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Positive Thinking
In its many guises, whatever you call it, positive thinking has been a boon to mankind. The fact that it has been through many marketing incarnations and is constantly being re-packaged and re-sold is in itself proof that it works, at least to those positive thinking marketers who make it work. Positive thinking is a powerful tool to achieving success, wealth, health and prosperity, and it is a big secret, to the negative thinkers!
Positive thinking does not work if it defies reality. Faith is at the very root of positive thinking, and as previously explained, effort must go hand in hand with faith to keep a cosmic balance, if you will. Faith rests on the ocean floor - in the depths of your soul. Thoughts - positive or negative, are like waves rippling on the surface.
Rather than positive thinking, which can sometimes become implausibly optimistic and unrealistic, I like reality thinking. Not positive or negative. It is seeing things for what they truly are. So that, if necessary, we can change it for the better.
So what is real for you? What do you really want out of life? What the heck are you doing here in this manifestation anyway?
Material wealth is a goal for many in our industrialized societies and positive thinking has been highly touted as a way of achieving this end. In determining your relationship with material wealth, you have to dig deep into your soul, connect with the Master Server, God, if you will, and think, is unearned wealth good? Do you want to live like Paris Hilton? Or conversely, why is it necessary that we make money the old fashioned way, by earning it?
Most of us have these values. We think that we should get what we deserve by virtue of what we do. What is the value of success if it is so easy and everyone can get it without any directed effort?
If we dig deep enough within ourselves, we realize that it is the process that is important, smelling the flowers and enjoying the adventure. The goal is merely just one step, the last step. To want the last step without taking the previous steps is a sign of immaturity, fatigue or illusion.
Conversely, to be born into wealth without earning it, as more and more people are doing in the wealthy countries, can be just as trying for the soul as being born poor. And I don't necessary mean the very rich. Even middle class America is very rich when compared to the rest of the world. In either case, it is a personal journey of discovery and exploration, both externally and internally, for which a positive mental attitude is most useful.
Insecurity, Guilt, and Shame
Our personal feelings of insecurity stem from our feelings of inferiority and superiority in relation to others. Ego, basically. If we didn't have such entrenched egos, we wouldn't be so insecure. Drop the focus on ego and all feelings of shame, guilt, insecurity and fear melt away.
There is a school of thought that says that we are never inferior to others as we have within us the divine spark of the Creator. This is essentially true for we are all equal in the eyes of God, but this is an eternal perspective. In the total picture, from the standpoint of the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, absolute and infinite mind, none of us are better than anyone else. We are, in the transcendence and fulfillment of the vast potentials of time and space, brilliant spiritual beings, all unique and magnificent in our own ways.
However, in the moment, as we live our lives on this planet, each of us are inferior and superior in different ways. I know that I am inferior in calculus compared to many who are better at it than I am. I have no qualms in admitting that I am much inferior in basketball compared to the professional athletes in the NBA, not to mention even the kids at the playgrounds. I am inferior to many people in many respects. That is a reality.
But I am also superior to many in those things that I am good at. I am superior in surfing than most people on Earth. I am superior in my knowledge of philosophy than many people. My imagination is superior to many who lack such creative faculties. That is also a reality. I am unabashedly inferior and superior in ways beyond my own comprehension.
So in existential reality we are all equal, but in experiential reality we are decidedly unequal. True reality is a merging of the two. To maintain that inferiority and superiority does not exist among people is to deny the superior traits which come from hard work, effort, and natural talents. To maintain that such a hierarchy of inferiority and superiority is the only reality is to ignore the innate value of each person.
It seems one of the biggest obstacles to achieving cosmic consciousness and oneness with all creatures wherein we nurture and help each other instead of playing a game of one-upmanship is insecurity, a lack of self-esteem, a sense of inferiority.
I see insecure people all around me. I used to be very insecure myself. Insecurity often breeds defensiveness and a tendency to compete, to self-aggrandize and strive to be better than others at their expense, to be superior. A father, because of his security in being an adult, does not need to compete with his child to prove that he is superior. A child, insecure of himself, will fight with others and do whatever he can to proclaim himself worthy. The sense of unworthiness results in action that tries to raise self-esteem, and/or in action that tries to diminish the value of others.
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