A Mind

What is a mind and how is it different from a brain?

A brain is a physical part of the body that can be seen or photographed and even operated upon and a mind is not a physical object. It can neither be seen nor photographed or repaired by surgery. The brain is not the mind but simply a part of the body whereas the mind can be defined as an entity that has the nature of mere experiences with a clarity of knowing the right and the wrong.

No part of the body can be identified our mind because our body and mind are different entities. For example, sometimes when our body is relaxed and immobile, our mind can be very busy, darting from one object to another. This indicates that our body can relax but mind is working continuously.

States of Mind: It's self –explanatory, simply meaning how one feels. It is the state of a person's cognitive processes that disturbs our inner peace, such as anger, jealousy, and delusions are some of the disturbed states of mind which are the true causes of all our sufferings and problems. Each of us has a unique mind: unique thoughts, feelings, perceptions, memories, beliefs, and attitudes, and a unique set of regulatory patterns.  These patterns shape the flow of energy and information inside us, and we share them with other minds.

We may think that our suffering is caused by other people or by society, but in reality it all comes from our own deluded states of mind. The essence of spiritual practice is to reduce and eventually to eradicate altogether our delusions, and to replace them with permanent inner peace. Permanent liberation can only be found by purifying our minds. Therefore if we want to become free from problems and attain lasting peace and happiness we need to increase our knowledge and understanding of the mind-set.

WHY DOES THE MIND MISUSE PEOPLE?

 What do we mean by mind misuse?  A mind that is ambitious, greedy, envious, a mind that is burdened with belief and tradition, a mind that is ruthless, that exploits people—such a mind in its action obviously creates mischief and brings about a society, which is full of conflict.  As long as the mind does not understand itself, its action is bound to be destructive; as long as the mind has no self-knowledge, it breeds enmity. It is therefore essential that we should thoroughly know our selves internally as no book can teach us this self-knowledge. Any book can give us other information’s about self-knowledge, but it  is not the same thing as knowing ourselves from deep within.  When the mind sees itself in the mirror of relationship, from that awareness comes self-knowledge; and without this self-knowledge we cannot clear up this mess of terrible desolation which we ourselves have created in the world around us. 

We can easily assess that without this, people misuse and hurt each other and unknowingly promote psychological pain in relationships giving birth to the cycle of never-ending cruelty.  Because of our traditions our minds have been imprisoned in thinking that blind conformity is the only way to live as a human being and are too afraid to change.  People would rather accept pain, suffering, antagonism, vindictiveness, etc. instead of growing up and taking the responsibility of learning how to live in peace. Peace is only possible through self-awareness and knowledge that can reveal our contradictions, hypocrisies and fear of standing alone. 

The challenge to every caring human being is being squeezed out of existence due to which a great deal of intimidation is faced to become like the rest of society.  This war-driven society wishes to absorb every human being into a collective blob of conflict, fear, domination and oppression. Why is it that a person who is doing something wrong or mischievous wants a companion with him whereas a right person always stands alone?   

“As long as the mind does not understand itself, its action is bound to be destructive; as long as the mind has no self-knowledge, it only breeds enmity.”

Why do people misuse other people?  Fear is the evil that permeates the world, not just a particular country but rules the world in abundance. This fear of facing reality dictates most people’s actions and conduct.  For the same reason we prefer to live a brainwashed existence allowing this fear to dictate our decisions. 

 As our mind prefers to cover up reality with images, beliefs, conjecture, supposition, speculation, etc. We can’t simply just stand to humble and accept the fact that our feelings and thoughts frighten us.  Instead of sticking with that fact, we look around to find a scapegoat to blame and or attack either verbally or physically.

The Remedy to this problem:

The real problem is our mind with which we are afraid to deal with.  We try to overthrow or ignore the feelings we don’t like which further ends up in strengthening those negative feelings more and more.  So it is the fear of our in secured feelings or thoughts that tempts us to misuse other people. People are hypocrites for they desire to live in peace and still they want to force people into conforming to their beliefs or political agendas. So as long as people are looking at each other through the rose-colored glasses of images, beliefs and ideas, they will constantly clash People need to wake up and realize the truth that it is our own mind that has to be controlled or else be a voluntary part of this destructive society by being either a victim or a tyrant because of which peace cannot exist.

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The Danger Unknown

A farmer and his wife where they had pigs, goats, hen and many other animals along with a small mouse. All the animals were friendly with each other.

