Shri Sat Charitra Ch3 - Baba's love for devotees

Key takeaways, condensation of Ch3

Baba confirms his assent to Hemadpant to write his story saying that reading his Leelas attentively would remove Avidya and give rise to Virakti, Bhakti and Jnana.

Then turning towards Shama, Baba said, "If a man utters My name with love, I shall fulfill all his wishes, increase his devotion. And if he sings earnestly My life and My deeds, him I shall beset in front and back and on all sides. Those devotees, who are attached to Me, heart and soul, will naturally feel happiness, when they hear these stories. Believe Me that if anybody sings My Leelas, I will give him infinite joy and everlasting contentment. It is My special characteristic to free any person, who surrenders completely to Me, and who does worship Me faithfully, and who remembers Me, and meditates on Me constantly. How can they be conscious of worldly ob- jects and sensations, who utter My name, who worship Me, who think of My stories and My life and who thus al- ways remember Me? I shall draw out My devotees from the jaws of Death. If My stories are listened to, all the dis- eases will be got rid of. So, hear My stories with respect; and think and meditate on them, assimilate them. This is the way of happiness and contentment. The pride and ego- ism of My devotees will vanish, the mind of the hearers will be set at rest; and if it has wholehearted and complete faith, it will be one with Supreme Consciousness. The simple remembrance of My name as ‘Sai, Sai’ will do away with sins of speech and hearing".

The Lord assigns to each devotee a different work depending on their inclinations. They are but the instrument - the Doer is the Lord. Like the flute is but an instrument for the flutist to produce music.
Hence Hemadpant says, "So, when I took up the pen in my hand, Sai Baba took away my egoism and wrote Himself His stories. The credit of relating these stories, therefore, goes to Him and not to me."
As the mantra goes - "kayenu vacha manasa indraiyava.... karomi yadyat...narayanayeti samarpayami."

Baba's stories are like beacons of light that help "to avoid rocks and dangers, and make them sail safely. ....in the ocean of worldly existence." When we hear them - "the body - consciousness or egoism and the sense of duality vanish;"

"The description of Baba’s pure fame, and the hearing of the same, with love, will destroy the sins of the devotee and, therefore, this is the simple Sadhana for attaining salvation."

In different Yugas there were different methods for God Realization. In Satya it was Tapas, penance; in Treta - Yajna i.e. sacrifice; in Dwapara it was worship while in Kali it is singing the name and glory of the lord. This is also the mode considering spiritual evolution of an individual soul. A highly evolved soul can do tapas which is jnana marga like Ramana Maharishi did. Lesser evolved souls resort to Karma or Bhakti yoga, but for the least evolved, uneducated souls it has to be a much simpler mode i.e. constant remembrance of God. But even this is not easy as it seems.

The devotee can now read Sai Sat Charita and while doing so he should, "meditate on Him, His form and thus attain devotion to Guru and God (Sai Baba), get detachment and self-realization."

Sai Baba loves his devotees like a mother loves its child. Even if the child doesnt take care of itself, the mother devotes her attention, lavishes her love on the child to ensure its welfare.

Baba ensured that Hemadpants financial difficulties were removed.
He supported a Rohilla who was causing disturbance to others by his loud recitation of Koran, so that the Rohilla is spiritually uplifted. By constant repetition of prayers that man was able to keep "durbuddhi" or bad judgment at bay.

Once when the arti was over, Sai Baba said to all, "Be wherever you like, do whatever you choose, remember this well that all what you do is known to Me. I am the Inner Ruler of all and seated in their hearts. I envelope all the creatures, the movable and immovable world. I am the Controller - the wire-puller of the show of this Uni- verse. I am the mother - origin of all beings - the Harmony of three Gunas, the propeller of all senses, the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer. Nothing will harm him, who turns his attention towards Me, but Maya will lash or whip him who forgets Me. All the insects, ants, the visible, movable and immovable world, is My Body or Form."

Concluding this chapter Hemadpant urges the devotees "to leave out the various hindrances viz. indolence, sleep, wandering of mind, attachments to senses, etc. and turn their whole and undivided attention to these stories of Sai Baba. Let their love be natural, let them know the secret of devotion; let them not exhaust themselves by other Sadhanas, let them stick to this one simple remedy, i.e.listening to Sai Baba’s stories. This will destroy their ignorance and will secure for them salvation."

May Sai be forever enshrined in our heart.

