About a week ago I injured my knee. I was put on an immobilizer to support my knee until it can work on its own. Now I can walk and bend the knee and don't need the support of the immobilizer as I used to a few days ago. This helped me realise that it works somewhat similarly in our minds.
We need mind support. I see the mind similar to the immobilizer that I used to stabilize and provide support to my knee. When we have emotions that carry us away and over power us, we need a good mind support. Without that we could break or sustain serious harm to ourselves and others.
What is a mind support? A mind support is having a mind that can cushion us from the strong or small emotions that we face in life. They create discomfort for us or take us on a joy ride. Either way it puts us off balance. The only way we can go through this without falling off of the line is to have a strong mind support.
For example, when we get angry, the mind support is love and kindness. When we are in despair and suffering the mind support will be compassion. Like that there are many mind supports that we can develop. A strong mind will use these positive emotions to counter act against negativity and make us stable. Otherwise we could fall into depression, guilt, sadness.
But what happens when we are on our joy ride. Then we are thrilled that life is going the way we want and nothing can go wrong. This is foolishness. Because at the end of the thrill is a period when are adrenaline wears off and with that comes a sense of depletion. It's like when we go on holiday. Everything build up to day the day we arrive at the location. Then it's a nice dream, if we are very lucky. But then we have to come home and face daily chored which is a hit on our energy levels.
In the same way, when life is all smooth and colourful, a strong mind will allow you to look into the impermanence of it all. A soft knowing that would let you know that all can end. But the softness in the mind won't make you depressed. In fact it only energises you to have a good time but when the drop arrives, it holds you steady because you have known it all along.
So, like my knee needing an immobilizer to hold it in place and give it support, we need a strong mind to hold it in place during the vicissitudes of life and keep it above the changing tides. If not we will be carried away by the currents and would be lost. This is what happens to most of us on a daily basis. We are either happy that things are going well or unhappy that things are not going well. Most of us would probably think that if things are going well we don't need any support. But it's when things are going well that we require the maximum amount of support because, at the end of it comes the sadness of things not going well. So in order to support oneself a mind support is essential. When things are not going according to our wishes, we need the mind support in order to keep it afloat so to speak. Otherwise we could sink into negative mind stated even more. From frying pan to the fire as they say. A strong support during tough times, can hold it in place until the good times arrive. When the good times arrive, a strong mind will hold it in place, so that it won't fall when the bad times arrive.
It's like a see-saw. At first it swings back and forth violently, but with time it balances off and becomes steady. This is what a strong mind support would do. It would help one stabilize oneself during good and bad times until it reaches a point of great calm. A state of contentment borne out of being in balance and not riding with the moves. Energy is preserved. A state of well being is reached. There is no tiredness in the body nor in the mind. A state of restfulness and peacefulness.
Just like the knee heals itself with the immobilizer, we begin to feel a sense of ease and comfort from within.
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