What we think, we become:Buddha

There was once a holy man, who sat under a tree and taught the people. He drank milk, and ate only fruit, and made endless pranayama's, and felt himself to be very holy. In the same village lived an evil women. Every day the holy man went and warned her, that her wickedness would lead her to hell. The poor women, unable to change her method of life, which was her only means of livelihood, was still much moved by a terrible future depicted by the holy man. She wept and prayed to the lord, begging him to forgive him to forgive her, because she could not help herself.

By and by both the holy man and evil woman died. The angels came and bore her to heaven, while the demon claimed the soul of the holy man. “Why is this!”- he exclaimed: “ have I not lived a most holy life, and preached holiness to everybody? Why should I be taken to hell, while this wicked woman is taken to heaven?” “Because”, -answered the demon:” while she was forced to commit unholy acts, her mind was always fixed on the lord and she sought deliverance, which has now come to her”. “ But you, on the contrary, while you performed only holy acts, had your mind always fixed on the wickedness of others”.

“ You saw only of sin, and thought of sin, so now you have to go to that place where only sin is”. The moral of the story is obvious: the outer life avails little. The heart must be pure and the pure heart sees only good, never evil. We should never try to be guardians of mankind, or to stand on a pedestal as saints, reforming sinners. Let us rather purify ourselves and the result must be, that in so doing we shall help others.

Our entire lives are guided by our minds. The thoughts we allow into our brains every day shape our lives, and determine our future. You may have heard of this idea that we become what we think about from Earl nightingale, we’re going to go into more detail here. So there is a famous American motivational speaker named Earl Nightingale, who has become famous for his speeches and most commonly his quote: ‘We become what we think about’. He basically claims that the thoughts we have actually determine our entire lives.

He claims that every man is the sum total of his thoughts, and that he’s where he is in life because that’s where he really wants to be. This type of responsibility is actually the case for all of us. We can change our lives at any time, but the intention must be there, otherwise nothing will happen. In every moment, you make choices about your life, what you do with your time, where you etc, and these choices are based on your beliefs, and your thoughts. Your thoughts and beliefs contribute to your decisions and behavior, therefore your actions, and therefore your personality and character. We become what we think about all day long.

I came across an article in a spiritual magazine (yes I read those), that the stench of your thoughts depends on what you dump in your brain. If you are thinking about something, then your actions reflect it instinctively. This statement had a profound impact on me. I thought to myself , let me only think about my exams for the next 40 days and nothing else. I did this religiously everyday. From the moment I woke up to the moment I slept, I only thought about my exam, my syllabus, how much I covered, how much there is left. I constantly and consciously thought about it all day long. As I brushed my teeth I revised botany, as I ate my lunch I revised chemistry, I did not want to waste even a minute in my day. I gave my self 2 breaks. 1 hr in the Afternoon and half hour in the evening. I followed the (insane) schedule religiously everyday.

My chemistry lecturer told us in class that 6 hrs of sleep is sufficient for a person, so I slept for only 6 hrs. Being focused was so difficult but since I only thought about my exam and nothing else all day, I stopped looking forward to my lunch break, to sleeping peacefully all night , to gossiping with my buddies, everything else became uninteresting to me. But in the end I managed to study 16 hours a day. I , who was told would not even get into a medical college, graduated with the highest score in that campus. Take that professor. My physics professor was dumbfounded. When I went to meet all my lecturers after my exam, I gave him a very smug and self satisfied smile. He told everyone “he is great,what she achieved in such a short span of time is inconceivable” , and I felt so damn good listening to that.

By the way, it’s difficult to give time to stuff that you don’t think about. Think about your future, think about your goals, think about your dreams, think about your life, maybe not all day like I did back then, but just spare some time everyday. You will notice it becomes easier to do boring things like studying, or exercising. Your thoughts always give way to actions. Think good things and positive things and that translates into your personality. Our thoughts are very powerful. I have experienced it. I became a doctor today by thinking it and believing in it, in my dream. Thoughts have the ability to conquer all your difficulties and insecurities. So try to shape them into a weapon that helps you rather than a trap that binds you. don’t be a Slave to your thoughts, command them and shape your own future. Cheers!