Change is an essential
part of life and our bodies change whether we want them to or not. The environment around us will change for better or worse, but change is necessary part
of life and all of us may have had to change something in our life for the
better. Thoughts, feelings, and habits can have either good or bad effects on
our lives based on outlook on life. So many things in life can be affected by
our outlook on the things that go on in our life. A negative outlook in will
cause you to look at things in a more pessimistic and cynical ways. When you do
not have a positive mind you tend not to give everything around you a fair
chance and this will cause suffering. Without a positive outlook one would tend
do things either half- halfheartedly or begrudgingly. A repeating pattern of negative
thoughts, defeatist thoughts, and self-destructive habits can often been seen
all around us in society today with everyone vying for the top spot in this capitalist
market. We are only ok when we are the best and able to claim superiority over
the feats of all of our peers. If not, we are failures that have to find some
way to get back in that top spot. This is a bad habit followed by many western
kids as they grow up and equate their self-worth achievements. Bad habits can
be very hard to break because sometimes we are not even necessarily aware we
are engaging in bad habits, thinking negative thoughts, and experiencing
detrimental feelings. But, even when we are aware it still can be very difficult.
More often than not addicts don’t want to be hooked on drugs yet their stuck in
a vicious cycle. It’s not easy to change. I've seen people try to change for
the better for the remainder of their lives not succeed. But change is
definitely attainable with a strong will and a positive outlook.
Change starts with the
popular idiom ‘you are what you eat’, and I’m not talking about just what you
literally eat or ingest but everything that you take into your body. Not just
food and drink, but ideas values and philosophies that you can take in from
your surrounding environment. “Every
time we ingest toxins into our consciousness, it is like stabbing ourselves
with three hundred sharp knives,”(37) This quote by Thich Nhat Hanh’s “The
Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching” further presses the point if we intake negative
things and harbor them as negative thoughts and feelings and manifest them as
bad habits it will be destructive and only increase your suffering for you and
everyone else involved in your life. One way that I have personally put this
into use is when I was younger (about the age of 9) I was very conscious of
everything around that could influence me. Once I decided what had a positive influence
and what had a negative influence, I increased my intake of what I considered
good and shut out everything that I considered bad. The noticeable change I
experienced was how I differed from my peers. I use to be a lot more like them,
a lot of them weren't growing up in the best neighborhoods so they didn't always do the right thing. For the most part I wasn’t a bad kid and never did
anything exceedingly bad like they did (steal, jump, etc..), but my vernacular
use to resemble theirs a lot. If you don’t get it by now I’m saying I use to
curse a lot as a kid. But once I became aware of everything around and started
to have the right mindfulness about with a positive outlook on life, not only
did I stop cursing, I also became a more wholesome person. “We see clearly that
real happiness is possible if we can stop ingesting the nutriments that cause
us to suffer.”(38)
Another way to change
thought patterns is to ‘change the peg’ according to Hanh. This concept is
about the upkeep of your own mental environment to make sure you never get worn
down by troubles of this world. “…just
as a carpenter replaces a rotten peg by hammering in a new one. If we are
constantly assailed by unwholesome patterns of thought, we need to learn how to
change the peg and replace those patterns with wholesome thoughts (62).” If I
ever have unwholesome thoughts I try to replace them with something wholesome
or positive so I don’t get disconcerted. One example of this teaching be
applied is whenever I get stressed for a big test or race or anything that
requires my best performance, I always think about what I am thankful for in my
life and that usually helps me to calm down a bit. Another teaching by discussed
by Hanh is ‘Selective watering’. We all have seeds of goodness and badness
inside all of us. When we engage in selective watering we determine what seed
the most worthy of our attention so it can grow to be something that will have
more prevalent in our lives. We should foster good traits so grow more as
earnest people and contribute to the cessation of suffering. An example of me
doing this in my life in particular was going to church every week. I learned
values and had them reinforced to become the person I am today.
A positive outlook and
right mindfulness is critical to bring about positive changes in our lives. Without
these we would not be able to change for the better. There are many struggles in
our lives that may be difficult to deal with, but we have all the tools we need
to make a change and make a difference to the world around you.
Citation:
Nhá̂t, Hạnh. The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy & Liberation : The Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and Other Basic Buddhist Teachings. New York: Broadway, 1999. Print.
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