LIAM CHAI

Mental Hygiene

When we get a cold or the flu, we stay at home to rest. This is for two reasons, 1) to recover quicker and 2) to quarantine ourselves so we don’t spread our illness. This is basic personal hygiene and decency towards other humans..

Likewise, when our mind is afflicted by mental afflictions (kleshas), we stay in solitude and keep still. This helps to observe the mental affliction, so we recover faster. It also prevents us from spreading the mental affliction to others.

When one sees one’s mind to be attached or repulsed, then one should neither act nor speak, but remain still like a piece of wood.

When my mind is haughty, sarcastic, full of conceit and arrogance, ridiculing, evasive and deceitful, when it is inclined to boast, or when it is contemptuous of others, abusive, and irritable, then I should remain still like a piece of wood.

When my mind is averse to the interests of others and seeks my own self-interest, or when it wishes to speak out of a desire for an audience, then I will remain still like a piece of wood.

When it is impatient, indolent, timid, impudent, garrulous, or biased in my own favor, then I will remain still like a piece of wood.

Shantideva, Bodhicaryavatara, 5:48





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