Automatic Negative Thinking

Dark as opposed to light, bad as opposed to good, evil as opposed to saintly, negative as opposed to positive.
An umbrella term to describe the dark things of life. Killing is bad but to kill to save your life or to kill for food is justified. Bad is only relative.
Only your ego can determine what is good and bad using judgement.

I personally feel clothes on women are bad as a naturist and the only good woman is a naked woman. This does not imply that women wearing clothes are bad but that they are just not good I am talking of the purity of the naked body not moralising here. The bad is relative to my perception of what is good and evil and that is based on my experience.

Good question

 

Since good and evil have no common form nor face, these things cannot direct us as to our relationships to common things. Do you need judgment to organize your life? Seems to me this kind of judgment is purely for the entertainment of the ego.

 

I would suggest that judgement is an aspect of a reflective nature. The self acts having judged an action good or bad. The individual is then judged by other members of society as to weather the consensus agrees that this action is also good or bad. We are members of a society and are charged to agree with its behaviour, unless of course we choose to act outside of societies boundaries. Our individuality is influenced by society pressures but not necessarily controlled.

I think we crave societies acceptance in our actions unless we choose to disagree. Those that disagree may either change societies perceptions either for the good or the bad (possible no change) or may have to change their own actions due to societies pressures.

This probably is feeding the ego in the need to be loved (accepted).

 

I recently described the story of a barn owl being a good cute creature to us but a bad killing machine to a mouse. The definition of bad being the context. A further development on this is to consider the mouse has a flick-knife. Most would consider the carrying of a flick-knife bad but in this sense it is a good flick-knife.

 

See the fortune you have come upon. Not superficially, but what you can see within yourself.

 

What is practical is that which is practiced. Society is precisely equal to your relationship to the person standing next to you.

There is no price upon your head. That you crave acceptance is an indication that you feel without. Your mind is a kingdom you alone can rule. To have acceptance be accepting.

 

I suggest you familiarize yourself with Eckhart Tolle's Teachings. If you have not read or heard of Eckhart Tolle, buy this and read it: The Power Of Now;

"Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher."

 

^^^^Excellent quote!

 

Bhagavad gita 2:54-72 The man of steady wisdom. These passages were very important to Mahatma Gandhi.
ref:Volume 1 The Dru Bhavad Gita 1998 (reprint 2004) Patel,Barrington,MacCuish,Jones.
It suggests how man exists and relates to society. Still reflecting on it personally. To have a quiet mind while all those around you are unquiet is the dilemma. The pure state is to withdraw from society but in reality one has to exist within society, accepting its problems.

How wrong can you be? Society imposes clothing rules so by being naked I am trusting to my self not craving acceptance However I am part of naturist society so will concede that perhaps in naturist society I am craving acceptance.

 

How wrong can I be? I guess that is for you to decide. Am I wrong because I do not conform to an ideal you read about? Am I wrong because you see clothing as some kind of offense to the "natural state?" Like I say, when you become accepting you will find acceptance.
This idea that clothing is an offense to your natural state is surely the basis for automatic negative thinking.

 

Many naturists feel that clothes are offensive and impose a Draconoan rule of naked. To me this infers an obsession with clothes not an acceptance. I personally apply the rule of clothing-optional ie you wear the clothes that you are comfortable with. If that is none then none is required. We seek oneness with nature so strive towards purity and and away from impurity. Considering clothes an impurity does not imply an aversion to them any more than the nudity is an attachment. Being free of desires you accept the presence or absence of clothes as unimportant and act the same regardless of your state of dress. This is true acceptance of the mind and removing the attachment to the body. This ideal is hard in reality but something to strive for.

Naked yoga can be carried out amongst mother nature under a tree in the sun where only your self is a witness. Here there is no problem with social behaviour just the pure yoga. The freedom to sense the body, mind and spirit without the distraction of clothes.

I am attached to yoga because it makes me happy. (help!)

 

Ref: Dru Bhagavad gita 9:12

 

replace
replace them with positive thinking

 

I'm reading a really good book on Buddhism right now and the author suggests a couple of things:

watch- Watch your thoughts rise and fall, paying attention to each one as it comes and goes. Think about the impermanent nature of thoughts and feelings, realizing that they will change just as everything does in life, that they will not be around forever.

suppress- You know when a song gets stuck in your head and you can't get it out? This is the method I use to get rid of it and I swear it works just as well for negative thoughts! Every time I realize I'm humming the song, I mentally say "Stop!" or "No!" and cut it off. A moment or two later I'll catch myself humming it again and say "Stop!" and cut it off. I continue to do this, and at first you may not catch yourself every time but when you do, say "Stop." Just keep doing it and it works like a charm! With stronger negative thoughts it may take a while, but eventually the thoughts will get weaker and weaker until they dissipate altogether.

transform or replace- Each time you feel yourself thinking something negative, try to replace it with its opposite. If you are thinking angry thoughts, actively send out thoughts of loving-kindness or well-wishes to either someone you love, someone you are neutral about, someone you dislike or the entire world. If you are thinking thoughts of desire and wanting (like a food craving or jealousy of a friend who just got a new TV), try to replace them with thoughts of generosity, memories of the last time you did something really nice for someone, or about all of things you are grateful for in your life. Replace worry and restlessness with images of meditating in a rainy forest or memories of the a time you felt truly relaxed and serene, or meditate on the idea that worry is needless and unnecessary and only causes suffering without serving any real purpose or constructive use.

Even though it takes a while to develop the right tools, you can have full control over how you think and how you react to things Keep working on it, the fact that you're bothering to make the change is a great start!

 

Sorry, I don't want to offense you, but in my opinion, this is the worst advice you can give about meditation.

Suppressing your emotions or thoughts is the worst things you can do if you seek some sort of inner peace and enjoyment of life. Each and every thought and emotion has something to teach you. You should treat them as guests in your body. Deleting them is impatient and immature. Instead, see them as they are, accept them as they are, and accept yourself as you are.

You will begin seeing clear within yourself if you do that, but if you take the habit of SUPPRESSING ''bad'' ideas, your inner world will be confused. The fact is, there is no ''bad'' idea. Only ideas we label as bad. Stop labeling. You cannot run away from yourself.

And who are we to judge if a thoughts ''negative'' or ''positive''? I strongly suggest to beware of easy and clichéd opposites, especially in the realm of emotions. Anger cannot be locked away somewhere inside yourself. Someday it will explode, and it'll be ugly. Or it will never explode but you will have lost forever a chance of better yourself, because understanding anger, learning to express in an explicit way that doesn't cause harm, can prove a most powerful learning experience.

Same thing about desires, simply replacing them with generosity would be awkward. I'd rather have relationships with humans that love themselves in a healthy way, because they've accepted all emotions within themselves (love, anger, etc.), then have relationships with humans that are hyper generous because they've suppressed everything other than ''positive'' feelings.

Only when you accept yourself as you are will you be able to love.