Today, I would like to talk about two adjectives, positive and negative. They are well known words. We often hear about positive thinking, positive attitude and so on. I would like to share my idea with you so that it could have some reference values to you.

As you know well, positive means constructive, forward-looking, plus, optimistic, hopeful, and so on. Negative is opposite to positive. It means destructive, backward-looking, minus, pessimistic, hopeless, and so on.

This is why people always say we should have positive thinking or positive attitude, not negative. Positive is a plus to us, while negative is a minus. We all prefer positive rather than negative. However, you might wonder why we have negative thinking sometimes. I think we all have negative thinking at times because we are in passive positions. It is easy to take passive attitude, and have negative thinking. We have to accept this reality. That is, the world is not made for us; the world is not prepared for us. We are in passive position. Sometimes we can not control ourselves. We are often controlled by others, such as great nature, countries, religions, people who have power, and so on. Naturally, we will have difficulties in our lives. This is the truth because difficulties and sad troubles are with us since our birth. When we were born, we cried loudly because we were not comfortable with the world. Before, we were living in paradise, the perfect living environment. We didn’t worry about temperatures, food or anything. It was like heaven. That is why we did not wish to come out of paradise to live in an ill prepared world.

At the beginning, we whispered a signal to our mothers gently; let them know we do not want to leave our paradise. But it did not work. After that, we had been sending many signals to advice them we are serious about this. Unfortunately, they pushed and forced us to come out of paradise. After, we realized that they could not understand us, because we were Angels who were living in heaven and our mothers are ordinary human beings. Then we kindly knocked the walls of paradise by kicking and punching. These actions made the mothers more uncomfortable. They began to turn our heads down to the gate of paradise and they made their forces from head to toes. We resisted strongly. We struggled and we all tired. At the end, we thought our mothers could have prepared bigger paradise for us and we poked our heads out of the gates to see what was going on. Suddenly, pairs of strong hands held our heads like pairs of pliers and pulled us out of paradise. We were much surprised and frightened. We were lost in a moment. After we heard people were screaming, we felt cold and hungry. We started crying to complain that the world is not heaven. There was no paradise. When our parents heard the sounds of crying, they started to laugh loudly with delight instead to comfort our suffering. We have experienced the difficulties of the world.

After we came to this world, we were crying sadly for our short stay of 9 months in paradise. We often complain that this world is not heaven. We often complain that everything should be perfectly prepared for us. We often complain that we have to live in this barbarous world for around 999 months. We are not happy with the world. That is why we have a lot of negative thinking. There is no paradise for us.

Now, we understand that it is normal to have negative thinking as human beings. We are not Angels anymore. There is no heaven in this temporal world, which still follows the law of the jungle, the survival of the fittest. We must face the realities, the difficulties in our lives. We all came to this world with empty hands. We have to build our own paradise. No more complains, because it doesn’t solve any problem. We must turn negative into positive, to change the passive positions around, to have the initiative. If we have positive thinking, we will have confidence and hope, and we will have the initiative. If we have negative thinking, we will lose confidence and hope, and we will lose the initiative. In order to have the initiative we must turn negative into positive in our daily lives. Positive thinking gives us power. It makes us have the initiative. Not only does it make us to do what we have to do, but also make us willing to help others with pleasures. For doing this, we will be respected by others. Our lives will be brighter and brighter. Negative thinking doesn’t give us any power. It makes us lose the initiative. We will not be willing to do what we have to do and we will be ordered to do what we have to do without any pleasures. We will not be respected by others. Our lives will be darker and darker.

We should realize that we have exceptional ability to change the passive positions into active positions and have the initiative. We do not have to be afraid of facing difficulties because we have marvelous potential and knowledge inside our bodies, which are indigenous and are the greatest gift from our parents. We have greater potential and knowledge than we think. It is said, for example, if we fully use our brain capacity, then, we will surpass super computers. Similarly, if we release all potential power, while we only use around 10% potential power we have, then, the power will be extraordinary. Apparently, we have outstanding knowledge and enormous power to deal with difficulties, there is no obstacle we can not get over with our continuous efforts and unlimited potential. If you had realized the most amazing gift you have and believed in your ability, you would have challenged the difficulties you are facing with positive attitudes, you would have been out of passive positions, and you would have overcome the difficulties and fulfilled your destinies. As the proverb goes, where there is a will, there is a way. If you take the opportunities and advantages you have and challenge things you have never done before with confidence, you will rise higher than you think. You will stretch further than you think.

In my humble opinion, life is to turn negative into positive, to change the passive positions to have the initiative in our daily lives, an ever-changing, ever-developing process of study and growth. The meaning of life is to serve others. The value of life is to contribute to others. These are an ideal for our lives. I understand that to lecture on a way of life is easy, but to practice is not. It is not very important whether we realize the ideal or not, but it is really important whether we make continual efforts towards the ideal.

* Mother love is the greatest and most unselfish love in the world. A mother can sacrifice herself to do anything for her children.
* 9, in Japanese pronounce “Ku”, which means trouble, worry, difficulty and pain, but in Chinese pronounce “Jiu”, which means long.