Om Sadguru Shri Sainathaya Namaha
Hari Om Tat Sat

Sai Sat Charita Ch2 - Its need, how it helps devotees, Necessity of Guru

Shri Annasaheb i.e. Hemadpant, the author of this work, on seeing and hearing about the innumerable Sai Leelas felt inspired to make a poetic work about Baba's life which would be "interesting and instructive to His devotees". However a saints life story cannot be a "logical and dialectical" exposition. IMHO the above line could mean that one shouldnt debate on the outward mannerisms, but try to understand the inner purport of every Leela with a sincere, devoted heart so as to draw the right lessons. What is "right"? - if we surrender our ego and pray sincerely to Sai Baba, he will let us know what is right.

Hemadpant, in his humility, considers himself unfit to write this book. As writing about a saint's is a most difficult task, hence he invokes Baba's grace.
It is always important to seek Guru's permission and grace before any major undertaking.

Sant Jnaneswar says that the Lord loves those who write about saints. The saints also use devotees as a medium - "The saints inspire the work, the devotee becomes only an indirect cause or instrument to achieve the end".

Hemadpant also directs us towards several others works on the lives of saints, many about Sai Baba himself. "Bhakta Leelamrit and Santa Kathamrit" by Shri Das Ganu have chapters on the life of Sai Baba. "So also Sai Baba’s wonderful Leelas are described in a small decent book named Shri Sainath Bhajana Mala by Mrs. Savitribai Raghunath Tendulkar of Bandra."

Hemadpant himself asks that when there are so many works, where is the necessity for another book. The answer is - "The life of Sai Baba is as wide and deep as the infinite ocean; and all can dive deep into the same and take out precious gems (of knowledge and Bhakti), and distribute them to the aspiring pub- lic. The stories, parables, and teachings of Sai Baba are very wonderful. They will give peace and happiness to the people, who are afflicted with sorrows and heavily loaded with miseries of this worldly existence, and also bestow knowledge and wisdom, both in the worldly and in spir- itual domains......This collection would be most delightful to those simple souls, whose eyes were not blessed with Sai Baba’s darshana."

It was Sai Baba who inspired him, when he surrendered his ego at Baba's feet.
When Hemadpant sought Baba's permission through Shama i.e. Shri Madhavrao Deshpande's help, Baba blessed Hemadpant's with His Udi and gave permission. Baba told him to surrender his ego to Baba - "When his ego is completely annihilated and there is left no trace of it, I Myself shall enter into him and shall Myself write My own life. Hearing my stories and teachings will create faith in devotees’ hearts and they will easily get self - realization and Bliss; let there be no insistence on establishing one’s own view, no attempt to refute other’s opin- ions, no discussions of pros and cons of any subject."

Hemadpant then describes how his first meeting with Baba came about. Two great devotees of Baba, Kakasaheb Dixit and Nanasaheb Chandorkar, who were also good friends of Hemadpant had repeatedly urged him to meet Baba. He had even planned for the same. But he got disillusioned when neither medical nor Divine help could cure the fever ravaging a son of his close friend. However sometime later fortuitously Nanasaheb met him and chided him for not going to meet Baba. Convinced by Nanasaheb's reasoning, Hemadpant started for Shirdi the same night travelling through train. Here is what happened then -

"I planned to go to Dadar and there to catch the train for Manmad, and so I booked myself for Dadar and sat in the train. While the train was to start, a Mahomedan came hastily to my compartment and seeing all my paraphernalia, asked me where I was bound to. I told him my plan. He then suggested that I should straight go to Boribunder, and not get down at Dadar, for the Manmad Mail did not get down at Dadar at all. If this little mir- acle or Leela had not happened, I would not have reached Shirdi next day as settled, and many doubts would have as- sailed me. But that was not to be."

Next morning when he reached Shirdi, fortunately Baba was visiting the same lodge where he was to be put up. He immediately ran and fell at Baba's feet. This is what he felt -
"All my senses were satisfied and I forgot thirst and hunger. The moment I touched Sai Baba’s feet, I began a new lease of life. I felt myself much obliged to those who spurred and helped me to get the darshana;...The peculiarity of Sai Baba’s darshana, as I found it, is that by His darshana our thoughts are changed, the force of previous actions is abated and gradually non-attachment of dispassion towards worldly objects grows up. It is by the merit of actions in many past births that such darshana is got, and if only you see Sai Baba, really all the world becomes or assumes the form of Sai Baba."

