Angry Mind

"There was a monkey, restless by his own nature, as all monkeys are. As if that were not enough someone made him drink freely of wine, so that he became still more restless. Then a scorpion stung him. When a man is stung by a scorpion, he jumps about for a whole day; so the poor monkey found his condition worse than ever. To complete his misery a demon entered into him. What language can describe the uncontrollable restlessness of that monkey? The human mind is like that monkey." - Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga

If the above described monkey represents human mind, this AK-47 wielding chimp in the video represents an "angry mind"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhxqIITtTtU

Gun is the anger. AK-47 is probably rage!

Look at the soldiers. Initially, they are having fun with gun wielding monkey and its antics. So do humans too. Feels good to be angry for a while. Keeps us busy.

Then watch what happens. Chimp trains the gun at the soldiers and they are scared to death.

As the acid corrodes the container it is in, the angry mind destroys the person who harbors the anger!

Better not give the gun (i.e anger) to our monkey minds and then regret when it trains it against us!

Prejudice

Prejudice

For those who do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while. ~Luther Burbank

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. -William James

So.... the prejudiced mind is like the Titanic ship. Prejudiced thinking is merely rearranging the chairs on the deck of Titanic while ignoring the big iceberg of reality starting right in your face. No wonder then that the prejudiced mind is likely to go down in a very royal way!!! Wow!!!the saying 'rearranging the chairs on the deck of titanic' makes altogether a different sense in the light of above two quotes! :) :)

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Forgiveness

Read something on these lines - "Hating somebody is like letting them live in your mind rent free."

True. When we hate or have any sort of negative sentiments against somebody, we think more about them than those who we like and who like us. Ironic. Right?

So we need to evict people from our minds for good. Way is forgiveness. The quote says rent free. But, who wants any rent? I want my mind for myself.

It is no wonder that more we hate others, more people occupy our mind and we become destitute without a home for ourselves. Kingdom of heaven is within us - said Christ. With hatred, we have let others squat in our minds and we have made ourselves homeless. Sad, indeed. We are bankrupt because of hatred.

Forgiveness is the solution. Forgive and forget and move on. Every time you forgive someone, you are forgiving yourself. Many times, forgiving ourselves is the hardest for whatever reasons. No wonder that St. Francis of Assisi said - it is in forgiving that we are forgiven. How true!

Forgive and rejoice.

Somebody told - I forgive myself for not forgiving others. Funny. But, missing the point. There is nothing like forgiving ourselves. When we forgive others, we are forgiving ourselves. Because - you and I are not we but ONE!

Cheers to forgiveness!

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