This virtue is totally positive. “Purity of
mind or heart” is the
second of the four main virtues. The Hindi term refers to “purification of
one’s existence”, And of course it included body, speech, mind and heart. “The Pure
Mind is also Pure Buddhi; that, again, is Pure Ātman, because there is nothing
pure but God.” Or in Christian terms: "Blessed are the pure
in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). The advantage of the
virtues, we are told, is that if one is being accepted by the mind, the others
are attracted too. So as we overcome our fears through right thinking, so our
purity increases, as there can be no purity in the presence of contamination in
the mind. Hence the beauty of virtues in negative aspects, as to be avoided,
and positive aspects, as to be accepted. This was also well beyond me when I
started out, and I just chose a nice picture of a crystal-clear mountain lake
to represent purity. And initially, my “purity” was simply warding off unnecessary
thoughts, unwanted trains of thought that take “me” suddenly away from my
“purpose”. So for the moment, “purity” of mind was sticking to the Plan and
returning ever and ever again to the basic question “Who am I?”... Imagined
purity, purity by imitation, by the constraints of a belief or creed, cursory
obedience to a set of rules, are nothing but thoughts. And thoughts that don’t
match emotions, passions and actions simply create more conflict in the mind,
and leave us fragmented. The search for purity is the search for wholeness.
No comments:
Post a Comment