One day the mouse peeped through a small crack in the wall and unintentionally saw the farmer opening a small package. He was curious that it may contain any food item which could be shared amongst his friends but to his horror he found that it was a mousetrap. Yes A mouse trap to catch him indeed!

The mouse got panicky and breathlessly ran around the farmyard warning all his fellow members of this forthcoming danger.

First of all he met the hen. He nervously blurted out to him in despair, “We should be careful as there is a mousetrap in the house!” But the hen seemed to be pretty cool, he answered with triviality: “It doesn‘t concern me, as this is a danger for you and not for me. Why should I bother?” The mouse was shocked. Without wasting time, he raced towards the pig and then the goat to tell them about the mousetrap. To his further disappointment, the pig and the goat too did not show any concern with the new he parted. They consoled him and said that there was nothing to worry about and in return promised to pray for the mouse. The mouse felt sad and lonely. He was depressed by the ground reality he had faced in the need of this hour of danger.

In the night the farmer‘s wife heard a sound of a mousetrap. She hurried to see what was in it, but due to the darkness she did not see that it was a poisonous snake, whose tail was caught by the trap. Unexpectedly the snake bit her and she fainted. 

The farmer rushed her to the hospital where they treated her for a few days. Later, when they returned home, she still had fever. The farmer’s doctor had told him that chicken soup would help his wife to regain strength and her fever would subside, so he went to his farmyard to bring the main ingredient and that was the chicken, his hen in the farm.

However her sickness continued for which many friends came to visit her. The farmer butchered the pig to prepare lunch for the visitors. Unfortunately, as time passed, the farmer’s wife became weaker and weaker and one day she succumbed to her injuries. Many neighbours, relatives and friends arrived to attend the funeral. The farmer had to slaughter the goat to feed all of them. 

The mouse was a silent spectator to all that was happing with unhappiness as he could do nothing for those who once said were his friends as this was destiny.

Remember, when we see that someone is in difficulty or danger, we all are at risk. The nature of danger is never depicted, therefore it is better to help and encourage the one in need rather than leaving him alone to face that problem. 

Moral: There is nothing more dangerous than a closed mind. 

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THE IMPORTANCE OF MANNERS

Manners play an important part in the life of a human being. For success in any field of life, a man must possess pleasing manners so that his behaviours inspires dignity and respect. 'Manners makes a man' is a true saying. By manners we mean proper and respectful behaviour towards all with whom we come in contact with. Manners have more value in cities than in the villages where simple living still has its own charm and decency but in the cities where the standards of living are high and good manners seem to be vanishing.  Today, we are living in an age of sophistication where modern life is complex and complicated and simple living of olden days has almost become a legend. 

In this world of complexity and artificiality, most of the people pretend to be sophisticated, there good manners are very important. You cannot move in society unless you are well behaved, otherwise you are not welcome or acceptable anywhere. However honest may your intentions be or however innocent your behaviour is, it is your decency that makes you acceptable amongst others.

For this one must maintain a good personality along with a good power of speech and conversation, a certainly should be a good listener. These qualifications are important for success in any walk of life as their importance is pervading in modern times. Gone are the days when simplicity, innocence, honesty and any such similar traits of this kind dominated the society.

Good manners are a sure passport to success in life as it endears us to others, helping one to win the confidence of others. A polite answer turns away anger and a kind word uttered in time saves a man from many troubles. It is politeness which succeeds while ability fails. Even a good action will lose its value if the person doing favour utters impolite words. An ill-mannered man, on the other hand, is disliked by everyone and has no chance of success in any walk of life he joins.

Good manners come naturally into a man who is bred-up in a cultured family and are indeed a sign of pleasing personality. A child born in a cultured family will learn to be respectful to others because he will see his elders behaving gently. A child born in an uncultured family will be disrespectful because he sees his elders behaving badly towards others. A child will learn whatever he is taught. So a little carelessness on the part of the elders is likely to spoil the child and that shall be difficult to reform afterwards.

 Most parents spend far more time ferrying their children to extracurricular activities or supervising homework than encouraging them to engage in conversation with adults so that small debates within the family help the child in grooming into a good personality. The importance of being polite and well-mannered makes the people you interact with feel valued which reflects one’s own personality. Such deep internal values can only be inculcated in children from their very childhood only.

In such an advanced digital era of today where children are communicating through a coded vortex of social media and smartphone screens rather than face to face, it’s especially more important for parents to devote time to inculcate such etiquettes within them which shall polish them accurately while communicating with others. The biggest problem today is that the youngsters are highly ambitious and overachieving which leads them to overconfidence. But, of course where on one hand qualification is important, there on the other hand how you present yourself and interact with others is equally more important.

