Even-Minded and Cheerful
Dear friends,
Yogananda spoke about being even-minded and cheerful in all circumstances. The mind immediately goes to an extreme. "Do you mean to tell me that if this horrible thing happens [fill in your own blank] I am supposed to stay even-minded and cheerful? How absurd!"
This is a trick of the mind. Rather than seeing success as directional improvement, it latches onto an extreme, to show that whatever thought it does not like is therefore unrealistic.
Suppose you start going to a gym to lift weights. There are weights of all sizes, from a few pounds to 500 pounds. You walk over to a 500-pound one, try to lift it, and fail. Do you quit the gym? Do you conclude weightlifting is impossible, or at the least is not for you? Any reasonable person will simply select a smaller weight.
Why, then, do we so often take that silly approach in life? Rather than focusing on some horrific circumstance that would be difficult to remain calm about, why not pick one of the hundreds of situations that come up every day that tweaks our hearts—even if just for a moment.
Our resistance to immediately accepting reality and wanting things is a very deep habit, and perhaps the ultimate self-defeating habit. Once reality is seen as simply what it is, the mind clears and the heart settles. Then, and only then, can we almost always know what to do and have the courage to do it. The agitated heart clouds the mind and cannot hear the quiet whisper of guidance that is available to us at all times.
May we remain even-minded and cheerful in a greater and greater number of circumstances every day, and by doing so feel the presence of Spirit more deeply and more often.
Blessings,
David G., manager
For the staff at East West