Control the servants of the mind. Control body and speech.

Photo by davide ragusa on Unsplash

 

If I stop typing now, and get up, walk to the door, we can all agree that this action started with a thought. The thought that “I will stop typing, stand up and walk out through the door.” The thought is clear that I will walk out through the door, and not walk out through the window.

 

There is a lot of clarity from my thought to my behaviour. As far as I am aware I have never ever thought about “walking out through the door”, and then went out through the window instead. If I did, I would be dead by now!

 

This is hardly rocket science and we all know it. Similarly, if I bad mouth David, we all know that this all started with a thought “I will bad mouth David”. Because if I started with the thought “I will say something really kind and generous to David”, I certainly wouldn’t bad mouth David.

 

This much we can all agree.

 

We can now see that our actions and our speech are controlled by our mind. The source of everything we say and do is our mind.

 

Our behaviour is actually the servant of our mind. Our mind is the Commander in Chief of our behaviour.

 

Our speech and our actions are the servants of our mind.

 

It turns out that if we are clear with our thoughts and intentions, we are actually quite good at changing our behaviour. Look at people’s behaviour when they see “no mobile phone” signs, you can see that they are very careful with the use of mobile phones. Similarly when they see “no smoking” signs, or when they are in a place they know they are not allowed to smoke, they are very disciplined and can refrain from smoking.

 

This shows that we can all control our behaviour if we are really clear about our motivations and intentions.

 

What if we write down on a piece of paper:   to the neighbour who I hate: “I will only send him love, never resentment”.  Would this change our behaviour towards him?

 

To the friend who is bent on ruining my life: “whatever I say to her, it will always be kind and generous”.  Would this transform our relationship?

 

I wonder.