The author then describes how discussion and debates cause a spirit of egoism to rise and one loses peace of mind. While at the lodge, the author had debate with another gentleman on the necessity of Guru, the author opining that Guru cannot help one who doesnt help himself while the other man emphasized on the need of Guru and importance of Destiny. Miraculously Sai Baba who was at the Masjid percieved this debate and next morning asked about the matter, referring to the author as Hemadpant. Hemadpant was 13th century statesman serving the Devagiri kings. He was learned and had authored a spiritual treatise.
Baba's title of Hemadpant to Annasaheb was prophetic because in future Annasaheb effeciently managed the administration of Sai Sansthan and also wrote this gem of a book on Sai Leelas.

On the necessity of Guru, Sai Baba says that when the soul has to spiritually evolve, it has to go through great difficulties, its like travelling through a forest with tigers, wolves and deep pits (these dangers are the senses, ahamkara, the six evils). The Guru is like a guide who takes the disciple straight to the destination without getting lost in the jungle or falling in ditches, "real Paramartha is possible only as the result of the teachings of the Guru,"

OM SADGURU SHRI SAINATHAYA NAMAHA
HARI OM

Sai Sat Charita Ch 1 - The Grinding down of evil

I am a very low spiritually evolved person enmeshed in my struggle in worldy existence, unable to cross the Samsaric ocean, as I am not having proper self control to walk the right path shown by Gurus. In a desperate situation, this lowly soul, turns to Sadguru Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi for deliverance from these struggles and spiritual upliftment. May that great saint show compassion to this soul who has lost his way.

Sai Sat Charita is a wonderful book written due to the immeasurable kindness of Baba, througn the medium of the foremost amongst devotees Shri Govindrao (Annasaheb) Dabholkar whom Baba christened as Hemadpant. This was written in Marathi and it has bern translated into English by Shri Nagesh V Gunaji.

I have read a Parayana of this book for a week and it is indeed spiritually lifting. But I realize that for people like me are so far away from Truth, that daily practice for a long time is required. So I now resolve to read a chapter daily and write below the key takeaways that my limited intellect can understand. This is from a selfish desire to keep meditating on the contents and get them deeply embedded in the psyche.

May Baba bless me.

At the beginning of any undertaking, its important to make a resolution and seek blessings.

Bless me O Lord Ganapati remover of obstacles and ensure successful completion of my resolve.

Bless me O Shaktis who represent fortune, wisdom and compassion, 

Bless me O Trimurtis, Bless me O Devas of elements especially Sun God,
Bless me O Lord Venkateswara, my kuladevata

I seek blessings from my mother and father, my grandparents and forefathers.

Last but foremost, I seek blessings of Sai Baba who is Guru, God and parents too.

I humbly bow and seek blessings of all other Gurus, I revere like Swami Sivananda, Ramana Maharishi, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Kanchi Paramacharya, Swami Chandrasekhara Bharati of Sringeri and Adi Shankara. 

Chapter 1

In 1910, once Sai Baba grinds huge quantity of wheat in his chakki. People wonder why, as he is a fakir and generally begs for alms. Some women take over the work, not wanting to see Baba labouring. Baba allows them, but when after doing the task they wish to divide the flour amongst themselves, Baba vehemently objects and asks them to throw the flour outside the village. For Baba was not grinding wheat but the Cholera epidemic ravaging the village and he got it thrown out of the village. Soon the impact of the epidemic wanes down. Its incredible and one of innumerable Sai Leelas. This one inpires Hemadpant to write about Sai Leelas. In the end all of us got benefited by getting this illuminating Sai Sat Charita.

At a deeper level, as Hemadpant beautifully points out, Baba wants us to grind down our desires, ahamkar, impulses in the chakki of Karma and Bhakti, whose handle is Jnana. It also shows that if we are devoted to Sai, he will enable us to grind them down, but we deluded souls still have attachment and have the tendency to keep these impulses. But as Sai directs us, we have to throw these grinded evil, well outside of us, so that it doesnt find its way in.

Lets pray to Baba to enable us to do that.

Another interpretation is through Sant Kabir's dialogue with his Guru Nipathiranjana who advises him to hold fast to handle of Jnana of the chakki and stay close to the centre (i.e. turn inwards) to avoid getting grinded by the stones i.e. worldly desires, sins, ahamkara. Getting grinded in this parlance is getting enmeshed in the Ocean of Samsara and degrading spiritually.
May Sai Baba protect us.

