Why do I have to throw away even good, happy or positive pictures?
As the human mind is self-centered, we judge and store the contents of the picture at our disposal whether it is good or bad, happy or unhappy, positive or negative. However, no matter what the contents of the pictures are, when seen from the perspective of the world, all those pictures illusions that do not exist and are just obstacles that cover the true world.
After discarding all those pictures following this meditation method, you will have the mind of the world having escaped from the self-centered human mind. At that time, you can live with a big mind that accepts everything and unchanging happiness which is clearly confirmed from within.
Let’s take a closer look at what this means.
Bring up pictures you think good, happy, or positive. The reason why you don’t want to throw them away must be because of ‘something’ you think you can get from them. Happiness, feelings of being loved, positivity, hope, excitement, self-esteem, motivation, and creative ideas, etc., whenever you look at those good pictures, they make you feel good.
Then, will you continue to live looking back those pictures in your mind in order to feel good? What about all the things that you have to focus at every moment? Yes, right. This is one of the main reasons why you cannot focus on what you’re doing presently.
Moreover, everything you get from those photos is temporary and gradually fades or deteriorates and eventually disappears. For example, if you look back on the mavelous party last week, you may feel the excitement for a moment. However, if you look back on the same occasion one year later, the degree of excitement it gives you will never be the same. Likewise, if you look back on it 10 or 20 years later, it won’t work much to make you excited anymore. Of the pictures you increase by 50,000 to 60,000 every day, only some of them are good, but even they soon will become meaningless.
Besides, the pictures actually don’t contain only the part you like. It contains your obsession with what you like, your lingering attachment to what you like, your anxiety about losing it, your criteria for likes and dislikes, and other various emotions. Would you carry a 5kg tiffin box if it contained only one spoon of your favorite food, and the rest was actually filled with stones and trash?
What you call good pictures is no different from this case after all. Plus, because pictures don’t really exist, they can’t be eaten by you, they can’t be touched by you, and there is really nothing they can do for you.
However, this frustrating and futile situation occurs only because you live in the false human mind world. Actually all that you want to get from those good pictures are already within you. In your true mind, everything you want exists in an everlasting, neverchanging and living version. Even if you don’t try to get it from outside, all those things will always be with you if you live with the true mind in the true world.
The way to have the true mind is to throw away all those pictures which are the karma, also throw away habits and body, and be born again in the true world.
What do you think? Don’t you want to have the true mind and to live a life where there is nothing lacking with everything? The way is to admit that good picture, happy picture, or even positive pictures are just your own self-centered false minds, and clean them up in front of Truth.
If you throw away even those good pictures, the true mind which always feels good will be revealed. If you throw away happy pictures, the true mind which feels happy unconditionally will be revealed. And, if you throw away positive pictures, the true mind which is infinitely positive will be revealed.
In fact, at the beginning of meditation, most of people wonder, “Why should I throw away good pictures also?” but eventually, they realize that even those good pictures are just false and go through the stage of actively throwing them away.
After that, when we tell them, “I think you’ve thrown away a lot of good pictures that you were hesitant to throw away in the beginning. Great job! If someone asks you to take those pictures back because he’ll give you one million dollars, would you like to have them again?”, everyone says, “No, thank you!” without exception. The same will go for you.
After the pictures are discarded, you will also realize that there was nothing particularly good, happy, or positive in them, but rather just stress and burden. Instead of holding false pictures that are just obstacles and burdens, let’s quickly throw them away and continue our pleasant journey toward the land of Truth with lighter steps.
Now, are you ready to throw away even good pictures?