the secret

i'm uncertain about all this talk about 'the secret.' i adhere, for the most part, to the taoist principles in the tao te ching. the only one i am opposed to is non-learning, and interpret it differently than most texts.

i read the beginning of the secret and watched the video.. it's too centered on materialism and greed for my liking. the measure of a person's success lies in their contentedness, not material wealth.

i really don't think it's a secret that your happiness is in your own hands.

there is a difference between optimism, realism, and naivete. the only one i find fault with is naivete, in the sense that it is elevated optimism that can be deemed delusional.

the book advocates positive thought for you to prosper.. i believe in helping others as well as myself, and is my positive attraction not taking away from someone elses positive attraction?

if you examine some of the 'teachers' of the secret, you can clearly tell by simply reading some of their works that they did not adhere to the thoughts of positive attraction; for example, shakespeare: all you have to do is look at his sonnets to find his troulbesome dismay with time and a desire for a friendship that was gone. also, quotes used in the secret are intentionally exceperted to give them different meanings in the context.

the secret seems to me the law of self-interest being explained to middle class folks who find it 'intellectual' do to the (mis)quotations of prominent world leaders and quantum physics to find it scientific. "Take out the buzzwords and pseudo religious nonsense about what you 'manifest' for yourself, ignore the vague prose and you get the message that thinking positively serves you better than thinking negatively." -Riazzi

if one thinks positively about what they want, will they not see most everything in a positive light and believe in the law of attraction because of their changed luck, whether it works or not?

some who are simply victims of misfortune are blamed for not thinking positively enough.

how many people who saw the movement on oprah and bought the book are looking to get rich and how many are looking to attract happiness? with the book's focus on wealth and middle-class materialism how much faith can one put in it?

the tao teaches that light contrasts dark, sour contrasts sweet, and the like. the more one tries to attain one of the opposite, the further away it seems. i should be like the uncarved block, and through empiricism (experience) learn to either appreciate both as compliments to each other, or learn to appreciate 'good' while acknowledging the 'bad-' however once one becomes the uncarved block he learns there is no good or bad; everything just is.

i believe the greater capacity one has to hate, so does one have to love, etc etc. similarly, the greater positive effect something has one society or a person, the greater detrimental effect can be seen.

the only thing the tao and the secret agree on is that happiness lies in your own hands- and i think most everyone agrees with that. it's all about positive thinking. i don't accept the action of trying to attract positive things into my life- on one level it seems selfish, and on another it condemns other ways of life that i think should be appreciated regardless of personal views. everyone's interests are different and assuming that everyone wants wealth and 'middle class comfort' to be content is a great flaw in the secret, whereas the tao applies to everyone.

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