Who said we become what we think about

When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. The Buddha is talking about how our experience becomes habitual. For the Buddha it was what we do in our thoughts, speech, and action that is the determinant of our happiness, not our thoughts alone.

If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage… If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. Do you want to change the world? Become rich? They might consider career options when forced to conform, they might attend a career day and choose the one they feel they would enjoy most out of the choices presented to them, but why not think outside of that box? There are no limits to what you could do, but have you ever really considered it?

If you had all the money in the world, what would you do with your time from now until you died? What would you really enjoy doing? Not money, or stability, because these are illusions. Life should be an exciting adventure.

What do you want in life? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind. Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land.

The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make the decision. We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.

Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand—one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds—one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land Invariably, the land will return what was planted. As it's written in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn.