Open Hearts, Open Minds

"Transforming our own behavior is ultimately the only thing we can be responsible for if we want to change the world. We must keep our hearts open and try to treat people in our immediate sphere with as deep a love and respect as we can," writes Swami Khecaranata in an article entitled An Open Heart: The Way to Handle Difficulties in Our Lives. He further elaborates on how he supposes we do this. When you see someone reacting with anger in a situation, if you observe without reacting you may see that this anger actually comes from a fear, perhaps of lack of self-control or not feeling any sense of self-worth, but regardless of the reason behind it, only you and I have the power to transmute the situation with love. It is a choice which must be made, and this choice can only come from the consciousness of an open heart. The logical mind has no place in this dilemma, it will try to analyze the situation, and in doing so will likely find the angry one at fault. This is why I am proud to say I am illogical, and back it up with absurdly illogical statements. After all, how can one prove the absurdity of the logical mind if it would take the process of logic to do so? If this last statement has created confusion, you're thinking too hard. If this last statement made sense in some way, then you understand the power of an open heart and its symbiotic relationship with an open mind. The two are inseparable.