Dear Brothers and Sisters,

People use the term “positive thinking” very often. But do we understand “positive” correctly?

Almost all the “teachers” of positive thinking define positive thinking as “I can do it” – You believe in yourself, you have enough confidence to do whatever you put your mind to.

That sounds very positive. But, too bad, it is still wrong.

If you believe in your robbing the bank, or killing someone, or cheating your customers… is that positive thinking?

Of course, not. You are very positive in doing a big crime, that is, using math to speak, positive you = +5, negative crime = -25, both go together: (+5) x (-25) = -125. Super-negative thinking.

In order to have positive, you have to have 2 positives going together: (1) You think positively about (2) doing a positive deed.

You can’t have positive thinking in doing a negative thing.

Positive deeds are deeds based on love, caring, peace, harmony, justice, equality… – generally, things that saints, churches, temples… usually tell people to do.

Negative deeds are those based on hatred, jealousy, discrimination, criminal intention, war… – things that most people tell you not to do.

Most positive thinking teachers out there teach you to focus on your personal gain – money, reputation, power, property… That is called “greed”, and in all spiritual schools of the world, greed is the mother of almost all negative thoughts and actions of mankind. In Buddhism, it is one of the tree poisons (tam độc) that kill the human soul: greed, anger, ignorance. So, positively focusing on greed is colossal negative.

In true positive thinking, we must focus on our confidence and also the positivity of what we think and do.

And that is why in ĐCN we call our positive thinking “positive spirituality” (tâm linh tích cực).

Wish we all be positive.

With compassion,

Hoành

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