Thought for the Day
Topic: Thought for the day


A Thought for the Day From Sri Eknath Easwaran
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February 26

Purity of heart is to will one thing. - Kierkegaard

There is a Hindu story comparing the mind to the trunk of an elephant
-- restless, inquisitive, always straying. In our villages in India,
elephants are sometimes taken in religious processions through the
streets to the temple. The streets are crooked and narrow, lined on
either side with fruit and vegetable stalls. Along comes the elephant
with his restless trunk, and in one sinuous motion, he grabs a whole
bunch of bananas. He opens his cavernous mouth, and tosses the
bananas in -- stalk and all. From the next stall he picks up a
coconut and tosses it in after the bananas.

No threats or promises can make this restless trunk settle down.
But the wise mahout will give that trunk a short bamboo stick to
hold. Then the elephant will walk along proudly, holding the bamboo
stick in front like a drum major with a baton. He doesn't steal
bananas and coconuts now, because his trunk has something to hold
on to.

The mind works in the same way. We can keep it from straying into
all kinds of situations if we just give it the mantram.

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>From Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By" (Nilgiri Press, 1997)
http://www.nilgiri.org/Html/Thoughts/today.html

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