Manners and etiquettes add charm and grace by which one can win the hearts of others. They are most precious gifts of civilization. The extent to which one can influence others and the extent to which one can earn love, affection and the good wishes of others, depends upon the good manners and etiquettes. In other words: ‘Manners are the shadows of virtues, the momentary display of these qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect, if we strive to become, what we strive to appear, manners may often be rendered as a useful guide to the perfor­mance of our duties.’

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THINGS TO REMEMBER

   01.      Putting a small amount of seven up in a flower vase will preserve the flowers for much longer.

   02.   At shell gas stations, press the button on the side of the air pump three times. The pump will start       without inserting the coins.

   03.  Use the bottom of an empty litre bottle to make flavoured ice for your punch bowl. It will look like     a flower.

   04.   Remove a splinter easily by applying a paste of baking soda and water, then waiting several minutes  for the splinter to pop out of the skin.

  05.   Running your bacon under cold water before cooking will reduce shrinking by 50%!

  06. Do not use chemicals to kill ants. Instead get a spray bottle and fill it up with water and salt (25%),  shake it well, spray….boom, dead!

   07.   If you peel a banana from the bottom, you 

        won’t have to pick the little stringy Things off

         of it.

   08.   Holding a banana peel over a bruise for

         10–30 minutes will remove its colour.

   09.  Baking soda Catalysis Superglue. A light 

        sprinkle shall cause even a large amount to

       set it within  seconds.

   10.  If you are in an area where you do not have a

       cell phone service, put your phone on airplane 

       mode  and then switch back. This will cause 

     your phone to register and find all the towers in your vicinity.

   11. Never eat the pot pie or BBq chicken sandwich at KFC. They use the     leftover chicken from the   night before to make it.

   12. Cannot afford Microsoft word? Get “Open Office”, it’s the same thing   except that its free and has more features.

  13. Nine foods that can get rid of an upset stomach: Bananas, Ginger,    Plain Youghurt, papaya, Apple, Sauce, Oatmeal, Whitr Rice,  Chamomile Tea and Chicken Broth.

   14. Falling air pressure causes pain in Bird’s ear, so if the birds are flying low to the ground it almost means that a thunderstorm is coming.

   15. According to the studies, smelling rubbing alcohol can relieve nausea  instantly.

  16. Never feed bread to ducks. They cannot digest it properly so it can even kill them.

  17.  Eat more marshmallows! For it relieves toothaches, asthma, sore      throat and arthritis.

  18.  When approching a door, look fo the hinges. If you see them, pull, if  not push. This will help you to avoid some embarrassing moments!

 

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The Thing of Most Importance

Once a professor of philosophy came into his class. He brought some items with him and put them on the table. When the class began, he took a large transparent empty jar and started to fill it with two inch stones. He then asked his students: “Is the jar full?” The students nodded their heads in confirmation.    

He says, “Really,” and pulls out a pile of small pebbles, adding them to the jar, shaking it slightly until they fill the spaces between the rocks. He asks again, “Is the jar full?” They agree. So next, he adds a scoop of sand to the jar, filling the space between the pebbles and asks the question again. This time, the class is divided, some feel that the jar is obviously full, but others are suspicious of another trick. So he grabs a pitcher of water and fills the jar to the brim and asks, “What am I doing?”  

The students were watching the whole exercise inquisitively, unable to understand as to what the professor was up to. The professor continued:  “If this jar is your life, what does this experiment show you?” 

 A bold student replies, “No matter how much busy you think you are, you can always take on more and more.”  

“That can be considered,” the professor nodded his head. He then looked out at the class making eye contact with everyone and spoke, “The rocks represent the BIG things in one’s life that you shall value at the end of your life i.e. your family, your partner, your health, fulfilling your hopes and dreams. The pebbles are the other things one needs in life but aren't of great importance but give life a meaning to live for example things like job, money, appointments, friendships and other necessities etc. The sand and water represent the other very minute things of no importance and are   the stressors in life like watching a television, house hold works or running errands etc.”

Looking out at the class again he asked, “Can you see what would happen if I started with the water, sand or the pebbles first?” There was pin drop silence in the class. The professor carried on, “If you put the water and sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the stones. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small things, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. life i.e spend enough time with family, take care of your health and never forget to develop spiritually – be a kind, honest, sensitive, helpful person. Then concentrate on pebbles i.e. have a job, go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party etc. The rest is just sand and water.”  

