68. Bones of the mind.
- Just like the beautiful statue which remains hidden in a stone, an illusory statue which lies hidden within man is the mind.
- Shaping up of a beautiful sculpture depends upon the sculptor's skill. The shaping up of a healthy mind depends upon the individual's mental maturity.
- The consciousness that helps to sculpt the mind is just like the chisel which helps to sculpt out a beautiful statue from a stone. (Chisel consciousness of the mind)
- The one who makes the rock a statue is a sculptor. The one who makes the mind joyful is a meditator.
- We can sculpt our mind as per our requirements by awareness.
A rare species of chimpanzee brought from the forests of Amazon, was subjected to intense research continuously for three and half years by the scientists of California University.
In that research, its life and activities were shrunk and compressed within its cage of twenty five feet.
After the research was completed, its mate was also brought in. The cage of twenty-five feet was changed as a sixty feet one.
Only after that change did the researchers discover one surprising matter.
Even though the cage was increased to sixty feet that chimpanzee utilized that twenty five feet of space only, which it was used to earlier, for the entire period of the rest of its life.
The activities of the monkey got shrunk within the twenty five feet.
It got hardened, toughened.
- The human mind shapes itself by the ideas and incidents grasped by it initially.
It becomes hardened and frozen within itself, whether it is good or bad.
The reason for a man to experience the same kind of pain and pleasure is only the bones of this mind – the thoughts.
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As bones are to the human body, thoughts are to the mind!
If there are no thoughts, there is no mind. Mind is only a collection of thoughts.
The amusing thing in this is that if the bones become bent or twisted, man would become shortened or become a hunch-back.
If the thinking pattern becomes either blotted or any thing different from joy then the mind also will become bent or blind.
Different kinds of thoughts are thrust upon man by society and relatives. As the thoughts begin to accumulate, the child called mind begins to grow.
One small story.
Nawab often used to be worried thinking about his lame child who was lost when the child was five years old.
Whenever the Nawab's grief went to the extremes, he would call his army commander and send him away saying, 'Go and find my son. You should not enter this country without my son. If you return without finding him you will be put to death.'
In this manner within a period of ten years, he had sent away thirteen commanders in search of his son. Hence, everybody in the king's audience hall began to become afraid whenever the talk about the post of commander arose.
For the fourteenth time a commander was appointed.
One day! Having gone to the peak of his grief, the Nawab told that commander also what he had told the other commanders in the past and sent him out of the country.
That fourteenth commander was intelligent. He thought differently and put a big full stop to the problem.
He told the guards who came with him to drag and bring all the lame beggar boys whomsoever they came across and who were aged about fifteen years. The commander bowed to that beggar boy and said, 'Oh prince! Your father is waiting for you.'
The guards brought twenty-five beggar boys. The commander selected one amongst them, who had the facial resemblance to the king.
The beggar said, 'What are you saying sir? I am an orphan, a beggar.'
When the commander said, 'Oh prince, don't say that. You were lost from our country at a very young age. You should return to our land.'
The fortune of the beggar having changed in a second began to talk commandingly and addressed him singularly, 'Do you say that? Okay. Bring the palanquin quickly...'
The beggar had not yet even put on the prince's dress. Even before that, mentally he had become a prince and was ordering everyone...'Do this; do that.'
The commander thought, 'Why should I care about how this beggar behaves; I have to return to my country'.
Seeing the assertive behaviour of the beggar who had just been told that he is a prince, the commander laughed within himself, saying, 'Oh! Is this only called ego?'
This is a beautiful story that explains the power of thoughts.
Observe the slight change that occurred in the thought to the person, who had been thinking so far that he is a beggar, in his mind, a new thought that he is prince, has entered. He changed as a prince himself.
If you observe deeply the character in this story, it will be known that both beggar and prince depend upon the thought!
The mind which lives by sucking various thoughts will change its colour continuously.
If four or five persons continuously tell a man or a woman, 'You are beautiful', it is enough. The thought that he is beautiful will change as ego within him. If four or five persons continuously tell the same man or woman, 'You are bad', it will suffice, and the thought that he is bad will change as grief in him.
It is only because the human mind is not steady, the thoughts thrust by others, make him dance like a monkey. Men never relax due to this.
Firmness and clarity are the back-bones of the mind.
It required an army commander to instill the thought 'You are a prince' within the beggar. It was only after the commander gave the confirmation that he was a prince, he could boldly stand up firmly with the thought, 'I am a prince'.
Think just once...
Why? Should it be only outsiders who have to decide our thoughts, which are the bones of our minds? Why not we ourselves decide?
Reply: Yes. It is possible to decide!
First of all, you allow yourself to be relaxed. Discover the polluted thoughts.
Throw away the wrong thoughts, with full awareness, make good thoughts enter into your mind. You yourself shape up a new mind – with new thoughts. It is possible.
Every one of you is a prince!
Every one of you is a princess!
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A meaningful incident.
The logic professor was angry. 'I have already put on my shoes. How is it possible to put on shoes over that?' he shouted.
Seeing this, the Zen Master smiled and asked, 'When it is possible for you to carry in your hand the thoughts of others, why do you look with wonder when you have to put on another shoe?'
- Those who do not want even a speck of dust on them, accumulate cart loads of rubbish. They are not ashamed of things to be ashamed of.
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Meditation chisels. Chisel No. 23.