unlockthedoortolearning

In The Dhammapada (1936) translated by Irving Babbitt it says, “Whatever a hater may do to a hater, or an enemy to an enemy, a wrongly-directed mind will do us greater mischief (page 9).”  We have had some terribly “wrongly-directed” minds in 2012—minds that have killed and minds that have kept legislation from being passed to help create jobs, feed the hungry, take care of the poor, the elderly, the disabled, our veterans, women’s healthcare, and more.  At this Christmas time it would behoove us to review our thoughts and actions to evaluate their intentions and their consequences.

Have you had thoughts of hatred toward others this year?  Have you created “mischief” in your life and theirs by the actions you have taken as those actions followed those thoughts down that path of negativity and revenge?  Revenge does not have to be a great and dramatic event like what happened this month at Sandyhook Elementary School; it can be as simple as an unfriendly or accusatory e-mail, or a note left on someone’s desk, or a negative thought or words about him or her.

We can never know the consequences of our actions.  That e-mail may have been enough to make that person lose his or her job, or feel badly about his self or herself and done something untoward afterwards.  It may have even made them get into an accident on the way home because the person’s thoughts were on it and not on the road, the traffic, or their driving. It may not be killing of the body, but it sure can be killing of the mind, spirit, and soul.

The Dhammapada goes on to say, “Not a mother, not a father will do so much, nor any other relative; a well-directed mind will do us greater service (page 9).”  So regardless of what you learned at the knee of your mother or father or favorite grandparent or relative or family friend—your thinking has made your life what it is today!

Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity Church, always said, “Thoughts held in mind manifest after their kind.” What does that mean?  Good thoughts bring good things into your life.  Negative thoughts bring negative things into your life.  You cannot give out hate, anger, and animosity and get back love, peace, and joy.

That is NOT the way the world works.  Remember the world is round, not just so it can fly through space on a circular pattern rather than be flying through space spinning out of control hither and thither, but so we can say “what goes around comes around.”  From winter we enter spring, which takes us to summer and then into fall.  This happens year after year, decade after decade, century after century, eon after eon.  The world spins round and round…and your thoughts do the same in your head and determine your actions and words.

As we take time this holiday season to contemplate the tragedy at Sandyhook Elementary let us think about the events in our lives that may not have left physical death, but may have left fear, sadness, anxiety, or trepidation in ourselves or in another.   We could have tempered our thoughts and the actions resulting from them and turned them into thoughts of good, love, compassion, empathy and the like and watched the growth of love, peace, and joy instead.

We never know who can turn into a child like the young men who killed in Colorado, Virginia, Connecticut, and elsewhere.  But surely we do not want to be the catalyst for the next one. So let us revise this quote for 2013: “A loving-directed mind will do great things for us and others and ultimately for the world.”