The best way of keeping the mind free from all undesirable impressions is not to partake them at the moment when they fall upon the mind. For instance, if people are disagreeable, instantly their influence produces the same thing in other people with whom they are disagreeable. The best way to avoid it would be to stand on one’s guard that one may not catch their infectious disagreeableness.
All such things as pride, prejudice, jealousy, intolerance, coldness have a great influence upon a person. When speaking, working or walking with someone, one can easily partake one’s companion’s disagreeable impulses, because as a rule a person thinks there is justification for giving it back – a word for a word, a frown for a frown. A person feels satisfied in boasting, “She said two words to me, but I gave her back the same in four words.” She feels very glad for the moment, thinking “I have given back what I had received,” but she does not know that if she had not given it back, the same that the other person had thrown upon her would have returned to that person a thousandfold.
The psychological point of view, therefore, differs from the ordinary point of view, for in the psychological point of view there is a science, it teaches one not to take in one’s mind what is disagreeable, inharmonious. By understanding this one can maintain the purity of mind, and it requires fortifying oneself with willpower making the heart as a stone wall, for all that is thrown at it not to pierce through but to fall down.
The psychological effect of every impression is such that each impression has a tendency to be held by the mind; all we see during the day, consciously or unconsciously, is an influence upon our life. All good or bad things or things with beauty or ugliness, they remain with us and flourish in our minds. If it was an impression of beauty, that would flourish; if it was an impression of ugliness, that would flourish. This is the principal reason why dreams have an effect upon our lives. It is the impression that the dream has made upon us which works out its destiny in the waking state. Therefore if by being on one’s guard, instead of resisting evil one would only slide it over, it would run away by its own force.
However good a person, if one easily partakes impressions, one cannot be trustworthy. The one who has no willpower cannot even trust oneself. There is no willpower in fighting with another; one shows willpower in fighting with self. The one who is strong enough to keep away from the mind all undesirable impressions will in time radiate harmony and will create the atmosphere of peace; thus making oneself happy, one will bring happiness to others.
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