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The law of attraction

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 2:45 pm
by greggorious
Do any of you Buddhists have an opinion on this new age theory of the law of attraction? Do you believe it actually exists, and even if it does, it it just another form or ego grasping? I.e you often see books on how to attract your prefect lover, how to win the lottery etc.

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 5:10 pm
by Mawkish1983
It is nonsense.

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 8:36 pm
by marc108
absolute nonsense. try it and see if you win the lottery. :jumping:

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 8:48 pm
by daverupa
Shades of New Thought; here's some history.

(Here is some interesting miscellany on that note.)

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 11:59 pm
by manas
greggorious wrote:Do any of you Buddhists have an opinion on this new age theory of the law of attraction? Do you believe it actually exists, and even if it does, it it just another form or ego grasping? I.e you often see books on how to attract your prefect lover, how to win the lottery etc.
Hi greg,

I do think that our state of mind can influence what happens to us, if we change it for the better, even in the short term. But the proponents of that theory claim that everyone is literally creating their reality by their core beliefs and thought patterns continually, in real time, by the 'signal' they are broadcasting out to the Cosmos. If that were the case, then a quadriplegic with a totally severed spinal cord ought to be able to heal his or her spinal cord, utilizing the power of the mind alone, in the here and now. When a documented example of this occurs, I will be willing to take another look at the 'Law of Attraction', but for now I'm pretty sure it's yet another example of spiritual materialism, which is rampant in the so-called 'New Age Movement'. Plus it's a good way to sell lots of books and videos for it's proponents, thus 'manifesting' a goodly amount of 'abundance' for them personally... :P

kind regards,
manas
:anjali:

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 3:53 am
by Ben

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 4:49 am
by SarathW
With my own experience I believe in the Law of Attraction. I never won Lotto because I never wish for it.
All the people I knew who are Lotto winners died in a very short time of became poorer than before.
All the things you receive through low of attraction lead you to a bigger misery!

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 5:52 am
by duckfiasco
Seems like any attempt to further entrench a "me getting mine" worldview can only lead further into delusion and the suffering borne of any kind of ego-clinging :thinking:
What I've seen doesn't start from the sort of similar viewpoint of kamma, for the purpose of understanding our situation and doing something about suffering.
Instead, it looks like it's about pleasure seeking.
So from wrong intention, wrong view, and the whole thing is flawed.
In my opinion, anyway.

This is very much a popular thing right now.
I work as a captioner for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing, and one of the PBS specials I captioned this year was on this kind of thing.
They tried to wrap it up in science about how we only perceive a minute percentage of our sensory input, and something about quantum mechanics. Not sure how it was all supposed to tie together.
It seemed like spiritual materialism (as mentioned) being justified with the materialist reductionism that characterizes the Western worldview in our day and age.
Not to sound too snobby :sage:

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 4:17 pm
by Dr. Dukkha
Now, I can ask questions from now until tomorrow about Law of Attraction for it is certainly an 'attractive' theory. But my true question is how New Age gurus and Sannyasa (Hindu) gurus, who obviously have read about Buddhism (they even mention the Buddha is some of their sermons), and according to Buddhism, lying will have kammic consequences, and the fact that Buddhism is the wisest thing ever... How could ANYone read about something as wise Buddhism (it doesn't require that much if an open mind to accept the Dhamma) and with a grin on their face, teach something adhammic. Either they know something we don't know, they haven't really looked into it (which is odd because they mention him on occasion), they're straight-up atheists laundering money, or they have too much delusion preventing such gifts of the universe. In fact, it's beyond me how anyone can read anything by the Buddha and not be completely mesmerized.

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:01 pm
by Mkoll
Dr. Dukkha wrote:Now, I can ask questions from now until tomorrow about Law of Attraction for it is certainly an 'attractive' theory. But my true question is how New Age gurus and Sannyasa (Hindu) gurus, who obviously have read about Buddhism (they even mention the Buddha is some of their sermons), and according to Buddhism, lying will have kammic consequences, and the fact that Buddhism is the wisest thing ever... How could ANYone read about something as wise Buddhism (it doesn't require that much if an open mind to accept the Dhamma) and with a grin on their face, teach something adhammic. Either they know something we don't know, they haven't really looked into it (which is odd because they mention him on occasion), they're straight-up atheists laundering money, or they have too much delusion preventing such gifts of the universe. In fact, it's beyond me how anyone can read anything by the Buddha and not be completely mesmerized.
Unfortunately, not everyone has a change of heart the moment they read the Buddha's teachings. It took me a few years from when I first read about Buddhist teachings to fully come around. Some people never do. The Buddha's teaching goes "against the stream" of the world.

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 8:36 am
by Spiny Norman
Can anyone say in a nutshell what the law of attraction is? It it thinking a lot about what you want, or doing visualisations or something?

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 8:40 am
by Mkoll
Spiny Norman wrote:Can anyone say in a nutshell what the law of attraction is? It it thinking a lot about what you want, or doing visualisations or something?
This film, The Secret, greatly popularized the concept. You might find your answer there.

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 9:03 am
by Spiny Norman
Mkoll wrote:
Spiny Norman wrote:Can anyone say in a nutshell what the law of attraction is? It it thinking a lot about what you want, or doing visualisations or something?
This film, The Secret, greatly popularized the concept. You might find your answer there.
From Wiki: "...everything one wants or needs can be satisfied by believing in an outcome, repeatedly thinking about it, and maintaining positive emotional states to "attract" the desired outcome."

..sounds like an opportunity to develop tanha. :tongue:

Re: The law of attraction

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 9:28 am
by Mkoll
Pretty much.