Mastering Your Moods

Mastering Your Moods With the Thought-Sword of Wisdom


"Millions of people are walking the earth thinking they are free. But
are they truly free? They imagine they are doing what they want to
do, but in truth their actions are compelled mostly by their moods.
Freedom to do exactly what wants to do, arising naturally from what
one ought to do, comes only when the ego's moods are mastered.

No one really wants to go through life in gloomy moods. It is so much
better to be peaceful than to be angry. Yet despite good resolutions
to the contrary, as soon as somebody does a little thing that the
ill-tempered person doesn't like, his face becomes flushed with anger
and he is wholly subject to that ugly mood. From morning until evening
most everyone indulges in their different moods. Analyze yourself:
Sometimes you are happy, sometimes you are peevish, sometimes you are
sad or discouraged, and so forth. Day after day, you go on living with
these ups and downs because you don't know how to control them.

Moods are commonly thought of as a mental attitude or emotional
disposition predominating in the consciousness at any given time. But
yoga philosophy goes deeper. The Sanskrit word bhava is a broad term
for mood, or more specifically, one's state of being, ranging from
emotions to divine absorption in meditation. Generalized, it is the
particular manner of being - the nature, character, temperament, way
of thinking or feeling, the state of mind or consciousness - that is
an individualized expression cloaking the soul. Thus, there are
various kinds of moods, some good and some bad. All good moods should
be nurtured; they are those that do not distort the clear expression
of your innate divinity. Bad moods are those that destroy divine
moods. Restless moods destroy the mood of soul calmness. Anger moods
destroy the native peace of the soul. Anything that disturbs the
soul's mood of calm happiness is destructive. As soon as disturbing
moods come, slay them with the thought-word of wisdom.

This world is a spiritual hospital, and until you are cured of the
delusion relative to the body-bound ego, you won't be discharged. You
will be reborn on earth repeatedly until you free yourself from mortal
ignorance. Indulgence in harmful moods is the gravest slavery we have
created in our delusion. He who is bound by anger and greed and their
companionate inclinations cannot pass the gates of delusion into
freedom. The yoga of the Bhagavad Gita and sage Patanjali cites the
discipline of mind required to attain mastery.

The highest wisdom is Self-Realization - knowing the Self."

~ Paramahansa Yogananda


"A calm and contented mental clarity, kindliness, silence,
self-control, and purity of character (bhava-samshuddhi) constitute
the austerity of the mind."

~ from "God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad-Gita XVII:16


"By cultivating attitudes of friendliness, compassion, gladness, and
dispassion, respectively, toward happiness, misery, virtue, and vice,
the consciousness (chitta) retains the unruffled calmness (of the
soul)."

~ Patanjali's Yoga Sutras I:33


"What is the undercurrent which vivifies the mind, enables it to do all this work?
It is the Self. So that is the real source of your activity.Simply be
aware of it during your work and do not forget it.
Contemplate in the background of your mind even whilst working.
To do that, do not hurry, take your own time. Keep the remembrance
of your real nature alive, even while working, and avoid haste which
causesyou to forget. Be deliberate. Practice meditation to still the
mind and cause it tobecome aware of its true relationship to the Self
which supports it.
Do not imagine it is you who are doing the work.
Think that it is the underlying current which is doing it.Identify
yourself with the current. If you work unhurriedly, recollectedly,
your work or service need not be a hindrance."- Sri Ramana Maharshi,
"Be As You Are"The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshiedited by David
Godman



As I Am,

Mazie

Interesting article, thanks Mazie.
It brought to mind a recent Nonsequitor
cartoon from the local newspaper. Little
Denai approaches a swing with a dark
cloud over her head. She hops on and
swings a bit, then leaps off, smiling.
As we see her leaving the frame, the swing
whistles a cheerful note. The cartoon
was titled "Mood Swing".

Nina