Suppose we know certain people who talk too much and waste our time. When we meet them, we will politely but firmly restrict our meeting with them and move on to a more constructive engagement. 

We need to be similarly watchful with regard to our inner time-waster: our own mind. The mind from within us can distract us in innumerable ways. It can take one small problem and make it into a huge issue. Or it can take a minor distraction and make us get lost  in our head for hours or even days. 

Because the mind is inside us, identifying it as a time-waster is not as easy as identifying external time-wasters. To aid us in such identification, we need to have for our life a plan based on our major purposes. With these resources, if we move step-by-step in doing the things that matter for us, then as soon as some other thought comes up inside us, we have something to hold on to and to thereafter evaluate that thought without rejecting or accepting it. Instead of immediately doing that thing, we can defer it to a later time, during which we can get a clearer perspective of its importance. 

When we thus learn to monitor our mind, then when it sometimes comes up with good suggestions that require immediate action, we can take those without veering off-course inordinately or indiscriminately. That’s why we need to be vigilantly self-observant in dealing with our mind. The Bhagavad-gita (06.26) states that we need to train our mind by steadily refocusing on purificatory spiritual practices so that it becomes calmer, and gradually stops making so many time-wasting propositions. 

One-sentence summary:

Just as we watch the time we give to others, let us watch the time we give to our mind.

Think it over:

  • How is our mind a time-waster?
  • How can we identify our mind’s time-wasting tricks?
  • How can we transform our mind?

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