Negativity

This world is a great place. We have been given a great opportunity in this thing called life to really enjoy ourselves. However, there are times when life seems less than grand. As I have said before, these are the times when you really have to show your ‘stuff,’ and just be happy. One of the hindrances to that happiness is negativity.

Whenever your take a negative outlook on a situation, it is guaranteed to end in a negative way. For instance, if you are buying a car and you go into the experience thinking, “I’m gonna end up with a lemon, I just know it,” then you are most likely going to be so preoccupied with this thought that you are actually going to make a really poor choice and end up with a lemon. If you do luck out and buy a nice vehicle at a nice price, you will be so afraid that it is a Lemon that you will not enjoy the car and not value having it. Let me break it down into an equation:

Negative Thought+Negative Situation=Negative Experience
Negative Thought+Positive Situation=Negative Experience

I know that it is possible that even with a positive outlook on a situation, you can still end up with a less than desirable outcome. However I am reminded of the great words of Lama Yeshe, "It is never too late. Even if you are going to die tomorrow, Keep yourself straight and clear and be a happy human being today. If you keep your situation happy day by day, you will eventually reach the greatest happiness of Enlightenment." With a positive outlook, you may find that the poor situations become less so. You start to see the good and pure in almost anything. It is a proven fact that humans have a tendency to see in something mainly what they are looking to find in it. This tendency is called subjective perception. This means that if you try and see a good and/or positive outcome in a situation, then chances are, you will end up not noticing any negative things that may have happened.

I know that you may be thinking, “even though I did not notice the bad things, it does not mean it did not happen.” To this I say that you are right, but if you do not notice them, then they really didn’t matter did they? Thus, what matters is your perception not the reality (seeing as perception is reality). The reason that this works so well with the buddhist belief of unreasonable happiness (or for all buddhist