concurrence of causes and conditions. Everything disappears as these causes and conditions change and pass away.

Wind blows. Rain falls. Plants sprout. Leave mature. Flowers bloom. Leaves die and are blown away. These phenomena are interrelated with causes and conditions. They are brought about by these causes and conditions and they disappear as the causes and conditions change.

The progression of the human body follows the same path. It is up to us to maximize our existence under all of these ever varying conditions.

It is Easier to Be Negative

It is easier to be negative rather than positive. It is a fundamental fact of the universe. Negativity is more pervasive. And due to entropy, since things fall apart solely with the advance of time, we tend to observe negative outcomes as the norm most of the time.

It is somewhat satisfying to be negative as well. If we are feeling rotten and discouraged, what right does someone else have to be happy?

When you get right down to altruistic living, we have no right to spread our negativity and unhappiness to others. It isn't a very humanistic thing to do, and it goes against the principle of compassion.

Thinking positively can be hard work, and oftentimes we are too lazy to put the work in. However, putting the work into thinking positive is ultimately worth the effort in personal happiness for us and those around us.

The Closest Thing To Commandments

The closest thing to commandments in Buddhist Bright is this:

Do not quarrel with fellow man or the world.

Do not kill.

Do not steal.

Do not commit adultery.

Do not cheat.

Do not abuse.

Do not flatter.

Do not envy.

Do not lose your temper.

Don't forget how fleeting life is.

The Truth of the Noble Path

For any and every person to be happy in life, they must follow their own Noble Path.

The Noble Path consists of:

• The Right View
• The Right Thought
• The Right Speech
• The Right Behavior
• The Right Livelihood
• The Right Effort
• The Right Mindfulness
• The Right Concentration

This is the Truth of the Noble Path.

Emptiness of Life Experience

The world is like a burning house that is forever being destroyed and rebuilt. People, being confused by the darkness of ignorance, lose their minds in anger, displeasure, jealousy, prejudice and worldly passion. They need a guiding light.

People need a guiding light to fight the decrepitude, suffering and emptiness in the life experience.

With the rapid pace of change in the world, a person needs regular peace, solitude and refuge. Even if it is not possible physically, it is possible mentally. This is necessary to enhance the Life Experience. We must exorcise the delusions and miseries from our own lives to gain a greater fulfillment of our Life Experience.

Karma and Bad Luck Explained

It has been said by sundry wits that it is bad luck to be superstitious. Many people believe that when they endure a series of negative incidences in their lives, that it is as a result of bad luck, or sometimes karma.

Karma is the belief that your deeds shape your past, your present and your future. Some dogmatists of karma believe that if you are having a spate of bad luck, it is your fault.

Now this may be true if for example you committed a crime and now find yourself ostracized and unable to find work. But in this situation, one can connect the dots between cause and effect.

What about when ordinary people suffer a string of reverses that is not their fault, or as a result of their action? They bemoan that fact that God is punishing them for something, or that there an a causal agent that is giving them a string of bad luck.

In a world with a naturalistic, non-mystical viewpoint, we must consider the "sum of all histories and probabilities" explanation.

Life on earth is chaotic. When you add the chaos of many individuals operating in society, the amount of deterministic events that go into any particular outcome is absolutely huge. There are more factors in every day living than we ever imagine. For example, by going to the grocery store, we never imagine that as we cross an intersection, a driver becomes distracted by any number of causes and runs into us. Our day is ruined, and we think that we somehow brought this bad luck upon ourselves. In fact, when one examines this in the cold hard light of reason, it is very much like a butterfly flapping its wings in Beijing, ultimately causes rain in New York City.

So we must rid ourselves of thoughts of superstition. Luck is a convenient way of ascribing attributes to outcomes. If the outcomes are pleasing to us, it is good luck, and if they are not, it is bad luck. There is no higher element that sits in judgment of us and punishes us because we contravened some universal code of conduct. Stuff happens. How we react to it, determines whether it is beneficial or not to us.

The Qualities of Buddhist Bright

This short expositor is like an apple peeler. It takes you to the core.

Here are qualities of Buddhist Bright:

1. The progression Buddhism Bright starts with moral principles, progresses to concentration and ends with wisdom and life significance.

2. Buddhism Bright shows immediate results here and now, for which there is no need to wait until the future or next existence.

3. Buddhist Bright welcomes all beings to put it to the test and come see for themselves. There is no esoterica to memorize or rites or rituals to follow. Your development is in your hands.

