Psychological Shoes, Overcoat, Umbrella
Overview
Where are your psychological shoes, overcoat, umbrella, and the cap?
When you step outside your house, you protect your body with your shoes, an umbrella, an overcoat, and your cap as the harsh outside environment can be hurtful to your body. Does not the same logic apply to your mind keeping in mind the adverse psychological atmosphere outside your house?
How do you protect your mind when interacting with people that may not always be friendly with you?
When you step outside your house, you protect your body with your shoes, an umbrella, an overcoat, and your cap as the harsh outside environment can be hurtful to your body. Does not the same logic apply to your mind keeping in mind the adverse psychological atmosphere outside your house?
How do you protect your mind when interacting with people that may not always be friendly with you? Where is the protective gear for your mind? Without any protection, you are likely to end up being bruised psychologically at each step.
Let us examine how we can protect ourselves; at times, it’s rational whereas at other times it seems irrational
Let us begin with the shoes, seeing everything as a game can be your shoes. No one plays a game with the idea of losing it, but they know that real life is different from the game and that life remains protected even if they lose a match. When you see everything as a game, success and failure seem equal at a deeper level, although superficially you are trying to win. It seems success can start a chain of events that may not be good for our souls and what is seen as a failure can be a very liberating experience. I was watching an interview on YouTube wherein the interviewee was describing how she found inner peace and joy after losing all her life’s savings in a fraudulent saving scheme. There is no need to take life very seriously, a part of your mind should always stay outside the seriousness of the business.
Achieving success can be tiring. When you arrive at the top of the mountain you are already tired, although you have succeeded. Earlier today I was listening to an interview with a celebrated writer for whom I had deep regard. I was shocked to hear him say that he was a very anxious and paranoid person, everything terrified him, it was a nightmare for him to be alive, and life seemed like hell to him. A part of my mind said in response to that, “I do not want that success.” A prominent politician in India recently said, “there is more to life than politics.” Realizing that politics can suck you into itself like an addiction. If we can rise above the dichotomies, failure is as acceptable as success.
Your love for other human beings can be your overcoat, it can insulate you from all sorts of hurt. Asking yourself what impact the thing that is making you uncomfortable will have on the other person’s life. Swami Ramakrishna gave the example of cutting jackfruit. When you cut a jackfruit a lot of milk oozes out and it can be very sticky, and exceedingly difficult to get rid of, even after using soaps and solvents. But if you oil your hands first before picking up the knife, you remain protected from the sticky milk. I remember an occasion when I went to purchase some books with a friend of mine, he started bargaining hard with the shopkeeper and I quickly intervened and settled the amount. This friend said to me, “we could have got it cheaper if you had allowed me to bargain.” I said to him, “I am imagining his son having an extra toy to play with on Christmas in three days’ time using the extra money that he got from me.”
The Cap can be your surrender to nature, being fully open and aware of the here and now, and not worrying about the future. In the surrender mode your ability to respond to the task at hand improves and the outcome is generally good.
A withdrawal of our senses and the mind into our inner shell can be seen as the Umbrella. The umbrella can be seen as the shell of a tortoise. Less is more here, and expansionism can be risky. Our connection with our five senses and the thinking mind always leads to the expansion of things and we get sucked out of ourselves. The greatest people on earth, such as Jesus, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Meera, Shankaracharya, Nietzsche, Socrates, etc had only a few followers during their lifetime. A great person shies away from aggressive marketing. A total surrender of all desires is a total liberation from stress.
Conclusion
There are other tools for the protection of our minds such as: –
- Practicing silence every day and improving our listening skills. listening is less tiring than talking.
- Expecting people to be irrational, selfish, and manipulative, although not desirable, seeing that as normal can be helpful. Not accepting it but dealing with it in a humane way.
- Seeing others as imperfect and being okay with that. We are not perfect; how can we expect others to be perfect? When we see faults in others, at the back of our minds, unconsciously we are expecting them to be perfect.
- Seeing everything as impermanent.
