How to Become What You Think?
“You become what you think about all day long.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
As in most cases, above quote too, in addition to being victim of many distorted explanations, has been ascribed to many thinkers and philosophers, such as Emerson, Buddha etc. confusing the people as to who was the original author or proponent of this idea or philosophy. However, it might be possible that the same idea landed in the minds of many savants and in different periods of time (and not necessarily copied or stolen in violation of so-called/nonsensical copyrights that are based on the false and/or misleading premise that ideas can be owned and are salable commodity) and thus projected by them in different words with little nuances but the same essence. For example see/read some other quotes, with almost the same meaning, below:
i) “You become what you think about most of the time.” This quote is ascribed to Brian Tracy, a Canadian-American motivational public speaker and self-development author.
ii) “You become what you continually think about.” is believed to have been stated by Earl Nightingale, an American radio speaker and author, dealing mostly with the subjects of human character development, motivation, and meaningful existence.
iii) Lastly, Buddha is said to have conveyed the idea more deliberately and succinctly in following words:
“What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you create.”
However, instead of paying heed to the “Message” and have an in-depth understanding of the hidden idea, people usually get mired in the irrelevant debate of “Who Said It?” rather than “What has been said?” In other words, they want to discover the “Messenger” to give it some perspective and thus derive specific meaning, ignoring the fact that messenger is just an instrument and a transient being and that they should be focusing on the intransient or eternal “message” and ponder over its meaning and intricacies in a wider perspective and reach the depths to fetch the invaluable or priceless gems of meaning. It should be kept in mind that there is no single person who encapsulates the entire concept or idea of a person or “human being” — yet the idea “human being” describes all human beings: so the idea is more complete and thus “truer” and everlasting, compared to the sayer who lives for some duration of the time and then passes away. In short, philosophers pass away but philosophies remain.
Regardless, the quotes don’t simply say as most professional motivational speakers or writers like Napoleon Hill would have you believe that when you start thinking or rather daydreaming that you have become rich, famous, or beautiful, you will ultimately become that same person, you are imagining about, in due course of time. Thus distorting the original idea put forth by above thinkers, people like Napoleon Hill devised some other quotes looking like ideas of Emerson or Buddha for their own sinister aims of minting money in the name of self help. Hence Hill’s following quote, very cleverly, distorts the original idea put forward by above mentioned authors:
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
Hill was not a great intellectual or ideologue and falls under the category of commercial writers whose sole purpose is minting money in the name of inspiring people. He was, in fact, an American self-help author best known for his book “Think and Grow Rich.”
Thus quote seems to convey the stereotype message as explained by some “self-help” writers that if you can think about a certain goal, and if you believe you can achieve it, you will most probably achieve it, provided you add another ingredient to the equation, and that ingredient is strong desire (irrespective of the desirability of the desire).
These kinds of explanations are mostly meant to give people a false dose of hope and self-confidence/inspiration as well as a false and very narrow concept of “success” in order to attract more listeners and readers to sell ambiguous ideas for profit making.
It may be mentioned that Hill, in modern times, is considered a controversial figure. Accused of fraud, modern historians also doubt many of his claims. Gizmodo has called him “the most famous conman you’ve probably never heard of”.
It is also important to know that Buddha or Emerson were not professional or commercial writers and thus they wanted to convey a noble message without any ulterior motive. Thus to my understanding what they actually wanted to convey is that thinking affects our words as well as actions. And if we have right kind of thinking that will lead to right kind of speech and ultimately right kind of action.
This explanation seems more valid when we read both Emerson and Budhha to know their ideas in detail. They both didn’t believe in material or conventional concept of success. The basic beliefs of Buddhism are the Four Noble Truths, which teach that life is suffering and suffering is caused by desire and attachment. Thus controlling one’s desire can result in real success. On the contrary, desire plays an important role in the conventional concept of success that is promoted by commercial writers as its achievement requires that you must have strong desire that ultimately becomes the cause of suffering. Similarly, Emerson also believed that a man must be a non conformist and thus rejects the idea of conventional success and achievement promoted by self-help type pseudo philosophers.
Thus the true meaning of “you become what you think” can be best understood in the context of Buddhism’s “Noble Eightfold Path” which keeps the “right thought,” “right speech,” and “right action” respectively at number 2,3, and 4 after “right understanding” that stands at number one.
We must know that problem always begins in the mind before happening in our physical world and becoming visible. When an idea or thought strikes our mind, we must start assessing that idea i.e. if it is right or wrong and then ultimately accept or reject it. According to Buddha, our thoughts are very powerful; they determine our mental states (such as happiness or sadness) and then our actions. With this understanding, one is then asked to have the right intentions. While this means several different things, it is essentially asking you to turn away from the vicious cycle of craving and desire by committing to a lifestyle of self-improvement and ethical conduct.
There is also another simple and beautiful explanation that is given in the following form:
The above illustration is actually an extension of the original triple filter test quote ascribed to Bernard Meltzer:
“Before you speak ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid.”
And thus one should also refrain from taking action.
In a nutshell when we are able to control our thoughts and reject the wrong/negative thoughts and accept right/positive thoughts, our speech also becomes good and thus leads to good and virtuous action making us a good human being who has no desire for so-called success and thus no negative traits, such as lying, jealousy, hatred, selfishness, greed etc. On the contrary we will have traits such as compassion, love, charity, kindness, tolerance, and other noble qualities or qualities of the heart and achieving these trait is real success.
Moreover, contrary to what is accepted in today’s societies, the Buddhist interpretation of karma does not refer to preordained fate. Karma refers to the ultimate results of good or bad actions a person takes during their lifetime. Good actions, which involve either the absence of bad actions, or actual positive acts, such as contentment, generosity, righteousness, and mindfulness bring about satisfaction and happiness in the long run. Bad actions, such as greed, selfishness, lying, stealing or killing, bring about unhappiness in the long run.
Moreover we also must know that what we should become (or must have right view or right understanding that is the at the top of the list of Noble Eightfold Path) before trying to become something lest we end up finding ourselves going in wrong direction or reaching nowhere as the following quote from Alice in Wonderland denotes:
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.
‘Where do you want to go?’ the cat asked.
‘I don’t know.’ Alice answered.
‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter,”
If we are not aware of why are we doing something, our action can’t be a free action. Freedom is closely related to awareness.
Thus we can easily conclude that everything starts from our mind and boundaries are also first created or erased in the mind before they are created or erased in the physical world. And our thought is the ultimate superpower but not in the sense that pseudo philosophers or so-called motivational speakers/writers would want us to believe as our ultimate goal is to be a good and useful human being and not a successful but unwanted human being.
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References:
i) https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl257/classical/platonic%20idealism.htm
ii) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Hill#cite_note-1
iii) https://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/success/what-you-think-and-believe-you-can-achieve/