Om Sadguru Shri Sai Nathaya Namaha

Thodudaiya seviyan - With ear rings

"thOdu udaiya seviyan vidai ERi Or thU veN madhi sUdik 
kAdu udaiya sudalaip podi pUsi en uLLam kavar kaLvan 
Edu udaiya malarAn munai ~nAL paNi~ndhu Eththa aruL seydha 
pIdu udaiya piramApura[m] mEviya pemmAn ivan andRE"

Composer by the saint Thirugnanasambandhar (popularly known as Sambandhar)

When the saint Sambhandar
Was but a three year old toddler
Went one day to the pond
Accompanied by his father

On the steps of the tank
Leading down to the water
"Be here son, as I finish my bathe"
Smilingly said the father

As the child waited, soon
It suffered pangs of hunger
Started crying, child that it was
Craving affection from mother

The child's cries were heard at Kailas
Abode of the Divine Mother and Father
Then Mother Parvati, whose heart melted
At the sight of the saintly toddler

Pleaded to the Merciful Lord Siva
"The poor child cries, we must go thither"
Lord assented, and mounted on the bull,
At the pond, in a trice, they did appear

At the sight of the Divine Couple
The saint gaped awestruck
As the kind Mother of Universe beckoned him,
Couldn't believe his luck

With the milk of kindness and love
From her breasts overflowing
Poured out in a golden cup,
Sambandhar quenched his thirst

While the child gulped the divine Nectar
His father returned after his bath
Seeing drops of milk on his son's cheeks
And no one around, concerned he asked.

"Son, who gave you this milk,
that you seem to have drunk ample?"

"They" the child cried, "Who" exclaimed the father.
Who could not see - the Divine Couple

And then with happy tears flowed
The nectar of Sambandhar's sublime verse

"With ear rings gem studded....
sang the son

"With ear rings gem studded?
Asked the surprised father

"Yes, and on His majestic bull well seated...

"On a majestic bull, you said?"

"Yes, indeed...
With ear rings gem studded
on His majestic bull well seated.

The pure white moon has come down
As a crescent to be His crown

His body smeared with ashes
from the cremation ground,

That Thief has stolen a treasure
For my heart is not to be found

The glorious forefather Brahma
Who was on lotus petals seated
Worshiped that Lord ages ago
By whom he has been Blessed

This town PiramApura
Well found is its fame
For this Lord who Resides here
Is of great acclaim"


Translation:
"The God with a ring in His ears appear on the Holy Bull (creation), He has the moon on his head ( protection*), 
He wears the ash of the burnt bodies in the cremation ground (destruction),
He- that thief- has stolen my heart (Hiding),
He blessed the Brahma, who is on the Lotus, when he prayed the God in the past (blessing),
He is that Peruman of the great Piramaapuram*".

Another Translation:
The one with the ear ring. The one on a bull; The one who wears a pure white moon. The one who is smeared with the holy ash. The thief who stole my heart. The one who blessed brahma when he worshipped him long ago. The lord who resides in the famous town of sIrgAzhi. It is he indeed.

Nannu vidachi kadalakura Ramayya Rama

Beautiful kriti by Thyagaraja in that ever melodious soulful Reetigowla raga

Detailed translation can be found courtesy the following link based on which I have been able to versify as below

http://thyagaraja-vaibhavam.blogspot.in/2007/07/thyagaraja-kriti-nannu-vidachi-raga.html

Attaining the fortune of reaching your blessed feet
Is like the shade of wish fulfilling Kalpa tree

Its like holding one's breathe to find
The most precious pearl in deep sea

Its like digging deep into the bowels of earth
To find vast unimaginable treasury

Its like being relieved of years of drought
With your Grace raining heavily

After this suffering, now dont deny me your love
This body is but your property

I cant bear separation for even a second
Dont move away abandoning me

O Rama the entrancing
O Rama the warrior
O Rama the munificent
O Rama the Lord of all

Samskaras and Mind Control

Reading an excellent book on meditation from the Vedanta perspective with insights in Yoga and Samkhya philosophy as well. This book written by Swami Bhajanananda is available freely on the following link.

www.vedanta.gr/wp-content/.../SwBhajan_ConcMeditation_ENA5.pdf

A very insightful approach on the Purification of Samskaras is given on Page 27

A samskara is a latent impression on the mind fabric, which connects an impulse to an idea.

