Your Mind is Like Your Child

The Messenger gives a Blessing at the end of the Monday Morning Huddle Meeting, July 8, 2019.

Marshall: Our minds are like a child that lives within us in relationship to Knowledge. And certainly with a child, you don’t want to overwork or overburden a child, but you also don’t want it to run wild and have no boundaries and to be unaccountable.

So it’s a really interesting way of looking at your personal mind, which is very valuable. I mean, it’s your child. But it needs wise and firm, compassionate oversight and definite limits and boundaries.

I remember hearing an interview with the Dali Lama when some kind of reporter asked, “Well, don’t you miss having intimacy and love relationships.” And he said, “Oh, I just don’t go there.”

And then he said, “In my life, my problems are small and my happiness is great. In your life, your problems are great and your happiness is small.”

So that restraint that he’s referring to is definitely a major component to gaining access to something far more important, not just in terms of meaning, but in terms of fulfillment and happiness.

The other thing is you have to let your mind…If your mind’s a child, you have to let it play, have carefree time, and explore and be curious. I mean, just like you would want, if you were really being compassionate and attentive as a parent, these are the kinds of things you would want your child to have, these freedoms, and then within certain limits and constraints that are healthy and developmentally important, and not be subjected to undue stress or crises, which is why our burden of responsibility is not like the burden of responsibility that Knowledge within us carries.

That’s why we’re only shown certain things, but not everything.