Flip the coin and be the best from the worst

Be the seat of my strength, not weakness.

Be the seat of kindness, not cruelty.

Be the source of light, not darkness.

Be the source of energy, not idleness.

Be the source of creativity, not limited vision.

Be the source of love, not hate.

Be the source of smiles, not tears.

Be the source of happiness, not suffering.

Be the seat of optimism, not pessimism.

Be the seat of gain, not loss.

Be the source of help, not obstruction.

Be the seat of leadership, not just sheepwalk.

Be the seat of a better human being.

Be the source of a more loving person.

O my mind, my seat of potential, take my journey further.

Please choose the better half of all the dualities for me.

Keep reminding your mind. Repeatedly. Daily. With eyes closed and fervent request. It’s a very nice, nutritious pre-breakfast food.

Choosing the better side of the pair of our actions and feelings is as easy as flipping a coin in our fingers from head to tail. It's a very short journey from the worst to the best. As short as the flip of a coin. A mere realization. Acceptance. And a pledge to remember. We are pre-conditioned for the negative end of dualities. The instinct can be broken. Just early morning practice is sufficient. It’s needs much as reminding the self. Repeatedly.

The folly of treating title more important than the story

There is a house well plastered, tiled and painted on the outside walls. Its well designed and vibrant exterior catches attention. Drawn by the catchy exterior you step inside. You expect an equal attraction inside. But a surprise awaits you. You come across soot, grime, dust, unplastered walls, cobwebs, cement and stonecrush staring at you. It’s a house that has been left unattended inside. Incomplete. You will feel running out. It’s a house that needs the workers rather more than the visitors. That’s how most of us die: just houses under construction. Throughout our lives we keep on painting the outer walls to satisfy our ego through expanding our visibility, hoping attention will give happiness and peace. Little do we realize that real comfort lies in the house completed from inside. So the interior remains incomplete, disordered. Can such a house give permanent peace? No. Outer walls are important. But only to the extent of defining our world, a psychological boundary to stamp our ownership of our chunk in this world. Only this much. And the importance of the outer walls is meaningless if the interior is unfinished. Outer paint is just the title of the orderliness inside. A summary of all the cozy arrangement inside. We, but, commit the folly of treating the title as the main story. Can a title replace the main text of the story? No. The title ought to be catchy. But the story is all that matters. 

Put down your dagger and pick up a stick

The ancient days of real bloody hand-to-hand battle are over. Then daggers were more suitable than sticks. They drew more blood. And made you more threatening. These are but more of social battle times. Instead of drawing the blood, it’s about catapulting ego, anger, jealousy and complexes. It’s no longer about bloody injuries which might land one on the wrong side of the law. It’s about law-abiding invisible whiplashing. 
An advice here. As we set out to tame and slay the real and perceived enemies in the social battle, we can very well afford to carry a stick instead of a dagger. The dagger will go too deep into somebody’s ego to inflict a permanent wound. Staying there as a painful milestone to instigate the carrier to work and connive against us in future. If it is not possible to drop the weapons altogether, at the most carry a stick only. 
Instead of calling somebody bastard, thus inflicting a dagger wound, we can say your father must have been away when you were conceived. Hope it again doesn’t sound like a dagger wound. Well, I mean to say we can try to bruise the skin only, to pacify our ego, with the stick of our words, instead of stabbing the heart with a dagger. A mark on the skin is less painful. It will not leave a permanent scar. Time heals everything. But it takes some more time, and sometimes it lasts more than the lifetime, to reach the extent of the dagger’s farthest point. 
Social battles are very funny ones. Almost flimsy. So why carry lethal weapons. There are hardly any permanent enemies. Scenes and stages are shifting. These are basically funny little stage shows. People hardly care about who the last paper enemy was. So carry a namesake stick. We need not even hold it in our hands most of the time. Just keep it in reserve tied to our belt. We will feel like a well-equipped soldier ready to tackle the enemies in the social battle.
Dagger is suitable for hate. And for plain anger. Or for the unholy, dark duty to kill like in war. But how long can one can keep the fire of hate going? Long before the fire consumes our last enemy, it burns the carrier only. So it's better to be irritated only instead of going full throttle with anger and hate. And a stick is a suitable weapon for irritation. It's a lesser weapon. Irritation also is a smaller fire. It is as much of less harmful to other as it is for the carrier. 
The ultimate goal of course is to go without any weapon at all. And dropping irritation to still less harmful and gentler reactions is the goal. All that goes in parallel with the degree of control we have over our mind. Again it boils down to training the mind. And sitting in silence and looking at the real self daily is the first step in that direction. 

