The Law of Attraction

What is the law of attraction?

According to Wiki the law of attraction is defined as:

“The belief that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life.”

Furthermore:

“The belief is based on the idea that people and their thoughts are both made from "pure energy", and that through the process of "like energy attracting like energy" a person can improve their own health, wealth and personal relationships.”

Pretty simple, right?

Not quite, because in order to apply the law you need to know what a “positive or negative thought” is.

So, I want to be healthy, I want to be wealthy or I want to be loved. Are these positive thoughts?

If I focus on them will I become healthy, wealthy and loved?

Or my meddling with things I don’t understand will get me into trouble?

See, as a Buddhist, I don’t believe that the I is separate from the universe and “asking” the universe for something doesn’t make any sense.

Is like having 1000$ in my pocket and asking for 100$ but never realizing and acknowledging that I have already much more than I need and continue living as a penniless person.

I think this “law of attraction” is totally misinterpreted as a method of controlling the universe, which trust me, is a recipe for disaster.

It is our “Ego” with all its insecurities that feels poor and wants to get more, not our higher self that is infinitely rich and wants to give more.

According to Buddhist teaching (See the Four Noble Truths) Desire is the cause our suffering.

How then, focusing on the things we want will better our lives?

So, it goes back to the first problem. What is positive thinking?

The answer to the question can be also found in the Buddhist teachings (see The Eight-Fold Path)

But “The Eight-Fold Path” it is a little bit more than wishful thinking.

Walking the path is hard and slow, two things that most Americans have a hard time handling.

We want everything to be fast and easy and that is a problem.

Nobody takes the time anymore to learn, to research, to perfect a skill.

We fall for the “get rich quick” scams instead of focusing on developing our potentials.

Our creativity is the only real source of wealth, our generosity the only source of happiness our love the only healing power.

Yes, we are bundles of energy and we do attract the like energies around us.

But what kind of energy are you? What kind of beliefs do you have? What kind of actions do you take?

Those should be the questions you should strive to answer and the thoughts you should focus on.

Not what you want to have from the universe.