24 July 2017

Getting trapped...

The worst kind of trap is our mind. Not only do bad things create a trap in our mind, but the good things do too.

When sad or bad or unfortunate things get trapped in our mind, we find ourselves on a Ferris Wheel of crazy behaviour. We do all the things that only push us further and further into the quicksand of misfortune. Our actions and words land us in one disaster after another. When our mind gets trapped in sad or bad or unfortunate things, it seems to take on a life of its own and starts working in a frenzied manner. The result, we find that we have pushed ourselves far, far down in a chasm of despair. We become desperate and finally realize that unless we free ourselves from this mind trap, all is lost.

It is the same with materially good things. These too create a trap in our mind. The result is that we become greedy for the 'good things in life', so greedy in fact, that we may not realize what we are doing and thus end up doing something quite unfortunate. We become blind to rules and behaviour, blind to our values, blind to everything other than the drive to get what we want. We become desperate because we have to have this, that or the other. Finally, something - and this is usually something quite drastic - happens to bring us back to our senses and we see the folly of what we had allowed ourselves to do and become.

We need to go back to the Zen practice of being still. Be still till the turbulence in the mind eases off and clear thought and reason come back...