Calm mind, clean heart help us face any challenge

In an ‘age of surprises’, how can we be ‘ever-ready’—poised, even—to meet whatever comes with equanimity?

Much depends on spiritual readiness. With this beautiful quality as the foundation of my life, I can trust myself to respond appropriately with good wishes and pure feelings no matter what happens. Far from being fragile and reactive, I know I will bring my best qualities forward as well as all the powers I need.

For this to happen, my mind should be at peace and aligned with my inner self, and my heart should be clean.

It is easy to form the habit of following the mind rather than mastering it, allowing it to be hooked by external events, work or other commitments, the lives of others, or my mobile phone. I may dwell on the past and feel regret, or speculate about the future and worry. Or perhaps the physical body and the ageing process pull my attention.

As a result, my mind fluctuates. I am reactive, distracted, and restless, lacking discernment and the capacity to make wise choices.

But supposing I unhook the mind from the world and slow my thoughts down. If I sit in peace and silence, and turn within, I can focus on one quality at a time—perhaps gratitude or peace—training the mind to reflect deeply on it and gradually come into alignment with it.

With time and practice I undo habits of thought, even those that are deeply ingrained. And the more I meditate, the more likely I will be to create new ways of thinking as I wake up and take possession of a mind that had gone astray.

Developing spiritual readiness also means unburdening my heart.

Life experiences give rise to feelings, some positive and others negative. Deeply rooted suffering may originate in childhood, and carries the seemingly indelible mark of both the feelings I experienced and the conclusions I drew at the time. When repeated, such experiences create thought patterns that affect my personality, relationships and how I meet the world.

To be ‘ever-ready’, I need to identify and clean out negative feelings and the related thought patterns, such as anger, fear and sadness, and replace them with their opposites.

I do this during meditation, through a gentle, gradual process of identifying what is troubling me, one issue at a time, and inviting it to leave. I should be sure to let it go, perhaps by envisioning it tied to a helium balloon that I release into the air, and to replace it with a positive feeling such as love, trust or happiness. I must also be careful not to pull the old thought pattern back into my heart, out of habit.

A peaceful mind and a clean heart are the cornerstones of spiritual readiness, giving me strength and stability to respond appropriately to whatever challenges this ‘age of surprises’ may bring.

Judy Rodgers lives in Peace Village, the Brahma Kumaris retreat centre in New York, and serves on a number of global initiatives for the Brahma Kumaris.