Namo tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammâ Sambuddhassa!
Buddhist Positive Thinking
By Rasika Wijayaratne
There is a general belief that Buddhism is a very negative religion. Such untruths only get perpetuated when there is a lack of understanding of what Buddhism is really about. Millions of Buddhists around the world have lived and continue to live very positive lives based on positive actions, the basis for which is the positive thinking that Buddhism promotes. Positive thinking from a Buddhist perspective is thinking based on reality that avoids self-deception and self-delusion. We could lull our-selves into a false sense of security by looking away from the harsh realities of life (see the Four Noble Truths), or we can choose to face it head on without fear and deal with it effectively, which is what Buddhism allows us to do.
What are positive thoughts? Any thoughts that decrease lôbha (desire), decrease dôsa (anger) and decrease môha (delusion, incorrectly thinking that right is wrong and wrong is right) are positive thoughts. Inversely any thoughts that increase our lôbha (desire), dôsa (anger) and môha (delusion) are negative thoughts. When we practice dâna (giving) for example we decrease our desire (lôbha); when we perform acts of kindness or develop the metta meditation we decrease our anger (dôsa) and performing any good deed such as giving and being kind increases our wisdom (pañña) the opposite of delusion (môha). It requires positive thinking to even contemplate doing positive actions like this and when we are performing such actions our mind are driven and filled with positive thoughts.
Our state of mind reflects the lives that we lead, positive lives reflect positive minds and negative lives reflect negative minds.1 Lives lived with positive mental, verbal and physical actions including the ten kinds of meritorious deeds (kusala) namely; 1. generosity (dâna) 2. morality (sîla) 3. meditation (bhâvana) 4. reverence 5. self-less service 6. “transference” of merit (no actual transference, this is a simplification) 7. rejoicing in others' merit 8. listening to the Dhamma (Teaching) 9. teaching the Dhamma and 10. correcting one's wrong views, would yield positive and happy minds. In reality however we all have negatives in our lives, most of them caused by our past (present and previous lives') unskilful actions, which give rise to negative thoughts, but it is important to deal with them effectively.
There is little point in performing many positive actions but then dwelling on the negative thoughts that come to our minds. It can require a lot of effort on our parts to firstly stop thinking negatively and then to start thinking positively instead. The Lord Buddha actually broke this process down into four steps. He advised us to stop new yet un-arisen negative thoughts from arising, to remove the negative thoughts that had already arisen, to cultivate yet more new positive thoughts that had not yet arisen and to enhance the existing positive thoughts that had already arisen in our minds. This is described in good detail in the sixth step (Samma-Vayâmo or Right Effort) of the Noble Eightfold Path, the path that leads to Nibbâna (end of all dukkha or unsatisfactoriness).
A person who leads a very positive life also has a very positive state of mind. If we could fill our entire day with good mental (e.g. wishing others well), verbal (e.g. speaking to people kindly) and physical (e.g. helping others without expecting anything in return) deeds and then also reflect on them constantly then we could be very happy. It is important to not dwell on negative thoughts to the point that they cause us to become unhappy. The Lord Buddha taught us how to abandon negative thoughts and develop positive thoughts in the Noble Eightfold Path and it is up to us tread this path towards Nibbâna. Avoiding negative thinking and thinking positively can require a lot of effort and training on our parts, but the result would be happier minds and happier lives. A positive1 mind is a pure mind.
1. This article refers to negative thoughts as thoughts based on greed (lôbha), hatred (dôsa) and delusion (môha) and positive thoughts as thoughts based on lack of greed (alôbha), lack of hatred (adôsa) and lack of delusion (amôha). In fact most negative thoughts according to “conventional thinking” including fears, phobias, doubts, etc if closely analysed can be seen to have their roots in greed (lôbha), hatred (dôsa) and delusion (môha); whereas our sources of happiness can be found to be grounded in lack of greed (renunciation or nekkhamma), lack of hatred (loving-kindness or mettâ) and lack of delusion (wisdom or pañña).
1. Daily Dâna by Rasika Wijayaratne (on generosity) [ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=dailydana ]
2. Five Precepts by Rasika Wijayaratne (on morality) [ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=pansil ]
3. Metta Meditation by Rasika Wijayaratne (basic instructions on the meditation on loving-kindness)
[ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=mettamed ]
4. Reverence by Rasika Wijayaratne (on being respectful) [ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=reverance ]
5. Motives by Rasika Wijayaratne (a commentary) [ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=motives ]
6. One Hour of Unsatisfactoriness by Rasika Wijayaratne (on suffering) [ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=onehour ]
7. Four Noble Truths by Rasika Wijayaratne (a summary of) [ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=fourtruths ]
8. Noble Eightfold Path by Rasika Wijayaratne (on ending suffering) [ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=noblepath ]
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