by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There are two kinds of mind. One is an open mind. Another is a closed mind…
A closed mind is that which says, “This is how it is. I know it. That is it.” It gets hardened. An open mind says, “Oh, maybe, perhaps. I do not know.” Limited knowledge, and the conformity about it, makes a mind very hard.
Whenever you seem to understand a situation and you label it, “I know this is how it is,” that is the beginning of your problem. And always all problems arise from knowing but not from not knowing. If you do not1 know, your mind is open, you say “Oh, maybe, something, perhaps, don’t know.” You wait. You cannot label something when you do not know.
Whenever you think an injustice has been made to you, or whenever you think you are suffering, whenever you think you are a victim, whenever you think something bad has happened to you— all this falls under the category of “I know it. This is how things are.”
Whenever we attach a label “not good,” it comes from a thorough knowledge.
Suffering is a product of limited knowledge. A question is a sign of limited knowledge. But when there is an amazement— patience, joy, waiting, you are in a state of “I don’t know,” maybe, something, oh what is it?, I don’t know, something you cannot pinpoint— the whole life is a shift from the limited “I know” to all possibilities, to “maybe.”
When your mind is open for all possibilities, an event happens, and there could be many possibilities for that event to be that way, not just in the gross— some other reasons in the subtle also.
Suppose you walked into your room and you find that someone has made a big mess in your room. It has irritated you. You are grinding your teeth. Now you attach that reason, that cause for your anger, to just that person who is there. But there is something more happening, something more happening in the subtle. There has been some angry time and vibrations at that moment there. At that moment something else is in the air. But you could only see that person creating a mess around you. And you attribute all anger to that person. This is what limited knowledge does. Haven’t you experienced this sometime?
As we attach the events to individuals, the emotions to individuals, the cycle continues. You will never be free from that. So there is a step. First, detach that to the space or time. An event and emotion, detach it from the person and the event, to the space and time. This science is called astrology. Astrology is the knowledge of the oneness of the universe.
