Thought 6: Wrong Thinking

We may not realize what serious damage the wrong thinking mind can do to us. For a starter, the wrong thinking mind has too many impurities in it – making it unfit for meditation. The wrong thinking mind enjoys and breeds on conflict. Since there is conflict everywhere around us, this mind easily picks up this conflict and becomes turbulent. Mind also becomes turbulent when it feeds on sensual objects and sensual pleasures. A turbulent mind is not only an unhappy mind, but it also makes every one else around unhappy. There is nothing more exhausting than wrestling with a turbulent mind during the meditation; the more exhausted we are, the more turbulent the mind becomes.

The tremendous energy of the waters of a river like Brahmaputra, for instance, are wasted when it flows turbulently, causing untold misery to the people living on its banks. When a dam is constructed across it, this energy is conserved. It is then guided through canals and channels and pipes for irrigation or for generation of electric power. In precisely the same way, the mad rush of the mental energies, which are being wasted through the ill-advised enjoyment of the sensual pleasures and negative and wrong thinking, must be halted by cultivating dispassion towards these sense objects and sensual pleasures - and the energies thus saved, should be directed towards the self (Atma). (Swami Harshananda)

The next thought also pertains to this topic only.