LIVING WITH YOUR THOUGHTS

"Carefully watch your Thoughts, for they become your Words.
Manage and watch your Words, for they will become your Actions.
Consider and judge your Actions, for they have become your Habits.
Acknowledge and watch your Habits, for they shall become your Values.
Understand and embrace your Values, for they become your Destiny."

These words spoken by Mahatma Gandhi, one of the world’s greatest statesmen, preeminent leader of non-violent independence movements, founder and father of Modern India, gifted politician and philosopher, have always impressed me as the most exquisite and perfect explanation of the effect of thought in our life and living.

Few people will dispute the fact that the quality and content of our daily thoughts have a direct bearing on our life and on the condition and circumstances of our living. Your thoughts are dictating and influencing your every action, during each waking moment, and even when you are asleep. Each action you perform, every thing you perceive, every plan you develop and every decision you make has its origin in that poorly understood inner world of your thoughts. They are the key to your world and unless you are able the take control of them and direct them, they will surely destroy you, even as they paradoxically act to "protect" you.

From the dawn of civilization, the greatest thinkers and philosophers have wrestled with the problem of understanding and explaining the origin and influence of thought on human behavior. The ancient Chinese schools of thought including Confucianism and Taoism, that flourished 4000 years ago during the period known as the Golden Age of Chinese Philosophy offered many theories but no real answers. So too, during the period of enlightenment of the Ancient Greco-Roman Era led by philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, who are considered to be fathers of modern philosophy, as well as during the subsequent Indian-Persian Era, dominated by the teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism and Zarathustra, man has searched for answers, offered many theories but no conclusions. In fact, our state of knowledge today, despite thousands of years of search and study, has not significantly advanced, and we are still at the point of offering theories, not conclusions.

The power of thought is the master key in creating and maintaining the person who you are. Left uncontrolled, it is driven by a relentless desire to “protect” you at all cost, even when that cost is your self-destruction. Just consider the unfortunate outcome of the severely Obsessive Compulsive patient who is driven by his abnormal thoughts to commit repetitive actions that are useless, non-productive and destructive and which so enslave the victim that they become imprisoned in a world of their own making. Equally, consider the victims of drug and alcohol abuse, in which the over-riding thoughts of self-gratification drive them inexorably into the hell of addiction. Then there are the unfortunate victims of pathological thinking as in Depression and in Schizophrenia which, if not corrected, will lead to frightening conclusions. In all of these instances, the single dominant culprit is the victim’s thought processes which have gone astray and resist correction or control.

To become master of your life, you must learn to control the nature and the content of your thoughts. By doing so you will be able to bring order, make choices and exercise options related to the actual and prevailing circumstances of your life. By controlling instinctive thoughts and replacing them with relevant options, you will in effect, bring order and reality to your living and avoid the destructive influence of negative thinking. By doing so, you will be able to choose your direction, exercise your options and plan and predict your future course based, not on blind impulse, but on considered action. It is important that we understand that the mind, if not controlled, will react automatically in the direction to which it is conditioned and imprinted. Negative thoughts, if not altered, will automatically influence everything you do, or feel, or say and your life will be dominated by this negativity which will then become the standard of behavior.

It is for this reason that Gandhi’s advice is so definitive, as he carefully traces the sequence of events from the initiation of a single thought to the ultimate expression of one’s final destiny. Indeed, I have no doubt that anyone of us, with very little effort, will have no difficulty in recalling examples of this happening in our lives on a daily basis. This is why it is so very important that we take time and effort to teach our children the importance of critical review of thought processes and to avoid, at all cost, the tendency to respond and react impulsively because, “it sounds good”, or “it makes sense”. Napoleon Hill, the great American author and one of the most successful inspirational and self-help pioneers, summarized this most effectively in the following quotation:

“Life is a mirror of your consistent thoughts.”


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Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.
………Blaise Pascal

The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought,
Sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.
…….Buddha

Some men use thought only as authority for their injustice,
And employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.
……Voltaire I have always thought the actions of men,
Are the best interpreters of their thoughts. …….John Locke

One thought fills immensity.
……William Blake

Thoughts are living things.
A thought is as much solid as a piece of stone.
We may cease to be, but our thoughts can never die.

......Sri Swami Sivananda

Thought must be divided against itself,
Before it can come to any knowledge of itself.

…….Aldous Huxley

The greatest weapon against stress,
Is our ability to choose one thought over another.
……William James

Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating;
The mind is like a car battery - it recharges by running.
……..Bill Watterson