These samskaras make us behave in a certain manner. For example an alcohol addict feels craving for alcohol. The impression which causes this is the samskara, and when a thought wave i.e. vritti passes by, it attracts this is samskara and then the impulse to have alcohol is formed. That sudden seizure of our mind by this deluding impulse is called vasana.

Imagine a beautiful flower bed, outside your study – now when a breeze blows that way it will carry the refreshing fragrance of the flowers to you. The flower bed is the samskara (in this case a positive one) and breeze is a thought wave or a vritti. Now if instead of a flower bed, if it’s a garbage dump, then you nose will be assaulted by a foul smell instead of fragrance. The garbage dump is a bad samskara.

Another way of visualizing samskaras and vrittis is samskaras are a magnetic tape recorder and the vrittis are like the electric current through the needle which reads the tape.

Your mind is like a whole of the tape, if it mostly contains bad samskaras then you will all cacophonous, disturbing sounds and screeches. Else if there is predominance of good samskaras then you can have a soothing, soulful music.

The thing about samskaras is that every time they are accessed they become deeper. It is like a group of people walking over wet earth. As more and more people walk over it they make deeper and deeper impressions of their footprints. Thus the more a samskara is acted upon, the stronger it becomes, and there are more chances of it disturbing your awareness, the more difficult to avoid the impulses.

So it is very important to weaken the samskaras. It is said that they can’t be destroyed unless you enter Samadhi, but they can be weakened. How to do that is mentioned in the page 27 of the above mentioned book. I will give it verbatim below.

“One method of is to weaken the power of impulses through abstinence, avoidance and withdrawal and other forms of tapas and austerity. Another method is to increase the number of good samskaras through virtuous karma. Something like what physical chemists call the Law of Mass Action operated in mental life also. When dharma samskaras (good impressions) increase, they keep in check adharma samskaras (bad impressions). These two methods – tapas and virtuous karma – are unavoidable disciplines during the early stages of meditative life.

Patanjali speaks of a third method, which may be practised along with the other two. This is to change the connection between impulses and mental images. Images exert a great influence in the mind. If bad impulses, when they arise in the mind, are connected to the image of a holy man or holy woman, they immediately get controlled. Similarly, bad images cease to appear bad when connected to good emotions. This process of changing the connections between mental images and I,pulses is called pratipaksa-bhavanam. This is to be done through proper self-analysis, but this becomes effective only when the new connections are tested in action.

A fourth and higher method is to detach the will. The connection between images and impulses is consciously made by exercising the will. This connection is supported by the will. If the will is detached, the samskaras break apart. However, detachment is not easy. It becomes possible only when supported by other disciplines.”

The first method – tapas, is absolutely essential. Some may feel it is restrictive or too extreme. But in such cases as very strong bad samskaras, little force is of no use and even counter-productive. If you have to have any impact, you have to put enormous force, all your will and intent behind it. When a rocket is being fired, it has to travel with at least the escape velocity to break past the gravitational attraction of the planet. If it doesn’t escape, then it will crash back and get destroyed. There is nothing such as baby steps in this matter. So it has to be complete abstinence. Abstinence doesn’t mean just physical, it has to be mental as well. In fact it is mainly mental. Suppose you want to avoid sweets, you have decided to abstain watching cookery shows or visiting sweet shops etc, but if you don’t tackle the vrittis of sweets which arise in your mind, as soon as they come, then you will be mentally craving for sweets and even if you don’t see any cookery shows, you will go out of the way to reach a sweet shop. I have seen some people, who are regular smokers, but once they have made up their mind, they have completely abstained from it. It was not gradual reduction say from 10 cigarettes a day to 5, then to two etc. It is 10 to zero straightaway.

The second method i.e. increasing good samskaras is also very powerful. I am trying to regularly chant Vishnu Sahasranama. For me VS is very attractive – it has a certain cadence to it and hence every now and then the shlokas come to my mind. Similarly doing good things even as simple as not losing your temper, forgiving others quickly, not holding grudges, feeling love and compassion for someone who is afflicted – these all are good samskaras with strong emotive component and will easily gain ground in the mind.

The third method is akin to modern Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), wherein you try to cognitively disassociate the impulse and associated object or thought. Also another approach part of CBT, which is also mentioned in this book is to become cognizant and accept the negative effects of the bad samskara which manifests in our live. For example alcohol addiction disrupts family life, derails one’s career, destroys wealth and health. By such reasoning which will have emotional impact one should tackle these impulses.

