The Dynamic Power of Thought

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: All that we are is founded on our thoughts and formed of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain pursues him, as the wheel of the wagon follows the hoof of the ox that draws it.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: All that we are is founded on our thoughts and formed of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness pursues him like his own shadow that never leaves him.

The Dhammapada, Verses 1-2

In the life of an aspirant to spiritual living, his line of thought is of greater importance than his objective actions, for thought is the foundation, the motivating power, from which alone outer deeds can spring into life. We are as our thoughts are is a truism which is apt to be forgotten in our age of dissimulation when we judge a person not in terms of what he is but according to what he seems to be. Karmically, however, thought or intent is more responsible and dynamic than an act. Thus, for instance, one may perform a charitable act, but if he does not think charitably and is doing the act just for the sake of gain or glory, it is his thoughts that will determine the result for him.

Every thought, no matter how fleeting, leaves a seed in the mind of the thinker. These small seeds together go to make up a larger thought-seed and determine one’s general character. Thought, then, is the maker of man. Every thought generated is a cause sown, and as we are always thinking, we are always sowing causes. These causes awaken the corresponding powers in the invisible worlds, powers which are magnetically and irresistibly attracted to and react upon those who produced the causes.

Every thought generated is a cause sown, and as we are always thinking, we are always sowing causes. These causes awaken the corresponding powers in the invisible worlds, powers which are magnetically and irresistibly attracted to and react upon those who produced the causes.

It has been said that "thoughts are things"; they are living, active realities. "Each thought," says HPB, "has a shape which borrows the appearance of the man engaged in the action of which he thought." It is important to understand what happens when we think. It is a known fact that there is a disturbance in the grey matter of the brain. Not only this, but it is also coming to be recognized that our thoughts affect the whole body, and that there is a branch of medicine known as psychosomatic medicine. Further, we are told that each thought once generated and sent out becomes independent of the brain and mind which gave it birth and will live upon its own energy. It makes a definite picture on the astral plane, a picture that is objective to the inner sense, and every clairvoyant or seer will confirm this from personal experience. The astral light is the preserver of these thought-pictures like a photographic plate, and by that means all that has been done or is being done may be known unerringly. Thoughts, therefore, while they may seem to us to be momentary and fleeting, are not so in reality but persist as seeds for good or evil in the invisible atmosphere.

© "The Theosophical Movement" (January, 2002) published by Theosophy Co. (India) Pvt. Ltd., Theosophy Hall, 40, New Marine Lines, Mumbai 400 020. Reprinted with permission.

Click here to view the full content of the articles.

<< Back