Friendliness, compassion,
and delight cultivate a calm mind.
Practice the healing power of a compassionate mind.
Open your heart to other people without judgment, and radiate the message of delight at having them in your life.
Sometime between 200 B.C.E. and 400 C.E., the Indian sage Patanjali codified the basic principle of yoga in a work known as the Yoga Sutras, still the most authoritative text on yoga we have.
The word sutra means “thread,” and Patanjali’s classic work consists of a series of short, aphoristic phrases or sentences strung together like beads on a string.
What we know in the West as hatha yoga is just one aspect of a larger system that includes explicit ethical and moral rules, practices of breath control and deep meditation, and underlying philosophical principles.
Over the centuries, they’ve received interpretation and commentary from a number of prominent Indian mystics and thinkers.
The particular aphorism from which the wisdom on this card derives reads, “Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward those who are honorable, and indifference toward the dishonorable.”
In their popular modern commentary, Swami Prabhavanada and Christopher Isherwoodwrite, “If we meet someone who is happy in his way of life, we are inclined to envy him and be jealous of his success. We must learn to rejoice in it, as we take pleasure in the happiness of a friend. If someone is unhappy, we should feel sorry for him, instead of despising and criticizing him for bringing misfortune upon himself.”
Their words call to mind one of the sayings of Confucius, who lived several centuries before Patanjali: “When you see a good man, think of emulating him; when you see a bad man, examine your own heart.”
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
