Comments on: I Couldn’t Help But Wonder: What is the difference between positive thinking and wishful thinking? http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/2009/01/15/i-had-to-wonder-what-is-the-difference-between-positive-thinking-and-wishful-thinking/ Susan Piver - Meditation, Relationships, Creativity Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:23:08 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: susan http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/2009/01/15/i-had-to-wonder-what-is-the-difference-between-positive-thinking-and-wishful-thinking/#comment-1564 susan Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:23:19 +0000 http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/?p=487#comment-1564 Will-- Love this: "Mitchel swishes it. No net. Slam dunk! I love that man. He is a franchise player for the Spiritual Team." Agreed. Will–
Love this:
“Mitchel swishes it. No net. Slam dunk! I love that man. He is a franchise player for the Spiritual Team.”

Agreed.

]]> By: Say sayonara to striving « transformative-living http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/2009/01/15/i-had-to-wonder-what-is-the-difference-between-positive-thinking-and-wishful-thinking/#comment-1560 Say sayonara to striving « transformative-living Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:49:00 +0000 http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/?p=487#comment-1560 [...] I found this sentence inside a blog written by Susan Piver. She was talking to Stephen Mitchell about the difference between positive thinking and wishful [...] [...] I found this sentence inside a blog written by Susan Piver. She was talking to Stephen Mitchell about the difference between positive thinking and wishful [...]

]]> By: leona http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/2009/01/15/i-had-to-wonder-what-is-the-difference-between-positive-thinking-and-wishful-thinking/#comment-1558 leona Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:05:17 +0000 http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/?p=487#comment-1558 OMG!! "All I have to do is relax, to allow the world to dazzle me instead of the other way around." What a relief. An underlying, background striving tension justs slips away and long, deep breaths get sucked into my body where the tension used to be. This is going to be my mantra for as long as it feels alive and I am chesire cat curious about what will come! THANK YOU! OMG!! “All I have to do is relax, to allow the world to dazzle me instead of the other way around.” What a relief. An underlying, background striving tension justs slips away and long, deep breaths get sucked into my body where the tension used to be. This is going to be my mantra for as long as it feels alive and I am chesire cat curious about what will come! THANK YOU!

]]> By: Will http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/2009/01/15/i-had-to-wonder-what-is-the-difference-between-positive-thinking-and-wishful-thinking/#comment-1557 Will Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:39:25 +0000 http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/?p=487#comment-1557 "...so imagining so-called positive outcomes as a way of escaping current pain could actually be more confusing. Not to mention dulling and silly. I mean who wants to ignore reality and instead insist everything’s fine, everything’s fine, everything’s fine, if I only think the right thoughts, I can have everything I want. Yet gaining dominion over your thoughts is critical to working with heartbreak to end up wiser than when you went in." There are many ways to work with thoughts. Some helpful and some lead to more suffering, especially some of the modern pop-psych methods like those in "The Secret". This "everything's fine" is like the little treat we give a puppy when we are training it. We soon learn that "everything's fine" only when we say to ourselves or feel "everything's fine". So unproductive. So misses the point of intimacy with the co-arising of life. Investigating the nature of thought and the co-arising of reality is only thing that leads to less suffering and trying to trick ourselves into a false sense of "everything's fine" gets in the way of that. "...the only thing that will matter is how loving and brave we’ve been." Yes indeed. Reality just is. No need for belief, faith or doubt. Those are just the detritus of mind. Just love and be brave! Mitchel swishes it. No net. Slam dunk! I love that man. He is a franchise player for the Spiritual Team. “…so imagining so-called positive outcomes as a way of escaping current pain could actually be more confusing. Not to mention dulling and silly. I mean who wants to ignore reality and instead insist everything’s fine, everything’s fine, everything’s fine, if I only think the right thoughts, I can have everything I want. Yet gaining dominion over your thoughts is critical to working with heartbreak to end up wiser than when you went in.”

There are many ways to work with thoughts. Some helpful and some lead to more suffering, especially some of the modern pop-psych methods like those in “The Secret”. This “everything’s fine” is like the little treat we give a puppy when we are training it. We soon learn that “everything’s fine” only when we say to ourselves or feel “everything’s fine”. So unproductive. So misses the point of intimacy with the co-arising of life. Investigating the nature of thought and the co-arising of reality is only thing that leads to less suffering and trying to trick ourselves into a false sense of “everything’s fine” gets in the way of that.

“…the only thing that will matter is how loving and brave we’ve been.”

Yes indeed. Reality just is. No need for belief, faith or doubt. Those are just the detritus of mind. Just love and be brave!

Mitchel swishes it. No net. Slam dunk! I love that man. He is a franchise player for the Spiritual Team.

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