- Keeping your promises to yourself and to others.
- Seeing every human being as insecure, struggling, trying to be happy, suffering, burdened with the struggles of life and having encountered a number of failures in their life already and likely to face more challenges.
When you step outside your house, you protect your body with your shoes, an umbrella, an overcoat, and your cap as the harsh outside environment can be hurtful to your body. Does not the same logic apply to your mind keeping in mind the adverse psychological atmosphere outside your house?
How do you protect your mind when interacting with people that may not always be friendly with you? Where is the protective gear for your mind? Without any protection, you are likely to end up being bruised psychologically at each step.
Let us examine how we can protect ourselves; at times, it’s rational whereas at other times it seems irrational
Let us begin with the shoes, seeing everything as a game can be your shoes. No one plays a game with the idea of losing it, but they know that real life is different from the game and that life remains protected even if they lose a match. When you see everything as a game, success and failure seem equal at a deeper level, although superficially you are trying to win. It seems success can start a chain of events that may not be good for our souls and what is seen as a failure can be a very liberating experience. I was watching an interview on YouTube wherein the interviewee was describing how she found inner peace and joy after losing all her life’s savings in a fraudulent saving scheme. There is no need to take life very seriously, a part of your mind should always stay outside the seriousness of the business.
Achieving success can be tiring. When you arrive at the top of the mountain you are already tired, although you have succeeded. Earlier today I was listening to an interview with a celebrated writer for whom I had deep regard. I was shocked to hear him say that he was a very anxious and paranoid person, everything terrified him, it was a nightmare for him to be alive, and life seemed like hell to him. A part of my mind said in response to that, “I do not want that success.” A prominent politician in India recently said, “there is more to life than politics.” Realizing that politics can suck you into itself like an addiction. If we can rise above the dichotomies, failure is as acceptable as success.
Your love for other human beings can be your overcoat, it can insulate you from all sorts of hurt. Asking yourself what impact the thing that is making you uncomfortable will have on the other person’s life. Swami Ramakrishna gave the example of cutting jackfruit. When you cut a jackfruit a lot of milk oozes out and it can be very sticky, and exceedingly difficult to get rid of, even after using soaps and solvents. But if you oil your hands first before picking up the knife, you remain protected from the sticky milk. I remember an occasion when I went to purchase some books with a friend of mine, he started bargaining hard with the shopkeeper and I quickly intervened and settled the amount. This friend said to me, “we could have got it cheaper if you had allowed me to bargain.” I said to him, “I am imagining his son having an extra toy to play with on Christmas in three days’ time using the extra money that he got from me.”
The Cap can be your surrender to nature, being fully open and aware of the here and now, and not worrying about the future. In the surrender mode your ability to respond to the task at hand improves and the outcome is generally good.
A withdrawal of our senses and the mind into our inner shell can be seen as the Umbrella. The umbrella can be seen as the shell of a tortoise. Less is more here, and expansionism can be risky. Our connection with our five senses and the thinking mind always leads to the expansion of things and we get sucked out of ourselves. The greatest people on earth, such as Jesus, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Meera, Shankaracharya, Nietzsche, Socrates, etc had only a few followers during their lifetime. A great person shies away from aggressive marketing. A total surrender of all desires is a total liberation from stress.
Conclusion
There are other tools for the protection of our minds such as: –
- Practicing silence every day and improving our listening skills. listening is less tiring than talking.
- Expecting people to be irrational, selfish, and manipulative, although not desirable, seeing that as normal can be helpful. Not accepting it but dealing with it in a humane way.
- Seeing others as imperfect and being okay with that. We are not perfect; how can we expect others to be perfect? When we see faults in others, at the back of our minds, unconsciously we are expecting them to be perfect.
- Seeing everything as impermanent.
- Keeping your promises to yourself and to others.
- Seeing every human being as insecure, struggling, trying to be happy, suffering, burdened with the struggles of life and having encountered a number of failures in their life already and likely to face more challenges.
