A catastrophic event strikes the hearts of America as another terror attack is documented on April 15, 2013 during the Boston Marathon. As national security and news teams further investigate on the details, the news continues to resonate even weeks after the attack. We are once again reminded of the potential of how malicious and harmful the hearts of human can get.
When crimes against humanity occur, of course the criminals become magnified and investigators dig through concrete grounds in order to find the source of their violence. The media exposes the criminal’s history, their family background, social life, and also interviews the criminal’s peers and close-relationships. The public would then learn about the conditions in which the criminal was brought up with, whom and what influenced them; in efforts to educate the public about this event, hoping that it will not repeat itself in the future.
Whether it was the September 11 attack, the Columbine shooting, the Virginia Tech Massacre, the Newton Shooting, or the Boston Marathon Bombing, these infamous crimes seem to trigger us to think about the importance of a healthy mind. In other words, we are reminded of how one’s thoughts controls one’s actions, and therefore that the fault of these violent actions lies nowhere else, but within one’s individual mind.
After the Columbine High School Massacre of April 20, 1999, the father of a victim Rachel Scott realized that the problem is not external, that the problem is within us, our minds. Darrel Scott states 12 years after the incident: “To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA — I give to you a sincere challenge.. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone!”
Pinpointing exactly what our thoughts and the mind is, is a subject we have been trying to solve for centuries. Even scientists say that in the present time the brain is the most complicated organ in the known Universe.
It is our mind that controls our actions, and more importantly, how one can get overwhelmingly absorbed into a single thought is unfortunate but also pretty scary – considering all of the havoc we as humans have caused to others and to the world, to the extent that there are terror attacks and mass murders – launched from a single thought from the human mind.
What is even more shocking than the crimes itself, is that these criminals are the reflection of each individual.
I think that this will give everyone an opportunity to not only focus on scrutinizing the villains of these violent events in history, but give us a chance to reflect on the self that is pointing the finger, because we are no different. Let’s think about it – if I have anger in my mind, and the conditions are right, then I would project actions of anger, right? If I have love inside of my mind, and the conditions are right, then I would project actions of love. Likewise, if my minds of hate boiled up to the extent that even the thought of murder has crossed my mind – if the conditions were right, then that means that I would have carried out with that action isn’t it, despite that it was just a mere thought.
Through these lessons such as the Boston Bombing, I hope that each individual will understand how important it is to maintain a healthy mind. A healthy mind is simply a happy mind, a selfless mind, a boundless and accepting mind, a mind of love, compassion, and virtue, a grateful mind, a mind free from stress – nothing mind, a mind of great liberation and freedom. Simply put, that is the infinite Universe mind.
In this meditation, the human mind changes to the infinite Universe mind. Through this meditation, one will first know what the mind is, and most importantly- through the method of subtraction – one will cleanse their mind to the Universe mind. When one becomes Universe mind, one is boundlessly kind and accepting, always grateful and unconditionally happy. Unconditional happiness is true happiness.
As Teacher Woo Myung had once said, “the era of lamenting about our sob stories has ended,” now is the time for human completion, where everyone becomes one with Truth and lives for the world. The answer is found through this meditation.
From Positivity to Negativity
The human mind is a negative mind. It is a self-centered mind. It only knows and cares about itself so it is negative about anything that is outside of what it knows. Only things that exist within it are regarded as being correct; anything it does not know or have is thought to be wrong. The human mind is negative – it insists that only it is right and is not able to acknowledge and accept all things.
You cannot possibly succeed at a task if you believe that is cannot be done. However, if you have a positive mind-set and believe that it can be done, you will succeed. Even in the human world, a negative person cannot be successful. Such a person is where he is because he is small-minded. On the other hand, a positive person has a “big” mind – he is broad-minded. If you are able to accepting everything that is said about you, even when you are spoken of in a negative way, none of what is aid will remain in your mind. However if you are unable to accept what is said and begin to think of the person who said them as your enemy, those words will remain in your mind. You will then have to carry the mind of non-acceptance eternally.
A person with a positive mind is one who does not possess his own individual mind. He is someone who has become the mind of the Universe Everyone in the world believes that they are great – they are unable to accept and acknowledge others because they do not have the positive mind of God, the mind of the Universe.
From the world’s point of view, the other countless things living in this true world are all living in their own way. They just live, and are able to accept everything without being concerned with this or that. The true world just lives without being biased towards any one side.
All people would have positive minds if they lived with the mind of the world that just exists. It would be the end of all conflict, and days of never-ending laughter would follow because the world’s mind is the mind of oneness. Everyone will live well when all people change their negative minds to positive minds.
– Excerpt from Where You Become True is the Place of Truth by Woo Myung
