How to control your mind

The nature of our mind always tends to generate negative emotions and thoughts, such as anger, desire, lust, or jealousy. Perhaps resentment is one of the negative thoughts that our mind likes to dwell on. So how can we control it? I am a great teacher. The Supreme Buddha introduced a gradual training program where you can practice controlling these negative emotions or thoughts in your mind. Without further ado, I will present it to you. But before you follow these steps, there is one thing you must practice and master, and that is awareness. If you are not aware of what you are thinking, you cannot control it. Therefore, you must fully understand and be completely aware of what you are thinking.

Okay, so whenever you come across negative thoughts like anger, lust, resentment, or jealousy, Buda suggests changing your thought pattern to something healthy. Focus on positive thoughts that bring you peace, like recalling a past act of kindness. By doing this, your mind will become happy and peaceful. If this doesn't work, the next step is to consider the disadvantages of dwelling on negative emotions. Recognize that these thoughts hurt both yourself and others. Even a small angry thought, if allowed to grow, can become destructive. So, think about the drawbacks of these negative thoughts. By doing so, your mind will naturally steer away from them. But, if you still find yourself stuck in negative thinking, remember that it won't help you, it won't support you, and it will disturb your peace. That's the second step. Finally, as the third step, Buda advises not to pay attention to those thoughts if the second step doesn't work.

Every time we give so much attention to something, perhaps a thought grows again and again. It grows even more, for example, if you got angry with someone and you keep thinking about it over and over again. By getting angry, that anger will keep growing more and more, so what do you have to do? We have to let the thought be a thought without paying much attention to it. Just when you move away from paying attention, then it will fade from your mind. It's something like this. Have you seen little babies when they fall and start crying? If the father or mother or parent sees that it's not a big deal to fall if the mother or father didn't pay attention to that baby, what does the baby do? He simply doesn't care about it, he will stop crying. The same thing happens with our mind if we don't pay attention to that thought, right? If it doesn't matter to that thought and we simply let it go and pass. Our mind will then fade away, that's one way to do it. If the third step didn't work for you, then the Buddha says to go to the fourth step to relax your thought process right now. Remember that when you have negative thoughts, your mind becomes so heavy, occupied, rough, and distracted. So what are you going to do? You are relaxing your thought process to something very soft and subtle, maybe loving-kindness, maybe compassion, maybe gratitude. When you think those thoughts, when you think more positive thoughts, your mind or thought process becomes much more relaxed. And if the fourth step didn't work for you, then comes the final step. This is something that we have to do very carefully. I don't recommend that everyone do this. It should be done with great experience and good practice, and that is to crush your thought with awareness, right? You have to be fully aware of your thought pattern and have a strong determination in your mind that I'm not going to think these negative thoughts. But this shouldn't be done by everyone, right? Some may not be good at it.

In this sense, if you remain aware and continue to exert pressure on your mind, these negative thoughts will grow increasingly. So, if those four steps didn't work for you, then you have to take the final step, that's right. It's much better to practice these four thoughts before taking the final step. Well, so practice these things. When you practice, you will feel and understand that your negative emotions are gradually fading away. Remember, this won't happen overnight; it will take a long time. A lot of time to do this, but you have to keep practicing, keep doing it, make it a habit, and then you will become a master. So, practice this practice and make your mind a place free of negative thoughts.