Moral: Innovation is all about placing priorities.  Start with your big ideas first before you run out of time  Just because the BIG priorities are heavy and difficult to achieve, we shouldn’t turn our attention to smaller ones as an easy way out as they after wards turn out to be a blunder.

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Let go the Past

Once there was a free bird. She floated in the sky, catching mosquitos for lunch, swam in the summer rain and was like many other birds, but she had a habit: every time some event occurred in her life, whether good or bad, the bird picked up a stone from the ground for her memory. Every day she sorted out her stones, laughed remembering joyful events, and cried remembering the sad ones.

She always took those stones with her, whether she was flying in the sky or walking down on the earth, she was never to leave them or forget about them. The years passed by and the bird now had a lot of stones, but she still kept on sorting and collecting them, as memories of the past. It was becoming more and more difficult for her to fly with the weight of these stones and one day she was unable to do so.

The bird that was free some years ago could not even walk on the earth, let go of flying for she was unable to even move by her own. She could not catch midges anymore; only the rare rain gave her the necessary moisture to keep her surviving. But a bird bravely endured all the hardships, guarding her so called precious memories. After some time she died of the starvation and thirst. And only those bunch of worthless stones that served no purpose remained back which were later thrown away by strangers.

Moral: - Letting go helps a person to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps in restoring our balance. It allows others to be responsible for themselves and indicates us to take our hands off situations that do not belong to us. This frees a person from unnecessary stress and tension.

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Knowledge is Power

Desire for power is inherent in man. The love of power comes from the consciousness of one’s mental and moral superiority over other created beings. It is instinctive that any person as a superior being must control and dominate others. Over again the awareness that all is not created equal gives birth to the desire to rule and dominate others who are weak; some are intelligent, others dull; some brave and daring, others shy and timid. In the same way there are those who are educated, others comparatively ignorant, some wealthy, others poor.

Power is of two kinds, physical and mental. Physical power is of the lower order as compared to the power of the mind. Uneducated class mainly understands one kind of power and that is of the body. For them, the strength of the arms decide things and they consider it to be right. However with changing times and development, mental power is now recognized as of a superior most and this power has its origin from knowledge only. Knowledge is power and education is the fundamental precondition for personal as well as political development, democracy and social justice. This can be observed with every passing day in our lives. Knowledge is something one gains throughout one’s lifetime as from the time of birth, knowledge begins. Knowledge plays an important role in all spheres of human life as it is the awareness of facts, truths and principles.  

It is a powerful factor which helps man to attain success, power and position in life. There is no doubt that physical strength and money are instruments of power. A man who is physically and economically strong commands power over others but the power of knowledge is still greater. It is knowledge that directs any person’s actions enabling one to find the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. It helps a person to overcome the weakness and faults and face dangers and difficulties with courage and confidence. It gives a mental, moral and spiritual advancement to an individual. Education empowers, and education promotes greater participation and there is no development without education.

Knowledge refers to the skills and information acquired through experience and education. Every being is extremely eager to attain power but power should not be misunderstood with physical strength only. Knowledge has given us power to win the space, to fly to the moon, to fight many deadly diseases and cure them. It is this knowledge that has taken us ahead towards development in the field of medicine, surgery, agriculture, information technology etc. Moreover it has also given us the power to communicate with the other parts of the world within a fraction of a second. If today we have reached the top of the mountain of power, i is only due to knowledge only. So we should always be careful that this special power should be suitably balanced by our conscience so that it is not indulged in evil or destructive activities.

Knowledge is like a sharpened sword that can create a bloodshed, if nurtured carelessly. It is therefore very necessary for people to learn that knowledge is essential but wrong usage can lead to formidable disaster  for it is unfortunate that today the same man has started misusing knowledge and has created unfavourable conditions for himself. Knowledge that should be used for peace, prosperity and growth is now also being misused for revenge, enmity and hatred etc. Things that make us despise and look down upon others cannot be right.

There is no doubt that knowledge is Power, but knowledge does not always come with power. This proves that education is must to gain knowledge that is very much a necessity to gain Power. Therefore education is the key to success so that every person who is knowledgeable leads a successful life. 

Knowledge has no limits and is the endless pursuit of love. World’s ninety percent of internal and external strife and riots will go away if awareness of the importance of education becomes common amongst all for discipline, order and economy form the basis of the power given by knowledge. Knowledge must mellow in wisdom which is the mark of culture and humanity as it is the quest of knowledge that leads to the realization of the Truth.

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