WHAT WE DREAD MOST

From the freshness of the early sunrise to the coolness of sunset and everything in between, we are governed by one principle only. A deeply rooted seed called ‘THOUGHT’ brings forth from within us a predefined conception of the world and a predetermined understanding of the sequence of events throughout our daily lives. Unlike the natural seed, though, the thought brings forth fruits according to the kind of water used on it. Poisonous waters from the infected rivers of circumstances will almost always generate the birth of negative vision and understanding. Purified waters from the inner ocean of the self will bring forth fruits of positivity and thus prosperity.  It stems from this reasoning, therefore, that what we hear, see, or feel might only be the result of our own thoughts as opposed to reality. In fact, our five senses are governed by our thoughts. If anything, this might be an explanation for why human beings often come to various conclusions on the same set of facts.

The thought is the machinery that makes and filters life’s daily encounters. As a result, our understanding of and our response to the world around us is nothing but the direct consequence of our mindset. Among the maxims that illustrate this best is the saying that ‘what we fear is what happens to us’. Things happen, not because they were meant to happen in the way they happened but because of our own self-inflicted anticipations.

Positive anticipations engender beautiful opportunities. Take a person, P, who has long thought of a distant acquaintance, A, as being the most amazing person on earth. If the day comes that they should meet, P would have prepared his mind to meeting a most loving and welcoming person. Because of this thinking, he himself would be full of bright smiles, caring and welcoming towards A who might or might not return the warmth. It might be the case that A finds P overly enthusiastic and so makes unfriendly remarks against him. But P’s pre-set expectations would take these as being an unusual sense of humour and would blindly continue to see in A that fantasy of a loving person he had developed in his mind. 

In a more optimistic tone, A might in fact end up being that most loving person but very often this will be because P’s thinking has brought him to prepare the atmosphere for a peaceful exchange that constrains A to only displaying her good side. In both cases, A ends up being an amazing person because P had thought so and therefore interpreted her gestures according to what he was willing to see and understand. Thus goes the saying “love is blind”. It is for this reason that another person might give a totally different account that portrays A as the most horrible person.

On the other hand, negative anticipations are the mother of every personal deterioration. A man, M, who thinks that his neighbour, N, hates him will often end up in acrimonious terms with him. It might not necessarily be the case that N does in fact hate him but his thinking so would lead him to see in his neighbour everything that is bad and wrong. An honest salutation from N in the morning will be interpreted as provocation and mockery. A courteous gesture from N would mean disdain. N might well lose his life for M, still he will continue to believe that N hated him.

On the far end scenario, N might end up in fact hating M not because he wanted to but because M’s belief was so that he made the environment bitter so as to reject his offers or exclude him from his community. The fact that N tries in vain to dismantle M’s ingrained thoughts will bring about his own weariness and the two men will eventually end up in unfriendly terms. This, again, is but the consequence of M’s thoughts which in turn forced the environment around him to breathe accordingly.

The plausible hypothesis might therefore be that there is no such a thing as ‘reality’. Reality is, to every man, but what his mind would allow his heart to believe and what his heart would allow his senses to experiences. If a man chooses to think that every time another criticises his deeds means that person is a jealous who does not wish him to prosper, he will fail to see genuine constructive feedback that house the key to his fame. If a man thinks that nobody in his community likes him, he will set himself enough boundaries to push everyone away and reject even the most sincere offers of love, thus living a life of solitude and agony. If a man thinks that he is eloquent and charming, he will speak to clouds with boldness which in turn will force the masses to listen to him.

The choice is given to all to decide from which source to draw. Every individual has in him enough power to ascend to glorious realms of self-achievement and just as much ability to descend into the lowest pits of the self-pitying that brings about self-destruction. Life will never be beautiful unless we think it to be beautiful. 

Our thoughts govern our perception which then influences our attitude. And the world around us constantly changes itself to respond to our attitude. Human beings constantly alter their attitude. In the course of the day, we smile to some and are rude to others. We respond to any given situation according to what we think the case to be. If we think we are threatened, we raise unnecessary boundaries. If we think we will win, we try our very best. All lies in the fact that every individual has his own faiths and fears. The attempt to create a single universal train of thought for every human being is perhaps the reason why our world is encompassed with torturous clashes. What we dread the most often happens because we allow the deepness of our soul to be invaded by the fears of our thoughts.