4. Anyone can accept the Buddhist Bright way. There is no penalty for not accepting it, and the level of acceptance is open the individual. It is altruistic, intelligent and compassionate, and therefore worthy to be followed as a part of one's life.

5. The concept of Buddhist Bright does not require years of learning. The teachings are not guarded by a noble few who dispense it upon achieving a worthy state or some sort of state of maturity.

6. Knowing these attributes, Buddhist Brights believe that they will attain the greatest peace and happiness through its usage in daily life. Each person is therefore fully responsible for himself to put it in the real practice. There is no penalty for not doing it, and the reward for doing it, is a calmer, more serene life with a greater probability of more happiness.

Fairy Tales of the Universe

As the stars of the heavens are reflected in the calm sea, so are people's thoughts, feelings and circumstances are reflected throughout the sea of humanity.

Many of the minds in that sea of humanity are arid and suffering. It is up to us seeking enlightenment to succor those people who need it and want it.

Most of humanity sees the world as incomprehensible. It is so incredibly complex, that they invent simplistic stories or fairy tales of the universe to try and understand the world. If the simple explanations are appealing enough to the human psyche, then those stories gain traction. Eventually they become a belief system, and that belief system embeds itself into the governance of peoples.

Any system of governance should be free of dogmatism.

In the sea of humanity, no matter how comforting they are, any false explanations, ideas and doctrines should be rooted out, and the truth shall shine bright and free. Humanity will be better for it. Fairy tales of the universe should not be used to govern the days of our lives.

Metaphor for Trouble and Strife in Life

A river is stirred up by the tramping of horses and elephants and disturbed by the movement of fish and turtles; but the river flows on pure and undisturbed.

Despite the posts of roil and chaos, the river recovers.

This is an apt metaphor for life.

If you are experiencing trouble and strife in your life, the first thing that you must do is de-stress.

Since change is absolute in this life, you must first relax before you can deal with the agents that are causing you trouble and strife. You must have a calm frame of mind. Meditation is a great help. You have to quiet the mind, to stop the racing of anxious thoughts.

Once you have set aside the anxious thoughts whirling dervish, you can begin to see the path back to an even keel and serenity.

First Steps To Happiness

The first steps to happiness is to express the cornerstone of Buddhist Bright, compassion to other people.

When you express caring for people, you are actually feeding the social emotions in yourself.

Oftentimes our heads are violent seas of emotion, and the way to still the waters, is to care for someone else. Caring and touching other people releases oxytocin and other endorphins that benefit us. By helping others, we help ourselves.

Serenity and calmness are prized things in our lives, and we can gain some serenity and calmness in ourselves by caring for others. Serenity is a major milestone on the road to happiness.

We Shall ...

• We shall engage in hard work, realizing that laziness breeds unhappiness and weak minds.

• We shall extend and display respect to all others which reflects our own appreciation of humanity. We shall carry our pride quietly, neither boasting of ourselves nor speaking badly of others - often a dishonest method of self-praise. Yet we must be unashamed of our principles and honest in our criticisms.

• We shall try to avoid conflict and cooperate with those who do not understand us and whom we do not understand; yet, we shall speak our truth openly and stand firm in our own beliefs and right to assert our identity.

• We shall be patient, enduring the pains of injustice but never surrendering to or joining such injustice.

• We shall respect and engage in humor, the helper to love and affection, the positive expression of humanity.

(this code of conduct perfectly describes what Buddhist Bright strives for. It was excerpted from the Hawaiian Code of Conduct for Hawaii's sovereignty movement)

Buddhist Bright Virtues

The Buddhist Bright virtues are:

1. Superior Conduct
2. Superior Point of View
3. Wisdom
4. Compassion

In addition, by the practice of meditation, reflection, introspection and analysis, one attains a calm, peaceful spirit, radiant with compassion, happiness, and even equanimity.

It is a really a simple formula.

When The Moon Hits Your Eye

When the moon sets, people say that the moon has disappeared, and when the moon rises, they say that it has appeared.

The fact is that the moon neither comes nor goes, but it is always in its place in the heavens. It keeps it orbit around the earth constantly.

The truth about the universe is like the moon. It can have many false explanations. The false explanations can be trivial or ridiculous. They describe some of the observable phenomena but do not detail the truth.

We must be on guard for the false explanations of the true nature of things, including the moon.

