” Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny”
Lao Tze
I came across this quote while surfing through stateofmindz blog. Reading this quote was like discovering something which I knew from my day today experience. The quote in itself conveys great ideas but there was something missing,Something I had been searching for such a long time.Now I have the answer to what I was searching, I had something to add to the quote.
Another version of this quote can be read as:
“Thoughts of others become their words
Their words influence our thought
These thoughts influence our words
These words influence a lot of others”
Haven’t you noticed how the thoughts and actions of others influence our behavior? When we hear an opinion on a subject, which we never thought of before, it becomes our opinion. So when someone else talks on this subject we too give an opinion, the other person’s version( The first person who talked on this subject). If the first person who talked to us on the subject was having some vested interest, and if we believed his opinion without doing any research a lot of others are going to be doomed. This is how the train of thought travels.
This type of thought manipulation occurs all the time and we are not even aware of this. When a friend talks about a movie and presents his opinion,” Man, that movie was wonderful” just because he is the greatest fan of the hero, who infact did a very bad job, our thoughts too become just like his. When someone else asks, we may just say, “It is a wonderful movie”.Thought manipulation of this form may be harmless, but when it comes to more serious subjects it becomes detrimental.
Political views,views on love, family integrity, honour and a lot of others subjects are most prone to thought manipulation.
A friend of mine and I had this interesting talk on love vs arranged marriage. He was a person who had his love crushed by his parents, and his views were really changed this time. He said” Love marriage is like poorly planned robbery”. I had no opinion regarding this subject and the thought became deep rooted in my mind. So next time the subject came up, even though I had no clear idea, I gave away my opinion” Love marriage is like a poorly planned robbery”, it immediately got a great deal of attention. What I did was just absurd, now not only me but a lot of other people were having this belief. The only way we can get out of this type of manipulation is by doing a study on the subject, or by asking someone who was a master on this subject. So what I did next was, I asked another friend of mine who was leading a married life with his long time lover. This person had another version for me “Living with a known devil, is much better than living with an unknown one”. Man, these guys have a hell lot of ideas! This time I am not going to be tricked, I will believe when I have an experience, when I understand really what I am thinking about or going to talk about.
If we don’t pay enough attention in this regard, there is high chance that our views will be biased on any subject we are not proficient enough to give an opinion.
Mindboggling- Mind blogger? 