...all our troubles in life arise from ourselves, no matter how much they may seem to come from the outside; we are all parts of the one great whole, and if you try to centre your mind upon that fact, and to remember that those things that seem to trouble you are really due to your own way of looking at the world and life, you will probably grow more contented in mind. It is your own mind you should watch and not the circumstances in which you are placed.—W. Q. Judge
Kicking against the pricks hurts only the one who kicks. Moreover, the pricks seem to enjoy it, for being kicked, they keep coming back....The thing to do is to take higher ground, mentally; read and think about high themes; regard only the good, the meaning and purpose of Life as a whole. If in earnest in this way, the evil is dissipated like the mists before the morning sun.—Robert Crosbie
The story is told of a youngster who called out from her bedroom window to her playmates that she could not join them that evening for the usual games. On being asked: "But why?" she explained that Mother had said she was to stay in her room until she changed her attitude. "Well, then, hurry up and change it," retorted one child. "But I can't, I don't know how!" And after a few seconds she exclaimed: "Why, I don't even know what an attitude is!" At this confession another child became greatly alarmed and said: "Good gracious, then what will you do?" "I'll have to wait until it changes itself," was the reply.
Many adults are today like this yountgster. They know not what is wrong with them and so cannot set about putting it right. They too are waiting for "it" to change, and while they wait they fret and fume and look outside for the cause of their misery, blaming life, providence, circumstances or others. They have yet to realize that not only are all obstacles and all difficulties of our own making, the results of our own errors, but our attitude today determines their value to us in the present. Our real environment is not in the outward circumstances but in our thoughts and mental habits, in our desires and our emotional make-up. It is the quality of these inner thoughts and feelings that reflects itself in the external environment, and that is why running away from his surroundings will not enable a person to escape his own self-made destiny or Karma. The latter he carries with him wherever he goes, and will again produce similar circumstances in the new place. When this is understood, the only true and permanent remedy is also perceived, namely, that the change must be an inner one, a change of heart, a new orientation of mind, in other words, a change of attitude!
The crisis our civilization now faces is primarily a moral one. Our attitude to life, our viewpoints, have become distorted and must be set right. With all our worship of science we are fundamentally unscientific. We boast of our scientific achievements and we use the tools scientists have provided. But with all these scientific wonders we fail to apply the discipline of science to ourselves, to our viewpoints, our methods, our habits and our attitudes. We have remained ignorant of the basic law of all scientific knowledge, the impersonal facing of our problems, determined to seek the right solution. We have become "conditioned to failure." Not knowing where the cause of our troubles lies, we are resigned to going on as we are, to wait for something to happen that will somehow bring about a change.
The understanding of the dynamic effects of attitudes upon ourselves, our lives and the lives of others becomes thus a pressing need of this hour.
What are viewpoints? Much help can be derived by turning to ancient philosophy and recalling the six schools of Indian thought, the darshanas, each approaching reality from one point of view. While the six systems agree on certain essentials, each one sets forth its own special doctrine which flows from its own attitude. And when this is accepted it should also make for real tolerance. There is, however, a seventh point of view, the inner, and it is here that the reconciliation of the six schools is possible. For that inner viewpoint is their synthesis and belongs to Gupta-Vidya, the Secret Doctrine.
In the oft-quoted Vedic story of the six blind men and the elephant, we have a practical illustration of the importance of viewpoints. For, while it is usually interpreted to signify the blindness of ignorance, it can also denote the difference of approach. Each blind man projected his own "picture" on to the elephant he touched. And this is true of every man. Each one of us reads and interprets the world outside on the basis of the contents of his consciousness. In that inner consciousness we have built a "picture" of what we believe this world to be and it is this image that we project outside. Also, like the six blind men, each of us is sure he knows the real world; he alone is right, all others are wrong. And yet we are not really seeing what is actually there but only what is there coloured, distorted or transformed by that "picture" we have projected. How many of our arguments and disputes would evaporate if we could only remember this! How ridiculous and truly "unscientific," as well as "unphilosophical," appear isolationism and provincialism, as also arrogance and intolerance, in this context! We need a little more humility and charity. And we need philosophical perception coupled with courage and self-reliance.
Let us watch our own mind and correct our wrong viewpoints. Let us stop looking at life and its circumstances in the habitual egotistic way we have been doing, and, taking higher ground mentally, look at everything from a new viewpoint, that of the Self, the Divine Avalokiteshwara, of which we are but channels, placing our only faith, reliance and trust in Karma, the Divine Law; let us use every situation, however unpleasant or painful, as a means towards greater insight, deeper sympathy; and, while not abandoning our own intuitions, let us cultivate charity towards all, tolerance rooted in understanding. In other words, let us stop looking at life from a selfish viewpoint and begin to look at it from an unselfish one.
Thus gradually we shall begin to glimpse the meaning of the golden injunction: "Feel yourselves the vehicles of the whole humanity, mankind as part of yourselves, and act accordingly."
