Have you ever had the experience, as I have, of leaving late for an appointment and finding everything "conspiring" to make you even later—your keys not where you always keep them, your gas gauge on empty, the traffic lights all red? A little lateness snowballs into more lateness.
The same thing happens with things like loneliness and rejection. When we feel lonely and rejected, it sometimes feels as if we get more loneliness and rejection, even from dear friends and family—they're not home or they are too busy. And what about stupidity? One day when I was mulling over the stupidity of a coworker, I found I'd put my library books in the refrigerator! What we're entertaining in thought usually is what we experience.
It's a good idea to ask ourselves regularly, "Do I want more of what I have in thought right now?" Because we are sure to get it. If we have wishing in thought, we get more wishing. If we have want, we get more want. But if it's true that "what you think is what you get," why don't happy thoughts and positive thinking always get us a happy, better experience? Mere human optimism or "positive thinking" hasn't proved to be a reliable source of happiness and well-being, because all human thought includes the notion that good is somehow limited—with a beginning and an end, a finite, divisible quality.
