-By Sumit Paul

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, suffering follows him as the wheel follows the hoof of the beast that draws the wagon…If a man speaks or acts with a good thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.” – Gautama Buddha

Before descanting upon Buddha’s role as the earliest and serendipitous exponent of the Law of Attraction, it’s important to mention yet another gem from the cornucopia of Buddha’s profound wisdom. Buddha said thousands of years ago that no event or experience in the universe was wholly new. All you see and experience has already happened not just once but several times. So, it can be said that the Law of Attraction is not an altogether new idea. It’s old wine in a new bottle. The phenomenon was already explained by the Buddha.

Entertain good thoughts, and you become good. Entertain bad thoughts and you turn into an evil. There’s a beautiful episode from Buddha’s life. Once, Buddha’s disciple Subhuti asked him, “Master, how does your face radiate eternal serenity and tranquillity? Why don’t you ever look agitated?” Buddha smiled and said, “I don’t try. My inner quietness appears on my face.” When a virtue is churned and internalised, it shows its positive results. Likewise, when a vice is imbibed, it starts showing negativity erelong. Buddha, who rejected the idea of gods and the creator, believed in the benevolence of the Universe, and believed that our thoughts, good or bad, come back to us just like sound echoes in a dome.

A good or positive thought is a vittam, Pali for vrittam. It affects our existence and guides or misguides as per the quality of thought. Theravada Buddhism believes that it’s not manifestation but the intention behind thoughts that matters.

A thought with a good intention manifests itself in a good way and a thought with a mala fide intention will have malefic consequences, repercussions, ramifications, and results.

Buddha also advised that a person must always focus on positive thoughts to become like that. A moment of negative thought or indiscretion can have a lifetime of repercussions. To quote Muzaffar Razmi, “Ye jabra bhi dekha hai taareekh ki nazaron ne/Lamhon ne khata ki thi, sadiyon ne saza payee” – History has seen this vicissitude as well/ When a moment’s mistake undid centuries. Humans are shaped by their thoughts. Our intentions determine our destinies. Think well and things will be well. Think bad and things will be like that.

Buddha said that once a thought becomes your breath, it becomes your existence. Just the way we breathe but are unmindful of the whole breathing process, a good thought should become our existential necessity. It must become integral to our psyche. Then it will manifest all good things. Mull over it, and life will undergo a sea change. It’s important to note that Buddha longed for enlightenment. It was his focus on enlightenment that satori, cosmic wisdom, descended upon him. Think like the Buddha, and you too, will become an evolved soul.

Buddha Purnima is on May 23

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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