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One's Attitude to Events Affects the Impact of the Event · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We tend to evaluate events or circumstances based on their
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  relation to our personal identification with the external
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  ego personality and our prevalent idea about ourselves
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  at that point in time. In retrospect, we frequently
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  find that those things which we considered to be bad were
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  actually the starting point of an entirely new development,
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  which turned out to be far better than what we anticipated
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  at the time of the bad event that interfered with our
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  preconceived notions. For example, there was the case
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  of a college student who excelled at his studies and had
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  career goals in his mind. At a certain point, he had a
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  near death experience, and after that he recognized that the
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  entire college career was actually wasting his time.
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  He left college, began a spiritual quest, and found
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  fulfillment in the integration of that spiritual purpose into
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  his life. In retrospect, he reported that
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  the circumstances that disrupted his plans was not a bad thing,
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  but a good thing. Another example was related in
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  the book called To Heal. A particular young woman in
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  Africa had ideas about the direction her career and life
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  should go. She kept having obstacles
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  showing up in her way, whether disappointments in her career
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  development or health issues that kept arising.
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  She eventually consulted an experienced healer who advised
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  her that all these problems would disappear if she took up
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  her true calling of being a shamanic healer.
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  Eventually she heeded that advice and found out that in
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  fact, what she thought was bad luck earlier in her life as to
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  career and health, turned out to be the start of the change in
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  focus and new avenues of fulfillment she found once she
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  made the transition. Paramount's Yogananda told the
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  story of a person he met who was practising a yogic discipline
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  and did not eat solid food. She was vigorous, alert and
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  focused on her practice. She did not consider herself to
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  be starving. Another person not having solid
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  food might be suffering starvation, and yet another
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  could be practising the restriction as part of either a
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  short term practice of fasting or a longer term attempt to lose
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  weight through dieting. In each case, the individual is
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  not eating solid food, but their interpretation and their results
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  are vastly different. Quantum mechanics illustrates
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  for us the fact that one is not simply a victim of events, but
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  that as a participant observer, one also influences the outcome
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  of events. This provides an area for
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  fruitful contemplation about how we can gain mastery in our
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  lives, as opposed to simply becoming the victim of whatever
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  happens to be taking place. Of course, in some events that
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  are on the world scale, the event itself will still take
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  place, but the individual response to it may find a
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  different interpretation and a different value than what others
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  may experience. One person's solid poise and
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  balance under difficult circumstances can also make a
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  difference for those around him. The story was related about a
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  protest against the Vietnam War back in the 1970s in the USA.
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  The heavily armed police surrounded a crowd of peaceful
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  protesters and people felt intimidated and fearful.
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  Then one individual began to chant Ohm and others took it up.
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  The crowd lost its fear, and while they were arrested and
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  later released without charges, the atmosphere that developed
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  from the chanting of OM and the crowd responds to it made it
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  clear that something very special had taken place,
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  changing a potentially harmful, dangerous and intimidating
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  circumstance in the one that had no serious unpleasant
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  consequences for anyone, the mother writes.
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  Quote. There is a state in which one
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  realizes that the effect of things, circumstances, all the
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  movements and actions of life on the consciousness depends almost
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  exclusively upon one's attitude to these things.
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  There is a moment when one becomes sufficiently conscious
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  to realize that things in themselves are truly neither
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  good nor bad. They are this only in relation
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  to us. Their effect on us depends
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  absolutely upon the attitude we have towards them.
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  The same thing identically the same.
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  If we take it as a gift of God, as a divine grace, as the result
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  of the full harmony, helps us to become more conscious, stronger,
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  more true. While if we take it exactly the
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  very same circumstance as a blow from fate, as a bad force
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  wanting to affect us, this constricts us, weighs us down,
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  and takes away from us all consciousness and strength and
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  harmony. And the circumstance in itself
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  is exactly the same. Of this I should like you all to
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  have the experience, For when you have it, you become master
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  of yourself, Not only master of yourself, but in what concerns
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  you, master of the circumstances of your life.
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  And this depends exclusively upon the attitude you take.
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  It is not an experience that occurs in the head, though it
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  begins there, but an experience which can occur in the body
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  itself. So much so that, well, it is a
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  realization which naturally asks for a lot of work,
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  concentration, self mastery, consciousness pushed into
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  matter. But as a result, in accordance
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  with the way the body receives shocks from outside, the effect
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  may be different. And if you attain perfection in
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  that field, you become master of accidents.
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  I hope this will happen. It is possible.
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  It is not only possible, it is certain only.
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  It is just one step forward. That is, this power you have
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  already fully and formidably realized in the mind to act upon
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  circumstances to the extent of changing them totally in their
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  action upon you. That power can descend into
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  matter, into the physical substance itself, the cells of
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  the body, and give the same power to the body in relation to
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  the things around it. This is not a faith, it is a
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  certitude that comes from experience.
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  Reference. End Quote.
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  Reference Srioro Bindu and the Mother, Looking from Within,
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  Chapter 1, Looking at Life and Circumstances, pages 4:00 to
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  5:00.