How the mind is a robber who pretends to be a well-wisher
Suppose a robber comes to our house pretending to be our well-wisher and tells us that our car which we had parked on a nearby [...]
How to get the mind to go along with us?
We sometimes resolve to do certain things that are important for us. But our mind stubbornly refuses to go along. Anticipating our predicament, the Bhagavad-gita [...]
How to get away from the mind when it troubles us?
When someone speaks negative things constantly, we may feel the need to get away from them. We may feel a similar need when our mind [...]
How depressed desire leads to depression
Suppose someone riding a cycle pedals too fast and falls into a ditch. On getting up, they decide that pedaling caused their accident and refuse [...]
How we become both villains and victims …
Typical movies have two characters: one who acts in villainous ways and one who is victimized by those villainous actions. But suppose a movie featured [...]
How we end up neglecting life’s important things
When people face sudden disaster or death, they often realize that they have wasted so much of their life on unimportant things while neglecting important [...]
Why do small things irritate us so much?
We may notice that our mood often gets spoiled when some small things go wrong. Why do we get so irritated by small negatives? Because [...]
The more we are emotional, the less emotions we have and the more our emotions have us
Emotions bring life to our life — if we had to live like emotionless robots, there wouldn’t be much to look forward to in our [...]
The mind demands that others leave us alone and then complains they don’t care for us
Suppose someone who we care for is going through difficulties. When we try to help them, they demand from us, “Leave me alone”, but then [...]
What we contemplate mentally, we cultivate mentally
Suppose we have a garden. We will be careful about what we cultivate there. And we certainly wouldn’t intentionally cultivate weeds or toxic plants. Unfortunately, [...]
The mind makes us depressed and then makes us depressed that we are depressed
Life by its very nature is characterized by both good and bad. And when bad things happen, we naturally feel disappointed. But our mind starts [...]
Treating the mind as an enemy can be uncomfortable, treating it as a friend can be fatal — treat it as a patient
Suppose we are living with someone prone to wild mood swings. We will need to watch them carefully to understand their present mood and adapt [...]
If we start dwelling on whatever our mind is thinking, our thinking starts stinking
Suppose something is stinking in our home. We will immediately find and remove it. We need to do the same when our thinking starts stinking. [...]
The more we become conscious of where our consciousness is, the more we can tap the power of our consciousness
We are always conscious, but we aren’t always conscious of where our consciousness is. Our consciousness is our most undervalued resource. Whatever we do, learn, [...]
To take the task of training the mind seriously, stop taking everything it says seriously
Suppose we have a child. If we take the responsibility of caring for and training the child seriously, we won’t take everything the child says [...]
The less we identify with our thoughts, the less we act thoughtlessly
Whenever we do something regrettable, we wonder, “Why did I act so thoughtlessly?” First, we are never literally thoughtless, for we are never without thoughts. [...]
The mind is not afraid to interrupt us, don’t be afraid to interrupt it
Suppose we are working in a team with someone who keeps interrupting us. And what they suggest is mostly distracting at best and disastrous at [...]
The mind is a persecutor who pretends to be the persecuted
Few things stimulate human sympathy as much as the sight of someone being persecuted. We naturally want to do what we can to stop the [...]
The best way to watch the mind is by having something better to watch
Our mind often acts as an enemy. That’s why we all need to watch our mind, just as a country needs to watch a hostile [...]
If we get into the mind’s discourse, we go down a disastrous course
Suppose someone gave a talk that is captivatingly delivered but is filled with semi-truths and untruths. If we get into that talk, we will end [...]
What the mind makes us do would be comic if its consequences were not so tragic
In some comedy shows, some people do stunningly stupid things, repeatedly. Seeing their stupidity can be hilarious. Sadly, many people’s real lives are not much [...]