How to Remove Negative Thoughts?

 Sadhguru looks at how the mind, which should be the greatest boon, is unfortunately being used by most people as a misery-manufacturing machine. He also gives us a simple process to begin the process of experiencing the magic of the mind.

Yogi, mystic and visionary, Sadhguru is a spiritual master with a difference. An arresting blend of profundity and pragmatism, his life and work serves as a reminder that yoga is a contemporary science, vitally relevant to our times.

Sadhguru: There are no subtractions and  divisions in our mind, there is only addition   and multiplication. ‘I will just remove negative  thoughts and I will have positive thoughts,’   all the best, it’s not going to work. It’s just  that you need to pay little attention as to how   it functions. You will see there is a distinction  between what is you and what you have gathered. Well, see the way the question is asked and also  the way normally its addressed is, people think   there is something called as negative thought and  positive thought. 

They want to remove the negative   thoughts and have only positive thoughts. For  such people, I would ask them to just experiment   for ten, fifteen seconds. Let them forcefully  remove one thought from their mind. For example,   next ten seconds, just don’t think of  a monkey. Try not to think of a monkey   for next ten seconds – you will see, you will  be full of monkeys. So, what I am saying is,   this is the nature of your mind, because  in this mind, all the three pedals are   throttle – there is no brake, there is no clutch  – whatever you touch, it will only go faster.

In this kind of mind, people have been taught  from moral teachers and religious teachers,  “Do not think about bad things.” Well,  since then, it’s been a full-time job.  So, there is no way you can handle the mind like  this, this doesn’t need any great enlightenment.  If you spend two minutes with your eyes  closed, you will realize, you cannot do  anything forcefully with this mind. So, ‘I want to  remove negative thoughts,’ do not ever go in this  direction, because what you want to remove will  become your quality, always you will be on it.  “So, what should I do?” The thing is this –  without understanding the fundamental mechanism of  this mind, because our mind, human mind is the  most sophet… sophisticated computer on the planet.  

Even all the supercomputers have come out of this.  When this is the case, is it not important that  we understand the mechanics of how it functions?

One simplistic aspect of how  it functions is – there are no  subtractions and divisions in our mind, there  is only addition and multiplication. If you try  to do something with it, it will say, “One more.”  If you try hard, it will multiply into many more.  In this mind, you don’t try to identify what is  positive, what is negative and try to remove it.  First of all, one needs to understand, this  mind of yours, this body of yours is supposed  to serve you. The life that you are is important.  Body and mind are vehicles that must serve us. If you sit in a vehicle, it must go,  where you want to go. 

If it goes to its own   destination, what is the point of such a  vehicle? It’s just a nuisance. Right now,  most human beings are unfortunately, experiencing  this fantastic possibility of human mind  as a nuisance, as a troublesome thing. Well,  this is the most beautiful thing you have.  It’s just that you need to pay little attention  as to how it functions. One simple thing is this –  first and foremost process is… that’s why  we put out this process called ‘Isha Kriya.’  This is to distance yourself from your  physiological and psychological process.  

There is something called as, “You” which exists.  This is not a composite of all your thoughts and  emotions and physiological processes. Beyond  that, there is you. If you close your eyes,  even if you cannot see anything, you’re still  there. It is through the window of your eyes  that you are looking out, but if you close your  eyes, it doesn’t mean that you don’t exist,  you still exist. So, beyond your thought you  still exist, beyond your emotion you still  exist, so that you, the life that you are,  this has to come into your experience. 

Why is it that you’re not allowing  that to come into your experience,  which is the most significant aspect of who you  are? Who you are right now, the most significant  aspect is – you and me are alive right now,  this is it. ‘What I’m thinking, what you’re  thinking’ is not the important thing. We are  alive right now, that is the important thing.  So, it is important that you focus on this  fundamental sense of aliveness within you,  and then you will see there is a natural  distance between you and your thought process.

One hundred percent  it’s not going to work, because nobody can  remove it, they can avoid it for some time. So, when negative thought come, you say,  “Ram, Ram, Shiva, Shiva,” whatever you want,  but this is just avoiding, it’s not gone. The  moment you stop that, it will pop back with  great force, otherwise it will come back in your  dreams. So, it’s very important. First of all, you  need to understand – your anger, your resentment,  your fear, your anxieties, the negativity that  you generate; generally resentment, anger,  it is always directed towards somebody.  

But we need to understand this is poisons that we  are drinking and expecting somebody else to die. Fortunately, life doesn’t work like  that. If I drink poison, I die.  If I drink poison, you don’t die. So, we need to  understand this. When I say, “Poison” – today,  you can have yourself chemically analyzed. Right  now, ‘what is your blood work?’ What it says,  five minutes of intense anger, check your blood  work and see, there will be lots of negative  elements in it. Literally, you’re poisoning  yourself. So, do you want to poison yourself?  Definitely not. Now the very question is coming  from certain helplessness, ‘What shall I do?’

Don’t do anything. Just sit back and just concern  yourself with something which is the life process,  maybe your heartbeat, maybe your breath,  maybe just the sensation of being alive.  Depending upon how sensitive or how perceptive  you are, accordingly, find something, it could  be a sensation in the body, it could be breath,  it could be heartbeat, it could be anything,  something which indicates life to you. Just pay  attention to that for some time. Slowly, you will  see there is a distinction between what is you and  what you have gathered, which includes both your  physiological and psychological possibility  or mess, whatever you’ve made out of it

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