Kindness

We are in general not a kind people. We are ruthless in our desires,
ambitions and self-righteous hatreds. Kindness may be the most vital
solution to the mystery of how human beings can live with each other in
peace, and care appropriately for this planet we all share. A word
spoken in kindness to anyone, especially a stranger, may lift the
person out of the depths of despair and by opening yourself in a
positive manner to all that cross your path, you may be the catalyst
that helps them pass through the barriers of fear and subsequently
loosening the kindness that has been locked away within them.

There's hardly one of us who hasn't asked the question, "Isn't it
better to be nasty?" Almost every one of us has had the feeling that we
were a bit soft but to be kind is to be strong and to be forgiving.
Consistent kindness helps release one's self from the ongoing stresses
of life, it sets us free and lightens our heart while greed,
selfishness, hatred, bitterness, spite and materialism imprison us and
hardens our soul. Kindness is infectious. Others catch it and pass it
on!

Every one of us inherently possesses very powerful resources, the
potential to experience true wisdom; the potential to express
gentleness and genuine compassion; the potential to generate great
warmth and kindness towards ourselves and others; and, the potential to
engender openness and patience. These resources are not located
somewhere outside of ourselves. We all have these great
potentials.

So why do we try to solve our internal conflict and dissatisfaction
externally. No matter how much we try to manipulate external things to
secure a complete sense of well-being for ourselves, we will never have
complete control over external reality. This seems to be our basic
problem, confusing our external situation with our own potential for
internal well-being and mental harmony.

Another serious delusion is the uncompromising superiority of our
egocentricity, "I for myself" attitude. We limit our point of view to
our own happiness, our own satisfaction. We are concerned only with how
we can make things better in our lives, and if it creates problems or
difficulty for anyone else, it doesn't matter, because we need this or
that for ourselves. Once this egoistic device has been constructed, it
causes an upheaval of conflicting emotions, such as jealousy,
aggression, etc.

When we limit our minds to selfish notions, obstacles of all kinds will
seem to appear spontaneously in order to impede our plans or destroy
what we have created around ourselves. Consequently, we respond to
these obstacles with aggression or with jealousy, feeling that our
private enclosure is being threatened or put at risk. We know from
personal experience that when conflicting emotions are constantly
running rampant in our lives, there is no possibility of experiencing
or even appreciating any sense of well-being.

There are individuals (self included) who seem to have an atmosphere of
pleasantness or friendliness around them, who have endearing
personalities and are well mannered and cultured. Wherever these
individuals go, they feel good about themselves and have healthy,
positive attitudes about things. They can generously extend genuine
warmth and offer others a welcoming smile. They are able to do this
because there is an element of stability and gentleness, maybe even
clarity, about their minds.

When we experience a very gentle, easy mind, we allow ourselves to feel
good about who we are, and the things that we do become enjoyable. We
are able to enjoy the food we eat, and our interactions with others are
very good. On the other hand, when we have a disturbed mind, a mind of
aggression and jealousy, subject to the upheaval of conflicting
emotions, we are not able to fully enjoy anything. Even if we are
surrounded by the best of things that life has to offer.

One of the most seriously detrimental attitudes we can take is to view
the ego's negative customary patterns as permanent aspects of our
personalities, to attribute such failing as anger or jealousy to our
natures. It is very harmful and destructive to make no effort, to
simply say, "I can't do anything about it because it's my nature." From
the view of common sense, this is faulty reasoning. The experience of
anger, jealousy, or aggression is an experience of the mind. It arises
because of habitual patterns, because of mental conditionings. When we
say something is a part of our nature, it makes it seem to be a
permanent, unchangeable thing. But the mind is the easiest thing to
change.

As we know from experience, just one little thing can make someone
extremely happy. And just one little thing can make someone raging mad.
It does not take much to set the mind reeling in one direction or the
other, because it changes so easily. So we cannot make excuses and
claim that limitations are a part of our "nature," because they are
not, and there is no way to prove that they are.