A man with a troubled mind went in search of a mystic master.

After wandering around for several months, he finally found a mountain retreat where a teacher resided.

The troubled man inquired, “Is there a special way to attain mental completeness?”

Replied the teacher, “Yes, a way exists.”

“Please tell me about it.”

“When you eat, simply eat. When you work, simply work. When you play, simply play.”

“But,” protested the man, “that is what all of us do. Have I wasted my time in coming here? There is no difference in your way and the way of everyone else.”

“There is a tremendous difference which you do not see.”

“What is the difference?”

“When you eat, you wonder whether your table companions like you or not. When you work, you hope to be promoted above others. When you play, you think it is necessary to play better than your friends. That is the big difference. On your way back down the mountain, think long and hard about this. You may wish to return for a second visit.”

—

Man is unable to concentrate on what he is doing at the moment. His mind is forever wandering into the past or future or holding imaginary conversations or unreeling dramatic scenes or getting lost in complaint and depression and excitement.

His mind is rarely at home with itself, which is why disorder remains.

Solution: come back to your own mind.

You do not have to wonder what is best for you.

Wondering and planning and choosing are the acts of a divided mind which still wrongly believes in fulfillment through acquisition.

The mind is not satisfied by getting something outside itself, but is satisfied only by coming together with itself.

The terms of self-gain and self-loss have no meaning to a united mind.

—

The mind is attracted to whatever corresponds to its own conditions.

Hearing this, one man smiling commented, “That tells me something new about myself. I seem drawn to noisy activities.”

That mans insight can lead him toward the next helpful lesson in the course- the value of a silent mind.

It is the silent self which attracts everything good for itself.

—

We can tell what we are like by noticing what impresses us.

We are impressed by whatever resides on our own psychic level. It can be no other way, for we are our own impressions. Whenever we see anything, we see ourselves, as in a mirror.

We cannot see above our own present level, but we can open ourselves to a higher level, which permits that level to impress us with its power for healing.

Follow this carefully: Rightness is a single, whole virtue.

Authentic rightness cannot be divided into opposing parts consisting of one rightness for you and another for me.

Divided rightness is false, causing conflict.

Therefore, whoever sees what is truly right for themselves will not behave wrongly toward anyone else. He sees self-rightness and other-rightness as the same thing. Also, he sees self-harm and other-harm as the same.

—

The tighter a man has chained himself with wrong ideas, the tighter he will try to chain others with them. It is his vain attempt to feel secure in a like-minded crowd.

His peculiar logic thinks his own chains will somehow feel lighter if others have the same chains.

This makes him hostile toward any other person whose sudden awareness of his chains makes him want to drop them.

If a self-chained man would begin to set others free, he would also set himself free, for they are both the same wise process of “letting go”.

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There is a way to think in which misfortunes and regrets are not created. You are now investigating that way.

—

from: Secrets for Higher Success by Vernon Howard

AI Art by: Mark Reed “EVERYTHING IS CRAP” Carson