Always be Positive

So we have to work around the mind and try to control our thinking. Every time you think negatively, just brush it aside and replace it immediately with the counter-thought, the positive one. Suppose you think, "Oh! I'm going to lose, I'm going to lose this business. I'm going to lose a hundred percent. All the odds are against me. I'm going to lose." Suppose you think that, then don't think it! Say, "No, no! I'm going to win. No matter what! I'm going to win." And even then if you don't win, will it cost you anything? Is it a better choice if you choose the negative and the pessimistic view? So you might just as well use the positive!

It doesn't cost you anything, and it might gain you something. You might not succeed the first time when you think positively, but we are in the process of training our minds to think positively. So even if you don't succeed the first time, do not give up. Next time, think positively again and again. At least you train yourself to think positively. And positive thinking always makes us feel good anyhow.

It's been scientifically proven that even if you smile falsely or reluctantly, still the cells in the body produce a happy mood. So why don't we think with a smile all the time, to command our whole body and being to produce this kind of happy mood for us. And then when a person is happy, he attracts good luck. Everybody knows that. So let's do that from this day on as a practice. Together with the Quan Yin power to support this positive thinking, we're going somewhere, all right? (Audience applauds)

Do not ever allow yourself to think anything negative again. Even if you have bad, bad, bad experiences repeatedly, do not allow it. But there is one thing: If you repeatedly have bad experiences in one circumstance, do not just stick there and say, "I'm going to change it into positive." After the tenth attempt, if it doesn't work, then change the whole thing. Throw it out, the whole situation; make a new one. Positive thinking doesn't mean that you stick in the mud, grow yourself in the wall, and think positive. You are stuck in there, saying, "I'm going to think positive. I'm going to get out of here. I'm thinking positive."

If you can't get out of there by thinking positive, knock the wall out and get out of the situation. So positive means, "Okay, if this doesn't work, it doesn't mean I'm a failure." That's all. "If this situation doesn't work, I'm going to make a new situation for myself; I will not waste my energy in this unfruitful project. I'm going to use my energy and invest it in a more fruitful way, in a more encouraging project, more logically-and it will bring results."

Because if you keep sticking in one situation, and you keep failing all the time, you will also lose your positive power of thinking. And that's the worst thing you can lose. It's okay to fail once now and again in a project, because sometimes it's not only our fault that things fail. Our associates or other people are also negative; they keep hindering us or affecting our thinking and our way of doing things. But if you keep failing and failing all the time, and you try to work through these people, then you will eventually also think that you are a failure and blame yourself, and lose this positive power. And this is bad.

So, after many attempts, if it doesn't work, you have to know when to stop and change. There's no need to try to move mountains all the time. When you say, "Oh, Master says I have to think positive. I'm not going to move until this mountain moves," then you sit there and move the mountain.

You have to know what is necessary to spend your energy on. Because there is also God's will; there are other things to do and nicer projects to spend energy on. We don't have to always stick in the mud, feeling that we have to do something until the end in order to feel successful. That is stubbornness-not positive thinking, but stubbornness.

So we have to sometimes sit down for a while. If something goes wrong, we have to sit down by ourselves and think, "Is this fruitful or not? Is it worth continuing?" If it's not, we have to have the courage and the wisdom to stop, and the positive thinking to start anew. And never give up after one failure.

It's also true with relationships. If really you try very hard and it doesn't work, then maybe you should set each other free, and do something more positive for the rest of your time. It does work eventually all the time, but it's up to you to invest your energy and time in one project or another, in one relationship or another.