HOW TO OVERCOME AND PREVENT NEGATIVES FROM MANIFESTING?

by Swami Avdhutananda, ex acharya- chinmaya mission sikkim

The only way we can overcome negative thoughts, feelings and emotions such as anger, selfishness, jealousy etc. is by increasing our awareness level and analysing the root cause or source from where these negatives manifest. If the effect is there, there has to be a cause. Once the cause is known it can be eliminated. With the elimination of cause the effect ceases to exist.

For example, when anger rises within us, the moment we become aware of it, it loses its sting, its power. What do we need to do immediately after that? When anger is welling up within, the moment one becomes aware of it one should leave the place and be alone or with someone with a good sense of humour. Laughing activates positive emotions in the brain. It is an expression of pure deliverance and total tension release. Laughing induces good mood and that in turn engenders hearty and intense laughter. Look in the mirror and observe the contortions on the face resulting from anger. Practise deep breathing exercises at such time. Observe the anger in mind as a witness. Do japa in vaikhari vaani. Meditate on the emotion of anger. Drink a glass or two of cold water.

Now we go into the analysis. What is anger? Anger is defined as an intense attachment for an object when expressed towards an obstacle that comes between us and our object of attachment. It is also defined as revenge taken on ourselves by us for somebody else's mistakes, since it is our temperature and blood pressure that rises, it is our body that shakes and our eyes that become blood-shot. Anger also slows down the healing process in case of wounds, injuries and surgeries. So it is always beneficial to maintain tranquility.

Further, this anger arose because of our attachment to some thing or being. When we analyse our attachment itself we realise that this attachment was due to the false sense of security or a false notion that it gives us some kind of joy, pleasure or benefits us in some way. It is nothing but illusions projected by the deluded mind on things and beings of the world. Nothing from the finite world can ever give us what we really seek and that is eternal, infinite bliss. At the most the world can give us only ephemeral pleasure which is invariably followed by pain. We also realise through analysis that only those things and beings whom we have given some value invoke negative emotions and feelings. We cannot be jealous of something for which we have given zero value. The entire manifest world is impermanent and constantly subject to change. So it is foolhardy to give any value to the world. To the extent we start giving zero value to the world to that extent it ceases to affect us and invoke negatives in us.

Now how to increase our awareness level? The only way we can increase our awareness level is by living 100% in the present moment. Whatever activity we are engaged in at any moment we need to be intensely aware of it without allowing the mind to wander into the past or the future. Constant practice of living in the present moment will result in higher levels of awareness. Errors happen in ignorance not in awareness.