Mind, the seat of thoughts, beliefs and convictions is a sacrosanct entity. Keep it clean, levelled ground, bereft of garbage of any kinds. Then your mind shall serve as a powerful entity in fulfilment of your aspirations.
At a banquet, recall the guests who collected more items, both in number and quantity, from the large array of bowls than the plate at left hand can accommodate. Poor, gluttonous chaps! Their leftovers may be more than they consumed. Temptation of delicacies had blurred their choice of food.
Same pattern holds when it comes to feeding the mind. There is too much all around and we need so little. It is not simply about remembering information and facts but more significantly, in nurturing attitudes, perceptions, beliefs and convictions. Anything dumped into the mind shall turn it into a garbage. We grow best, and meaningfully when the mind space is levelled, free of inhibitions, and in receptive mode.
The pensive disciple: One morning, in their journey Buddha and one of his young disciples landed on the bank of a rivulet. As they were about to cross it, they saw a young lady struggling to cross it. Buddha held her by the arm, and helped her. Reaching other side, she parted her way. Traversing the entire day, at sunset the duo halted in a monastery. Looking at the down-headed disciple, Buddha asked him what kept him stressed throughout the day since morning. The young disciple burst out, “In the morning – you, an acknowledged monk, in the rivulet held a lady, that too a young and beautiful one, by the arm. Isn’t it in gross violation of our basic precepts?”
“I dropped her, then and there, at the other end of rivulet. And you are still carrying her!” said Buddha dispassionately. The initiate had sensed the message.
Mind, repository of thoughts: Nothing of value can be inserted in a mind replete with misbeliefs, doubts and opinions. Neither the recipient nor the giver shall put precious stuff in a container already filled with trash. The seeker has first to cleanse and clear it to make way for the valuable stuff. The kind of stuff fed into the mind determine has direct, residual, or compounding effect on our mental health and well-being. Like our body imbibes what we eat and drink so does our mind with an estimated 64,000 thoughts & counterthoughts visiting it daily.
As negative ideas and powers dominate the world, it needs discretion and conscious efforts to see that mind is not made the dumping ground for whatever is on offer, like the delicacies in the banquet.
Our mind is incredibly powerful, and the kind of inputs fed into the mind determine the outcomes. Further, our body does what mind commands it to do. Hence the Biblical mandate, “it’s essential to feed it a steady diet of positive things on purpose” (verse 9 of Philippians 4).
Our lives are not too long; nor do we have enormous spaces at home or in workplaces to accept whatever is available. There is more around us including people to be discarded or marginalised than treasured. How else shall accommodate the new. Sense of selection is warranted for healthy growth of mind.
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The abbreviated version of the article was published by The Economic Times on 3 March 2025, the Monday on edit page (Speaking Tree column), with the caption, ‘Feeding the Mind’. Link of online edition of paper:
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