शमथ। Samatha

Always staying with your own thoughts is like staying in a room where the air is stale. Thoughts are useful like the fresh air that blows into your room when the windows are opened. After
some time the same room does not seem so fresh anymore. It is time to get out of the room and take a walk in the fields or by the sidewalks, whichever is available. Freshness cannot be sustained only by the air around you, but also by the movement of your limbs, the sights you see as well as what you hear.

“I do not like what I see because I do not like the people around me, and I definitely don’t like what I hear”; you have fallen victim to another thought. A thought that does not allow you to get out of your room, but imagine islands of solace in far away places. But you cannot be anywhere unless you get out of those thoughts, can you? Rely only on thoughts which make you do what you are capable of, and discard the impotent ones.

Mind is not a standalone mechanism. It is one of the functions experienced in and through the body. If it is not greased well through exercises intended to keep it healthy, it gathers rust. All these cannot be done in your tiny room of thoughts. Mind is capable of much more than thoughts alone. But first, you have to release yourself from the clutches of constant thoughts.

Listen to the sounds around you without judgment. See the sights around you without judgment. Inhale the smells around you without judgment. You will feel your mind being rejuvenated. Do not always keep looking for what you like. It is a sure way of inviting misery and being held in a cocoon which never lets a butterfly out. When your senses are not after their desirable objects, they are free to breathe into your mind everything as they are. Your closed perspectives and perceptions will begin to change, be it about yourself or about the larger world. Senses are your eyes to the world outside, and they also possess the power to transform you inside out. Do not shut them up until you have transformed yourself.

Feel Blessed
Swastham Shantam Sampurnam