Barge through the Traps of Self-annihilation

 You must be really happy. You take pride in the fact that you don’t smoke, don’t drink, exercise daily and keep up the best diet plan. So everything is supposed to be OK on the health front. O wait! You may still be ingesting toxins into your body, suffering slow poisoning stretched over a period of years.

Long after the symptoms become visible, quite ironically, the thing responsible might still stand unaccused, putting blame on more tangible things like lifestyle, diet, pollution, biological accident, etc., etc. It’s better to know this unseen source of suffering. It’s the uncontrolled mind. It’s as potent a risk factor as any other visible agent of ill health like smoking, drinking, imbalanced lifestyle or accidents. To make it really dangerous, it directly obstructs the emergence of real compassionate you on the stage of worldly affairs. Its turbulent waves disturbing the surface like wind tosses the pond waters on a full moon night thus breaking the moon’s full reflection. You see broken pieces of its beauty scattered over the surface.

The consequences of an uncontrolled mind are no accident. This self-destruction takes a long and winding route to its destination. The spin-outs of an uncontrolled mind—hate, anger, greed, jealousy, impulsiveness, anxiety, worries, illusions and false assumptions—are as bad for our body as they are for the social life we lead. Although not advisable to say this, but I would prefer to be an alcoholic or smoker than having an untamed mind. An unkempt mind fluxes toxins into our blood stream, corroding the basic principles of self-preservation. It’s unnatural.

What is mind? It’s just the operational aspect of our brain. So we have to put up the operations in order. The brain will save you from becoming a self-destroyer. Long before there is any outside enemy, we have to spot the enemy inside, i.e., the treacherous trait of being utterly irresponsible towards our mind. That is the real enemy. It stops you from loving your own self primarily. After that the talk of loving kindness for others remains an unachievable hypothesis. So put the runaway mind in order. The outer world is a mere reflection of the invisible world inside. Hold the reins of your mind firmly and you become the master of your destiny.

The challenge lies not in trying to control the external environment. The real task lies in managing the mind. Isn’t it sheer folly that the thing that keeps the potential to limitless happiness is allowed to go out of loop and spin into a chaotic trajectory where it releases poison into our organs?

We spend literally 24 hours to control the external things in life and hardly anyone tries to control the ticking time-bomb of our doom inside. The fire that is supposed to power us to excellence is hardly managed. No wonder it becomes the pyre of self-annihilation. You fight so hard to manage the worldly affairs. And you hardly care about the management of the world inside you. The guiding flicker of life, the patronizing beam having limitless potential to infinite happiness, goes out of control and becomes a wild fire. A fire out of control is destructive. It’s useful as long as it’s managed. The mind is like that fire. Tend it. Manage it. Keep an eye on it. And you will have its life-giving warmth and path-showing light for you.

It doesn’t take too much of an effort. It’s nothing in comparison to the huge effort you put in managing the world outside. It doesn’t need your sweat and blood of worldly battles. It just needs half an hour of quiet contemplation, the time even less than you might spend in thinking about your enemies out there and visualize doom and destruction to them.

All it needs from you is to stop running, close eyes, put up a smile on your lips, look inwards, feel your breathing and walk silently to your real self. The closer you reach that core, the foundation of your real self, healthier you become in mind and body. The better the inner world, the better still will be the external circumstances related to you.

Inhale peace and tranquility. Douse the ravaging fire. Turn it into a soulful bonfire and you like a fatigued traveler basking in healing warmth and peace by its side while the snowy blizzards hit around. Dive deep. Leave the turbulent and disturbed surface and move towards the unmoving bottom. You will discover the futility of just wasting life in the storms on the surface.

Once you come out on the surface after the deep contemplative dive, the world outside will not be the scary choppy sea of earlier. It will be a playground of excitement. Life will be fun. Struggles will become just a sport to be enjoyed. Life turns into an enjoyable game instead of an agonizing struggle.

All it needs is just a daily dose for the mind. Some quiet moments when you leave the visible and go into the embrace of the invisible. When you go into the source of your creation and emerge almost reborn. With loads of love, of course.