Mind

 With our thoughts, we make the world

So it's been a week since we had that debate about having some traits which we carry from birth, and to whether these traits are changeable throughout our lives, or is it unchangeable at all from the moment we're born till we die. So a few days ago, I asked the other party (that stands with unchangeable) an intriguing question which leaves them with a question mark.

I asked them a scenario where there is a man who grew up to be a very stingy man all his life. So we can take it that he has a "stingy" trait in him. However in his 30s, his life went through a downfall and he was devastated. Then suddenly came a person who helped him, in a lot of ways. Through this situation he learned how wonderful it is to help people. So this episode changed him to be a generous person until the day he died, and he's no longer stingy.

So my question is whether this goes to show that he didn't carry the stingy trait? Or did he carry a stingy trait but was able to change due to a situation. And the other party answer is that he is still carrying a stingy trait just that he's not showing it. And that one day he may change again. So I asked again what if he didn't, until the day he died? And the other party just reply simply by saying well it's just that he didn't go back to his own traits.

The party even says that this kind of scenario will never happen.

Although in so many ways, the other party's explanation is kinda conflicting. But oh well, everyone has their own opinions, like I do too.

Like I said in my previous post, our mind shapes who we are. I believe that we unconsciously become who we think we are. So if we constantly think that we're X, we'll always be X and we'll never be Y. But we always forget that our mind is as big, or even bigger than the sky. And if we're able to explore it, to use it and expand it, we can be XY or even YX or XYS etc. I feel that we should not just confine ourselves to a definition, but expand it.

I live by the Buddha's teaching of "What we think, we become". I think that the mind is the most powerful thing that we have in this world. We can have a perfectly functional body, but if we have a dysfunctional mind, we're literally useless in my opinion. The mind is everything, the mind defines who are and designs the world we live in. It is so powerful but yet very little of it is understood. We have to train it so that we can expand the horizons of our minds.

I'm still reading the Tibetan Book of The Dead and Living by Sogyal Rinpoche and it is said there about how we can train our mind by doing meditations. Ever since I read the chapter on meditation, I've been meditating everyday for at least 5-10 minutes. After reading the book I realised how wrong my method and purpose of meditation was.

And the book says that if we've mastered meditation really well, we can actually "meditate" in our daily lives without having to sit down and meditate. I am definitely very far from this but I'm working through it. What I learned from the book is that the best way to train our minds, apart from meditating, is by showing it in our actions, and the way we think and feel about a certain situation. And how we can control our emotions, which I feel is controlled by our minds!

Like when we're angry with someone, we can tell ourselves to be angry all the time, or we can let go of our anger. If we're faced by a problem, we can let the problem stand in our way all the time, or we can solve the problem and let it go. By making these choices we are unconsciously defining and shaping and training our minds. And through these daily life happenings we become who we are now. And the mind will eventually define who are and how we think, act and behave.

So it's very important to realise that our mind is a powerful thing. That it is a big and spacious thing. And how we can define who we are with our thoughts. When they say that the mind is everything, well they're not lying actually.

I'd like to end this post with the continuation of the Buddha's words
"With our thoughts, we make the world"