Are you what you think?

"The mind is just a reflex organ. It reacts to everything. Fills your head with millions of random thoughts a day. None of those thoughts reveal any more about you than a freckle does at the end of your nose." -Peaceful Warrior

I was intrigued by this quote in the movie "Peaceful Warrior." I appreciate the sentiment of it, but I don't fully agree with it. I think that our thoughts do have an effect on our "self", however you wish to define your "self". Of course we don't usually control every thought that comes into our minds, but we can decide what to put into our minds (our entertainment, our course of study, our discussions), what to experience, what to focus on, which will in turn affect our thoughts. The Baha'i Writings say a lot about the effect that positive thoughts can have, and the effect of negative ones as well. They can either uplift one's spirit, and those around him, or weight it down. Our minds have incredible capacity for progress and also for indulgent fantasies.

"The mind and the thought of man sometimes discover truths, and from this thought and discovery signs and results are produced. This thought has a foundation. But many things come to the mind of man which are like the waves of the sea of imaginations; they have no fruit, and no result comes from them. In the same way, man sees in the world of sleep a vision which becomes exactly realized; at another time, he sees a dream which has absolutely no result. " -'Abdu'l-Baha

Our mind has great capacity for meaningful thoughts that do determine the person we become, but also a great capacity for silliness and frivolous thought. I think the important thing, the one that can determine who a person is, is the balance between these. Which kind is held as important and which is more frequent. I have numerous ridiculous thoughts a day, but I don't consider myself a ridiculous person.

I thought this was another interesting point:

"All the people have formed a god in the world of thought, and that form of their own imagination they worship; when the fact is that the imagined form is finite and the human mind is infinite. Surely the infinite is greater than the finite, for imagination is accidental (or non-essential) while the mind is essential; surely the essential is greater than the accidental." -'Abdu'l-Baha

On a similar note, our thoughts can definitely influence reality in the sense that if we continually think, "I'm worthless, I'll never do well," then you most likely won't. There's a weight on your spirit and mind, and that will affect your productivity and creativity. If you constantly criticize yourself, sooner or later that will come out in your actions. You lose confidence in your own ability, you are timid in your approaches, and that fear and anxiousness can cause you to perform far below your capacity. It's amazing how gullible I can be sometimes, in believing in my thoughts. After some time passes, it's easier to step back and think, "Why in the world did I believe those thoughts? That's simply ridiculous!" We spend so much time in our heads that it's natural for us to start believing it. And we'll tend to believe ourselves more than the others around us. Different images from books I've read are flashing through my mind. We have a great capacity to punish ourselves, and when someone else says to us, "Come on, ______, don't do that to yourself. You deserve so much more." Our minds are ready to say, "Well, why should I listen to them, they don't know that I ________________" and we give ourselves reasons to believe our own selves over the people we love. This was something I really appreciated in Eat, Pray, Love, she really communicated the struggles she had within herself and the reaction of those around her. And in Maeve Binchy's Nights of Rain and Stars, the idea that it's so much easier to look at someone else's life and see what they should do and how they should react, but within one's own life it's so much harder. For personal experience, I realize just how defensive I can become, and that gets converted into a very heavy energy weighing on me and breaking me down. When, in fact, I think our defenses should build ourselves up, fortify our strength, draw on the resources that we have. God has created us noble and powerful. He's created us in His image, and resides in our hearts.

"O SON OF SPIRIT!
I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? Out of the essence of knowledge I gave thee being, why seekest thou enlightenment from anyone beside Me? Out of the clay of love I molded thee, how dost thou busy thyself with another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting." -Baha'u'llah

"Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee..." I like that image. God is infinite, a Being our words are too limited to describe. The entire universe cannot contain Him, but our hearts can! "Neither doth My earth nor My heaven contain Me, but the heart of My faithful servant containeth Me." -Baha'u'llah

"Knowledge is of two kinds. One is subjective and the other objective knowledge -- that is to say, an intuitive knowledge and a knowledge derived from perception.
The knowledge of things which men universally have is gained by reflection or by evidence -- that is to say, either by the power of the mind the conception of an object is formed, or from beholding an object the form is produced in the mirror of the heart. The circle of this knowledge is very limited because it depends upon effort and attainment.
But the second sort of knowledge, which is the knowledge of being, is intuitive; it is like the cognizance and consciousness that man has of himself." -'Abdu'l-Baha