Empty your Mind, Brush your Heart

 

Photo Credit: Gracifit | Heart, Soul & Spirit

Empty your Mind, Brush your Heart

Many of us feel that once we have embarked on the spiritual path, we have automatically become purified and we begin to get a holier than thou attitude. This is unfortunate as this attitude itself another manifestation of our ego, a subtle feeling of superiority over so called ‘others’. In the olden days seeking a Guru, living in an Ashram, studying under the Guru’s tutelage involved a lot of hard work and penance. Today, we live in the fast age and think that spirituality is also fast-tracked – this is the biggest misconception – we need to do our meditative practice, we need to do everything that was done earlier, but in a far more comfortable environment.

You may be very regular in your practice but the moment you get up from an hour’s meditation, instead of enjoying the silence and peace which you had just experienced, if you get a call from office and get into an argument or heated discussion, then all your peace and calm gained disappears in a jiffy and a negative environment is created. What have you gained? Nothing! If there is no control over the mind, if you cannot keep your mind empty then at least keep it calm with positive thoughts! The ideal is to keep it empty and approach all such potentially calm-busting calls with clarity – you could just say, ‘Let’s discuss this in office, I am getting in early’.

The energy which you generate and imbibe during your morning meditation is to be preserved in a way that your aura carries your inner peace into the outer material world – your attitude and approach should always remain calm and dignified, not excitable and offensive – that is the only way you will maintain your calm, dignity and respect.

An offensive response is a sign of our animosity, of deeper negative feelings hidden in our heart – ask yourself, “Am I loved by everyone? Does everyone enjoy my company? Are they comfortable around me?” If you get a feeling from within that this is not the case, then immediately approach the person with whom you have had a tiff, apologise and make things up – this will brush away the cloud around your heart, it will cleanse it, make you feel better.

Do not have ill feelings towards anyone, this is bad for spiritual growth, forgive and forget and move on. It is alright to have differences of opinion, but do not let it degenerate into personal acrimonious differences. Like Her Holiness Guruma always says it is alright to have difference of opinion and argue, but do not let it become a difference in the mind. Don’t allow any negative feelings to remain in your heart even for a few hours, clear it up at the earliest.

How can you brush your heart? Talk to the people concerned. Clean out the negative feelings, then you can go to bed with a clean heart and sleep comfortably. If you consciously try it, it becomes very easy. It’s not really an impossible thing.