Beyond Positive Thinking

I was looking for something nice to read, something that would make my brain cells active and pumping again... So Googled a bit for some 'self-analysis' type books, and came across a nice title "Beyond Positive Thinking". It sounded interesting enough, and I was eager to read that book after getting it thru OhioLink.

Well, to start off, its a crappy book. Most of you won't probably even read it beyond the first few pages. For a book with such an interesting title, I expected it to be something logical, interesting, factual, and thought provoking. (another book that I am reading, called 'Three Boxes of Life, And How To Get Out Of Them' by richard Bolle, is a very interesting book though). On the controrary, it felt as if I was watching the "Miracle Network" channel, one we used to get through the cable TV network in India, where a guy would go on and on preaching about Jesus. The author, John Baughman is actually a spiritual healer (which I learnt once half through the book already) and it didnt surprise me at all.

However, the book was thought provoking for sure. It said simple things in simple words. The book says that everything you do in life should be thought of with a neutral perspective. At every point in life, you should have a clear vision of a task, and you should perform it the way Jesus would like it performed. It is your duty to put yourself in a position to know what Jesus wants you to do and you should prepare yourself to complete that specific task. It's got nothing to do with your skills as you are just performing your duty. If you follow this, you can achieve anything in life. In other words, you are the messenger of the God, and you just have to do your duties.

Well, I didnt agree to the "Jesus" part of the arguement. I am an atheist. Mr. Baughman claims that he has healed cancers and tumors with his 'therapy'. I don't agree to this claim either. I firmly believe in science, and science does not believe in God. Its simple. (More on that later).

But his idea of thinking as a third person made me think a lot. And I tried to implement that a couple of times, and it worked for me!!

Very often, we are not able to complete a task with perfection, somehow it doesn't happen. We sometimes don't know HOW to deal with the situation, either getting confused or misguided or helpless. We come at a point where we don't know how to tackle the situation, and we falter. Many a times, it happens because we involve ourselves too much in that situation, either trying to get something out of everything we do or trying to make it too perfect. In either case, we are well below our best.

The concept of cultivating yourself as a third person is pretty interesting, and it makes your life so easy. At every point, you simply have to do only three things: 1: See WHAT is to be done , 2: know HOW it is to be done. and 3: DO it. Your job ends here. You are not emotionally attached to anything you do, and hence there is no scope of you thinking negatively in this case. Potentially, this can be applied to anything in life, and that means that you can do anything is life, IF you know your steps 1, 2, and 3.

It actually becomes a very analytical situation. Every task you perform every day, has to have some cause. Every decision you take in your life, has to have a reason. Every day you live, has to have a purpose. What is this cause, this reason, this purpose... we don't know about it... but we don't need to know about it either. We just have to do it.

In short, be a clerk, or a typist. Do your job, don't think much about it.

For once, I found it pretty interesting.

This thing reminds me of one fact that I read somewhere long back. If you put a newborn baby in a bath tub, he will start swimming because he doesn't have the fear of drowning as he doesn't know how to think negatively. Its an interesting enough fact, and there is lots to be learnt from it.

I would like to see my own kid doing it one day, provided:

3: my wife permits me to do this
2: I have my own kid
1: I get a girl who's willing to marry me.
0: I get a girl