Desert Palm and Mountain Oak

Every seed carries the potential to be the mightiest, luxuriant-most tree. The powerful force of creation throws the potential for maximum in seeds and species. Nature doesn’t want it to be a world of half smiles, half growths, half blossoms and half potential. There is a tendency for fullness. It draws the process of evolution. For maximum. For completion. For what we humans call greatness. You, me and all of us are born for greatness. There are seeds of greatness in all of us.

A desert seed has the potential to grow in its own way, in harmony and adjustment with the harsh environment. A seed in a lush green rain-forest has its own level of potential as per the rich soil, water and nutritious soil. Does it mean a date palm can never reach the levels of greatness because there is sand, burning temperatures, dry winds and no water? Does it mean that only a mountainous oak has the right to greatness because it has the best climes, abundance of water, cool temperatures and cradling lush green mountains?

A desert palm is great in being the signatory of life in the lifeless sand. It is great is merely surviving. In being there where life has almost no business to be. It is great in standing as a milestone of hope for some lone traveler who might come and rest under the shade for some time and then take on the journey onward. It is great in throwing a piece of shade on the burning sands. It is great in showing the light after a long time and prompting the traveler to carry on and reach out to the lifeful oasis.

Like desert palm you might be born in poorest of poor conditions. But that doesn’t mean you are not born with the potential to be the greatest. You are! Just that your greatness is different from the mountain oak and the people lucky enough to be born in luxurious circumstances. Greatness shouldn’t be compared. When we do, we just cannot appreciate the worth of our journey.

We are born in the predetermined soil of our destiny. We have our own individual destinies. Destinies are but not bigger or smaller. They are just bothered about the realization of the full potential. Nature is kind enough to give us the maximum potential to grow as per the conditions.

A desert palm can be a mighty achiever and feel proud of itself if it doesn’t compare itself with the mountain oak.

Strive hard, rake up the soil of your situations, nourish it with the moisture of your sweat and actualize the potential you are born with. And be great in your own way. Don’t compare your greatness with anyone around. Instead of comparing the tiny size of your greatness with the tall structures of success around, look at your own growth from the dusted toughness around the place where you took hold and rooted yourself to grow. You might be happier in tough situations with lesser growth than unhappy people with taller growths in best soils. The moment you realize you have sucked out all the potential that was given to you since birth to grow and survive, the date palm can be happier than the mountain oak. 

The thin line between duty and revenge

In Japan someone killed a Samurai’s master. Now it was the tradition to avenge one’s master’s death. The Samurai went after the murderer. It was not before two years of relentless pursuit that he laid his hands upon the criminal in a deep forest. The Samurai raised his sword to kill the person. Just before the strike the man spat on the Samurai’s face. Possibly he expected a quicker death in one stroke. He had tried to further aggravate the anger in the Samurai. The unexpected happened. The Samurai held his sword back and asked the man to take his sinned face off his eyes.

The murderer was surprised. Much relieved to be still alive, he but couldn’t check his curiosity. “Why did you spare my life?” he asked.

The Samurai was visibly trying to overcome his anger. “For two years I was following you to kill you. But there was no anger in that pursuit. There was no hate involved. I was just following the tradition of avenging my master’s death without bringing my ego in between. But when you spat on my face. You changed all that. You got me angry. You brought my ego into play. Now if I kill you it will appear like I killed you because of being angry after being spat upon. It won’t be an objective, egoless pursuit of my duty. I cannot kill you as an angry person. Please go away. For the time being. If I can detach this personal anger from the cause of my duty, your death, I will go after you again.”

Sometimes a doing, carrying the same effect as an act committed under a spell of anger and hate, can be beyond the germs of ego, hate and anger. It then becomes a duty. The challenge lies in finding where duty stops to turn into revenge or hateful reaction. Check your ego. Tame it within the limits of duty. This world will become a far better place and life more enjoyable.