Image, A Psychological Prison

By: Swami Sukhabodhananda

For every hour you remain angry you give up sixty minutes of joy. Ask yourself: Why do we lose our joy for petty things? Unimportant things have become more important. Joy is the most important energy but we lose it for a viewpoint that seems more important than joy. Has something gone wrong in the way we look atlife?  We give up our life for winning our point of view, or getting a status in life or money or position. One has to learn to drop this foolishness. Anger is an expression of foolishness.

Two Angry Lions

There is the famous story of two lions, which were ready to fight each other to quench their thirst. There was sufficient water for both. But they fought on the issue of who should drink water first and in the process both were very thirsty but winning was more important than quenching their thirst. They stubbornly fought with tooth and claw and their emotions went very wild. They continued attacking each other. Blood was all around but still they fought. Then they found vultures were around waiting to see who is going to die, so that they could have their food. Realising their foolishness, they left the scene. They thought that they will be devoured by the vultures and so decided to end their fight. Anger is the sure way for self-defeat.

Every emotion is energy. Anger and sorrow is also energy. Sorrow creates its own material and that is imagination. When you are angry you imagine a subjective world and justify why you are angry. It creates an illusory world. You are unconscious of your inner projections. You take imagination to be real. You identify with this imagination and create its psychological prison. To be alert to how your mindimagines, projects and creates a psychological prison is a part of being inwardly awake.

It’s About Compassion

If you are alert, you will transform this anger energy into compassion. The object of anger will become an object of compassion. Transforming this energy is being wise. Why do you get angry with the other?

The other does not fit into your image of how you should be. So your struggle is to see that the other falls into your image, which is what most of us want.  The world is not indebted to fit into our mental image. We have not questioned why we create an image.  One may justify that it is natural to create an image. Stop justifying and let us think wisely.  You have an image of your spouse or boss. You want them to fit into your petty image. Why do you have an image? You feel secure if you have image of the other. It is easy for you to operate and make others wrong. It requires great alertness, not to have an image and then look at the other. Then intelligence will flow as to how to deal with the other rather than your conclusion of how to relate.

When intelligence operates there is creative harmony but when conclusions operate there is inner deadness. Your corporate world, family world and personal life will be better rather than being bitter.

Source:-The Times of India