The Most Powerful Words in the World

The most powerful words in the world are somewhat glossed over in ancient Buddhism. Not so in Buddhism Bright.

Ancient Buddhism teaches that things of the world are insignificant on the path to enlightenment. Buddhism Bright teaches that adding significance to our lives in the here and now with altruism, compassion and wisdom is paramount.

The most powerful words in the world are "I Love You". Love is altruism that transcends our animal natures. In a dog-eat-dog world where survival is paramount, there is no room for altruistic love. Yet we are capable of it, and it lifts us onto a higher plane of living with a richer, more significant life.

However, it is a double-edged sword. If the words are said carelessly, foolishly or with cunning meant to deceive, they can cause anguish, suffering and are an instrument of evil.

The true nature of this world is that evil requires much less energy than good. Love proffered in falseness is evil. It hurts other people gravely because it creates a vulnerability that goes to the core of their being. And that is why they are the most powerful words in the world as well.

The True Nature of The World

The world we live in, is filled with injustice, and false standards. It is a world struggling with insatiable desires and discomforts. There is suffering everywhere.

We as humans live in societies, but our societies are bound by culture and a culture that doesn't help societies unlike us. If it did, there would be no poverty, and there would be an equal distribution of advancement and enlightenment in the world. There would be no dictators and oppressed people.

The nirvana described above will never be reached. Utopia is impossible because of the duality of human nature. We are both beasts and enlightened beings all rolled into one. The base or animal desires are inbred and very strong, and are covered by a very thin veneer of civilization.

Advancement and enlightenment consists of building a stronger veneer of civilization individually and collectively. We must strive for altruistic things, because we have the capability to do so. It is a cornerstone of Buddhism Bright.

Appearances - Things are never as they seem

Appearances can be deceiving.

Things aren't always what they seem.

Something can look menacing, but turn out the opposite. We have all had the experience of an apparent menacing dog vociferously barking at us, and when it approaches it wags its tail in welcome.

What appears to be good for us, may be doing us more harm.

What appears to be a total negative, may be a necessary step for us to move on. You always have to blow up the familiar things that are not serving us any more, to re-build something better suited.

Don't make snap judgments, because things are never as they seem. Appearances can be deceiving.

How To Endure Tough Times

The Buddhist Bright keystones of Compassion and Wisdom also provides a key to enduring tough times for yourself.

You must be compassionate to yourself, and you must use wisdom to endure and triumph over tough times.

Enduring tough times requires both a physical and a mental component.

During tough times, we tend to think constantly about the quandary that we are in. We worry and get anxious. These thoughts are natural, however they are counter-productive for the most part. We must find peace, and a very useful way of finding peace, is through meditation.

There are other ways to peace of mind. Music that moves us will calm anxieties. Holding another person releases endorphins. Do the things that move you. Pushing out the anxious thoughts requires effort, but it clears the deck for the physical actions that we must take to endure the tough times.

There are two physical elements to enduring tough times. The first is physicality for the body. The quickest way to relieve anxious thoughts, is to exercise. We must physically exercise to the best of our abilities on a regular basis.

The second aspect of physically enduring tough times, is to keep doing the things we must do. If the journey is long, we must keep putting one foot in front of the other. We must take care of ourselves, and we must do the things that will take us out of the the tough times, even though we are not seeing results right away. This is important.

The thing to remember, is that change is constant in the universe, and tough times do not last. The forces of change in the universe will bring a change in circumstances if we follow the above and keep moving.

There is one thing that we can control in tough times, and that is the way that we think about them. A tree in the forest for example, doesn't grow because it is always nice and the conditions are ideal. It grows through the interaction of hot and cold, drought and rain, night and day, and winter and summer. So too, our lives are intertwined with some pavilions that we live under, that are not so pleasant. But when we help ourselves, not only do we endure, but we triumph. After all, we are remarkable beings.

Peace.

How To Add Significance To Your Existence

It is incumbent upon us to add significance to our lives. If we do not, we are like a lighthouse far inland where no ships can see us. Our light is hidden from others.

The major tenets of Buddhism Bright are Wisdom and Compassion bound by Truth.

Compassion implies that we are social beings and must operate together as a society for the benefit of all.

Therefore, to add significance to your life, you must express compassion, and positively affect the lives of other people. We must do good. We must help others. We must comfort and succor the people that we love, and indeed all people.

It can be done in very simple ways. A laugh, a touch, a smile, and a kind word go a long way.

When we positively affect the lives of others, we add significance to our existence.