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“For concentration to deepen the mind needs to relax. It cannot stay on the defensive. A mind that is glad is easily concentrated.
In spiritual life gladness is not the giddy excitement expressed by titillation or thrill. The deeper forms of gladness arise when you trust your virtue.
Happiness arises when you can trust the purity of your own heart’s intentions. In short, it is a happiness of non-remorse.
It is through sincere reflection and our inner ethical commitments that we purify our intentions and grow to trust ourselves. If our ethical foundation is uncertain, tranquillity will remain shaky, the mind will be unable to confidently settle into this living process of purification.
We can improve the texture of the mind by influencing the kind of thoughts we tend to think.
When you observe thoughts that diminish the qualities you appreciate, abandon those thoughts and give a thought or two to something virtuous, respectable, joyful—perhaps a thought of kindness.”
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