Gentleness

EElambReceived this lovely message in an electronic postcard from the Blue Mountain Centre of Meditation. Wise words from Eknath Easwaran on the power of being gentle. You can watch the short video clip here.

In my vocabulary, gentle is a very beautiful word. I find gentle people so beautiful, so good to be with. That’s one of the rare tributes I give to my friends: you are a gentle creature. It’s not a gentleness of appearance and behavior only – real gentleness in the heart, gentleness in the mind. Very, very reluctant to think ill of others, even if there is cause. It is not that I am not aware when somebody is lacking in goodness or kindness, but I don’t let my mind dwell upon that. I try to see the bright side of everybody, and everybody has a bright side. And if we keep our eyes on the bright side of everybody, people also will begin to be aware of their bright side.

Today in the whole of our contemporary culture, there is so much emphasis on the negative aspects of life: on anger, on fear, on lust, on malice, on hostility, on jealousy. I am not denying these, but I have trained my attention not to dwell on these negative things, which I see every day. As a result I have lost the capacity to think negatively. It is not that I choose to think positively; I can’t think negatively. With that, a great load falls away.

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