Appendix 3
The Power of Thought

As mentioned in Chapter 6, our thoughts and perceptions influence how we feel about a situation. For example, a negative situation can change simply by changing our perspective about it and vice versa.

Here are some interesting quotes on the subject of thinking from various authors and traditions:

• The world is a reflection of your thoughts. Change your thoughts, change your life. (Notsalmon.com)
• Change I can’t into I can and pretty soon you will be saying I did. (Unknown author)
• Positive thoughts are more powerful than negative ones and you can choose which you pay attention to. (Paul Foreman, www.mindmapinspiration.com)
• A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. (Gandhi)
• Life is the movie you see through your own, unique eyes. It makes little difference what's happening out there. It's how you take it that counts. (Denis Waitley, The Winner's Edge)
• Experience is determined by yourself – not the circumstances of your life. (Gita Bellin)
• To find yourself, think for yourself. (Socrates)
• Dwell not on the past. Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind. Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time. From this moment onward you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed. (Eileen Caddy, God Spoke to Me)
• We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you as your shadow, unshakeable. (The Dhammapada)
• Thoughts are things; they have tremendous power. Thoughts of doubt and fear are pathways to failure. When you conquer negative attitudes of doubt and fear, you conquer failure. Thoughts crystallize into habit and habit solidifies into circumstances. (Brian Adams, How to Succeed)
• You are given the gifts of the gods; you create your reality according to your beliefs. Yours is the creative energy that makes your world. There are no limitations to the self except those you believe in. (Jane Roberts, The Nature of Personal Reality)
• Be at peace and see a clear pattern and plan running through all your lives. Nothing is by chance. (Eileen Caddy, Footprints on the Path)
• What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind. (The Buddha)
• Everything I do and say with anyone makes a difference. (Gita Bellin)
• Thoughts are like boomerangs. (Eileen Caddy, The Dawn of Change)
• There is little sense in attempting to change external conditions, you must first change inner beliefs, then outer conditions will change accordingly. (Brian Adams, How to Succeed)
• Success depends on where intention is. (Gita Bellin)
• You should always be aware that your head creates your world. (Ken Keyes, Jr., Handbook to Higher Consciousness)
• Until you can understand that nothing can happen to you, nothing can ever come to you or be kept from you, except in accord with your state of consciousness, you do not have the key to life. (Paul Twitchell)
• A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror. (Ken Keyes, Jr., Handbook to Higher Consciousness)
• Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her. But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. (Voltaire)
• Life has a bright side and a dark side, for the world of relativity is composed of light and shadows. If you permit your thoughts to dwell on evil, you yourself will become ugly. Look only for the good in everything, that you absorb the quality of beauty. (Paramahansa Yogananda, Sayings of Paramahansa Yogananda)
• A man must elevate himself by his own mind, not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well. (Bhagavad-Gita, VI:5)