Mastering Your Moods

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Thanks 'As you are'... Samiam

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Mazie Lane

Saturday, August 20, 2005 3:23 PM

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