Yoga Sagar

SR No.: 014011
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Paramhamsa Satyananda
Publisher: Bihar School of Yoga Munger
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 436
Language: English
Classification: Seminar & Articles
File Size: 24 MB

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thing that happens is that you get into those thoughts that are on the surface. Allow yourself to do that: it is very important. Do not say, "No, I only have to go deep and have deep wonderful thoughts. Thoughts about money, emotional problems, what I have to do tomorrow, what I did yesterday, food or whatever, have nothing to do with my meditation." Avoid that, let those thoughts.come first.
When you talk about creativity, for instance, there is something called brainstorming. Brainstorming means that you allow all ideas to come into the mind. I once read an interview in an American magazine with a man who was famous for getting good ideas and giving them to industrialists and other people. The interviewer said to him, "How come you get so many good ideas that other people don't get? What is that special capacity?" He said, "The capacity is that I don't get any more good ideas than anyone else, but I allow all the bad ideas to express themselves also and I even note them down, and when I have had one hundred ideas, I pick out three of them, and they are highly useful."
I can give you an example of such a good idea from a similar person living in Denmark. You may laugh but this is serious. There was a ship that sank in the harbor and it was very important to get it up again for some reason. They could not do it with cranes, and this man was asked, "Can't you come up with an idea as to how we can get that ship up again?" I do not know if you know here in India, but there is a very famous cartoon character in the west called Donald Duck and he has a cousin or an uncle who is an inventor, and suddenly this man remembered what they did in the Donald Duck cartoon. Donald Duck took ping-pong balls and put them into a ship and then the ship came up. So the man bought millions of ping-pong balls, so many that he filled the whole ship. Then the ship came up. Crazy idea and, if it came into your mind, you might have refused it. But it worked, the ship came up and of course, he got great respect for it.
So allow the mind to be active, let it have silly thoughts, stupid thoughts, genius thoughts. Some people cannot bear to be a genius: they are too modest. But please, if you get a stroke of genius, allow that too. Allow spiritual thoughts if they come, and allow evil thoughts also. Some people get afraid when I say that I cannot distinguish between good and bad when I meditate.
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