For most of us, every day is a roller-coaster of highs and lows in life. The mornings may start with a flattering compliment from a stranger, lifting our spirits, but then there will be a sharp dip in the stock markets, sending us into depression. It may be followed by a surprisingly fast commute and eventually end up with spilled coffee on our carefully designed outfit of the day. As said above, these events would trigger an intense internal reaction for most of us, leading us to mood swings ranging widely between the happy high to an anxious low.
A Sanskrit Subhashita mentions this:
हर्षस्थान सहस्राणि भयस्थान शतानि च ।
दिवसे दिवसे मूढम् आविशन्ति न पण्डितम् ॥
Harṣasthāna sahasrāṇi bhayasthāna śatāni ca |
Divase divase mūḍham āviśanti na paṇḍitam ||
This means that ‘An ignorant person is bombarded daily with thousands of incidents and reasons that may make them temporarily happy, and hundreds of other incidents and reasons that may make them unhappy. But the mind of a learned man is never perturbed by such minor, fleeting things.’
Both the wise and the ignorant of the Subhashita above, go through the same things, but it is their reaction that changes the entire experience.
The ignorant treat every small win as validation and minor setback as a catastrophe. The fact of the matter is that the internal world of these people depends entirely on external circumstances and that is the reason that they know no peace of mind.
A wise person on the other hand remains entirely grounded. The wise acknowledge all the events but also understand an important thing - all this is temporary. Their stability comes from within, not outside the environment.
So cultivate the mind of the wise -
They recognise that life’s events are fleeting,
They create a pause between the stimulus and the response.
Their anchor is internal and is not determined by daily outcomes.
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