Cultivating a Positive Mindset in Today's WorldIn 1966, American Senator J. William Fulbright published The Arrogance of Power; a book in which he explored his opposition to the justification of the Vietnam War, but more importantly, a book in which he explored the relationship between power and virtue. In it, he wrote the very simple yet compelling notion that power tends to confuse itself with virtue. It’s this relationship that leads great nations to exert power amongst one another in an attempt for virtuosity yet ultimately it becomes an attempt for domination. When power confuses itself with virtue, conflict is not resolved but perpetuated. The multitude of conflicts apparent between many middle-eastern countries and the overwhelming American presence that is attempting to harbor peace with war is an example of why this cycle must be broken. Humanity is at a crossroad of mindsets. One mindset is that of Domination, which we have been swimming in for thousands of years. Domination is born out of insecurity and scarcity. This insecurity creates the need to control others, and when this control is threatened then the insecurity deepens further to exercise power to rule over others. In modern civilizations the political, economic and religious leaders guide humanity. When their powers are questioned and challenged, they turn to the next level which is manipulation. We see this today within our governments, corporations and NGO’s like the World Bank through political elections, corporate lobbying and international lending. This mind game of manipulation is based on living in the past, which creates an unfriendly world. An example of this is the war in the Middle East between Israeli and Palestine. This unfriendly world creates the warfare among the geo-political nations, class warfare between the haves and have-nots, and the war on terrorism based on religious fanatic belief systems. This unfriendly world drives us to the mindset of ‘take or to be taken’. How much do ‘I’ benefit or take away from this proposition? Everyone looks at each other through the eyes of suspicion. Finally the cycle of domination brings us to ‘blame’ or blaming each other rather than taking responsibility. At this point no love remains. The other mindset is that of Dominion. Dominion is based on the psychology of abundance and creativity. This gives birth to creativity without control. This creativity without control gives you the power to co-create, which in turn creates physical, mental, and emotional abundance. This abundance inspires you to engage spirituality. When you engage spirituality, your mindset directs your focus towards the future, to consciously create and manifest what you want. This generates trust, the trust in you and each other, which then creates a friendly world. This friendly world creates the mindset of giving to each other, rather than taking from each other. At the same time they are willing to take responsibility and this generates love and caring for each other. So how do we change from one mindset to another and rid ourselves of this negatively charged downward spiral? As Senator Fulbright wrote, “In our quest for world peace, the alteration of attitudes is no less important, perhaps more important, than the resolution of issues. It is in the minds of men, after all, that wars are spawned; to act upon the human mind, regardless of the issue or occasion for doing so, is to act upon the source of conflict and the potential source of redemption and reconciliation." I’ve spent the past 40 years researching and understanding a body of knowledge known as Metaphysics. In short, Metaphysics is the knowledge of the human mind in its total complexity, which is generally known as “self” or “ego”. Through better understanding of how the mind and mindset works, we can learn how to transform and transcend our negative emotions into positive emotions and change our destructive mindset of Domination to a constructive mindset of Dominion. Every human being is equally given the raw materials for creating their reality. These six raw materials include beliefs and attitudes, feelings and thoughts, and choices and decisions, which are then chiseled by the tools of desire, imagination and expectation.
This article was written by Metaphysics lecturer Vipin Mehta. To learn more about his work, please visit his website www.VipinMehta.com To view other "practical metaphysics" articles, please click here: Cultivating a Positive Mindset |
