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12
THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING
with these emotions can never be accessible. What is it that is so riddled, so attracted by strong emotions? Not the inanimate, the unconscious. Wrath never descends upon the inanimate. Does the wall ever take offence? It the walls of our rooms were to be moved by anger, man's plight would be pitiable beyond thought. The coarse cloth upon which we sit is never hurt. We place our feet on it, and it says nothing. Just try to place your feet on another man's head! The bare touch would make the victim flare up. But the poor piece of cloth is never angry, never exhibits pride.
The inanimate displays no anger or pride, neither deceit nor hypocrisy. But man cheats man; the animate being deceives its fellows. That the inanimate should cheat the animate has never been seen or heard of. All the circumventions and deceits are conscious man's creation and man alone perpetuates them. It is the sentient, the animate which harbours all the vices; the inanimate, the insentient contains no evil. In the inanimate world, there is only what is- neither good nor bad. The 'good' and the 'bad' are the creations of a conscious mind. As long as the mind does not realize its true nature, evil is bound to continue.
Meditation is a process of realizing one's conscious self. It is a process of awakening awareness. As long as the true nature of consciousness is not seen, all thc evils harbour in the mind, in it they find their base and support. In such a congenial atmosphere, they grow uninhibited. All the wickedncss and the sins have their breeding ground in the mind; it is here that they find their nurture. Provided with a solid foundation, these grow even though the conscious being providing this support continues in pain. A queer situation! The landlord suffers hardship while the tenant prospers. It is not easy to evict the tenant. To free consciousness of all impurities is an arduous task. The general conception that one's nature is unchangeable is not altogether wrong. The conditioning of centuries cannot be easily done away with. However, meditation is a process which gradually washes away all accumulated grease and as the grease gets cleansed away, the elements sticking to it are also got rid of. The tenant enjoys certain rights by law. He cannot be evicted. But a house which is decayed gets demolished by heavy rain and storm and in that case all the tenants have to seek shelter elsewhere. The house stands evacuated by nature, meditation is such a potential downpour, such a terrific storm that razes the house of ignorance to the ground and then all the tenants—the evils and impurities-are obliged to fly. Everything stands changed. This is the transformation sought for.
In this world, there are some things which can be changed and others which cannot. All that is unchangeable and eternal must be . left alone. However, every state of mind is changeable. There is no
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