Cultivating a thought

There was a man who happened to be an alcoholic. He had two sons. The family of that alcoholic man suffered heavily due to the drinking habit of that man. After a few days seeing his father, One of the sons was addicted to alcohol. The other son hated the drinking habit. He established an organization which helped in alcohol deaddiction.

 These two brothers in spite of similar environmental conditions nourished two different thoughts which took them in two different directions. It means before encouraging, nourishing and executing any thought it needs proper discrimination keeping in view of its final outcome.

In farming farmers selectively cultivate that plant which finally produces food or give cash after selling them. Let’s call it a “valued plant”. Any other plant which doesn’t fulfill the above criteria when it tends to grow in the farm can be considered as a “weed plant”. The main problem with the “weed plant” is that it destroys the “Valued plant” by competing with its resources. In the same way, any thought which makes us progress in the long run can be called “Valued thought”. Any other thought which competes with the “valued thought” can be called “weed thought”. In the above example, one brother went for “valued thought” and the other accepted the “weed thought”

Just like a farmer is vigilant and caring every day about his crop. One has to be careful and selective in nourishing and enacting thoughts. There are many similarities between farming and thinking.

Farming	Thinking
·      Nature of the seed planted determines the nature of the crop harvested.	·      Nature of the thought determines the nature of the action and its consequences.
·      The soil has inherent tendency to bring up and nurture any seed which falls on it.	·      Memory has inherent tendency to retain and play back anything it is exposed to. It is nonselective.
·     weeds and unwanted plants have more survival capacity when compared to fruit yielding plant	·      Thoughts related to basic instincts and pleasure-seeking (weed thoughts) have a high tendency to establish themselves in the mind
·      The surviving weed gives passive death to the “Valued plant “by competing with its resources.	·      The instinct related thoughts tend to occupy the consciousness more by replacing "Valued thoughts".
·      Each type of soil has a tendency to bring up certain types of plants.	·      According to Samkhya philosophy, each type of Guna or nature (Tamas- Laziness, Rajas- Activity, Satwika- balanced) determines the type of thought surviving in the mind.
·      The soil does not show any discrimination to any plant. However, it is the farmer who has to selectively nourish the plant which he wanted to bring up.	·      The memory is nonselective in storing a thought. However, when a person ponders on a selected thought it tends to sustain and nourish itself.
·      Best way to get rid of the weed is avoiding the source of weed into the garden than killing the weed after it grows.	·      Best way to get rid of an unwanted thought is by being vigilant on the senses which are gateways for memory. It is better to avoid exposure to unwanted information than to resist it after it entered the memory. (Don’t see, listen or speak evil)
·      Nourish the wanted plant till it becomes self-sustaining.	·      Encourage, enact and disseminate a “Valued thought” till it becomes a part of the reflex or a habit or belief.
·      Delaying the nourishment to the plant means facilitating the death of the plant.	·      Delaying the attendance to a “valued thought” or procrastination leads to the death of the thought. If you find a “valued thought”, just act on it. Don’t procrastinate.

Discriminating “valued thought” from “weed thought” is important in selecting a progressive thought.

Desperation to accept a thought (often due to emotion) is an important phenomenon which makes us to accept a “weed thought”.

Being conscious about our thoughts and habits, discrimination and selective nourishment of our thoughts make our mind a beautiful garden of “Valued thoughts”.