As far as the last method is concerned, it will not come immediately to us. Only after we succeed in curbing the impulses to an extent by the first three methods, especially tapas, that we will have any measure of success in detaching our will. However detaching our will is required to conclusively address the bad samskara for will is the power source of the samskara.

It is like uprooting a tree. You first dig the earth around intensively (tapas), you build support mechanisms like having sufficient implements like axe, shovels etc (2^nd method), you tackle different roots differently, untangling them from the earth (CBT) and finally you uproot it completely without any residue (detaching the will), so that the samskara is not ever nourished again

It is like trying to repair a faulty faucet or tap. The tap is connected to a waterline. The line has strong flow of water akin to the will which powers the bad samskara. So you have close that line through tapas, then you repair the tap through good samskaras and CBT. If it cannot be repaired you discard the tap. You don’t attach the tap again to the waterline from where it draws power.

Now tapas doesn’t mean you are in a war mode, always alert and tensed. You have to alert, but calmly alert. Now this seems like a contradiction. Alert and Calm. But it is possible. In fact because you are calm, you are alert. Calmness is the prerequisite. Calmness comes from a confidence that whenever the problem erupts (which you can alertly find out because you are calm), you know how to tackle it. So where will you get the confidence to tackle the problem – through pranayama and dhyana. The virtuous cycle has to start somewhere. But a balanced way is to start meditating. When you meditate, by consciously breathing and chanting a mantra, then you can control the mind just like by getting control of the clutch, you can control the car. You have to get the subtlest level of control of the clutch, so that you are confident enough that even on slowing down the car considerably, you can still keep the engine running. When you get that level of control, then it doesn’t matter what external situations you face, you will be in control.

We many a times focus on external situations and bemoan or get depressed that we cant have control over them. Some of us turn to God then and pray to God to protect and bless us. While we pray to God, it doesn’t absolve us of the responsibility to gain control on our selves. God helps those who help themselves. When you are learning car driving, then as drive on a road, there may be any sort of situations that you may face. Prayer to God will ensure that you don’t face tough situations, that you can keep your wits about you, that you are able to concentrate etc, but still it is you who have to drive, get control of your car. Now imagine its not a car, but your own mind – the same thing applies. There is a story I read about Swami Vidyaranya who inspired the founders of the Vijayanagara kingdom – Harihara and Bukka. It is said that in order to obtain wealth, he propitiated Devi Lakshmi, but didn’t take any active steps to increase his wealth apart from the prayers. His material situation deteriorated instead of improving. He pleaded to Devi Lakshmi why he was being punished instead of being rewarded. The Goddess replied that he will get blessed with lot of learning, knowledge but if he wanted to improve his financial position, he would have to himself do something about it.

The Dart theory and Mind control

I am pasting below an excerpt from a very good article by Mr Nate Klemp. You can find in this link

http://lifebeyondlogic.com/experiment/the-yoga-of-neuroscience-%E2%80%93-how-to-change-your-brain/

"When things are good, the waves are calm, peaceful, and uplifting. When things get crazy, the waves become scary and chaotic. We cannot change these thought waves. On this view, the best we can do is learn to surrender to them – to shift from resistance to acceptance.

This is the way I’ve usually thought about the mind.  But after reading Rick Hanson’s Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, & Wisdom, I’ve becoming intrigued by a slightly different view.

Here’s the basic idea.  Using the metaphor of “darts” borrowed from the Buddha, Hanson talks about two kinds of thoughts.  Some thoughts come and go without any conscious control.  They are what he calls “first darts.”

Imagine that you’re walking past the corner where a girlfriend or boyfriend from your past dumped you.  All of a sudden you feel a quick wave of sadness and anger moving through you.  That’s a first dart.

Then there are “second darts.”  These are our reactions to first darts.  These are the thoughts that send us into a feedback loop of negative thinking.  Thoughts like, “I can’t believe she left me” or “If only she could see me now.”

Here’s Hanson’s big insight – You can’t control first darts, but, if you interrupt the assembly of neurons and synapses that habitually get activated by them, you can shift the second darts.

You can do this by consciously shifting out of negative thought loops and into more positive ones.  As he says, “Every time you do this – every time you sift positive feelings and views into painful, limiting states of mind – you build a little bit of neural structure.  Over time, the accumulating impact of this positive material will literally, synapse by synapse, change your brain.”

So for this week’s experiment, let’s explore experiencing this shift first hand.  Let’s see if it’s possible to shift from negative second darts to more positive ones."