“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”
– Kahlil Gibran
Kabir – The couplet
केसों कहा बिगाडिया, जे मुंडे सौ बार ।
मन को काहे नो मूंडिये, जा में विष विकार ॥
Transliterated:
Keson Kaha Bigadia, Je Moonde Sau Baar |
Man Ko Kahe Na Moondiye, Jaamein Vishey Vikaar ||
Translation:
What harm did (facial) hair do to you, that you shave it off so often? |
Why not shave off the mind – it has accumulated so many poisons and deformities ||
My understanding:
The last few days, I have been reflecting on denying/negating/getting rid of ego. But where I kept getting stuck is that, as soon as you shut out any aspect of the self, it puts up a stiff fight to regain its place, and keeps battering at the blocks till it finds a way back. When it does, it now erects new defenses to ensure that it will not be overcome so easily the next time – making our job that much more difficult.
To succeed, we have to behave like a permeable membrane – we need to let things be, but not succumb. So the advice really seems to have to morph to – let the ego be, but do not allow it to direct life. Become the observer – listen to what the ego says, same as one listens to all else. Absorb input, but do not react. Instead, allow the self to sally forth and just be – the observer that watches, learns and absorbs, without action, reaction, or interaction.
Then our actions will slowly morph to be what they need to be, not what the ego wants them to be. This will make our attitude the right one at every juncture, and we will see the world for what it really is.