Converting other to your brand of spirituality is a common trade
of organized religions and lately all things new age, spiritual, mystical or non-mainstream.
Spirituality, calmness and philosophy
became another product in the Idea market, once you have something push it on
others.
For what?
Fame? Profit? Making a change in the
world? Self accomplishment?
Self accomplishment is an interesting part of it as Monk Mind deal
largely with this sensation, yet this is what you want to feel no what you must
do. You can do and not feel, you can do and feel and you can feel but not do.
The fist one is very common, this is where you don’t want to be,
the last one is unstable because lying to yourself might backfire any moment. The
middle one sounds great but if you take it as it is without adding parts it
nowhere says that the “Do” part has to be public or imposed on others.
And thus comes the idea of not sharing, if you want to be at a
specific state of mind, do what will get you there now, even a little. Do it
for yourself. You want others to be a part of it? Good. Its natural. What is
more important, being it or making others being it? How much peace you can miss
if you spend your time on converting others to do what you don’t?
Get you Monk Mind perfect as you need, for yourself and only for
yourself. If you want to convert others its not peace you seek but fame and
recognition. If you want others to join, do it good, spend a life doing it, if
someone would like to become like and asks for it, teach them how, let them try
but warn them not to brag or share.
This is the easy part. This is just a rule and a very direct
action, stopping our self from doing something very direct and intentional is easy.
how about the unintentional?
Someone is speaking their mind about life philosophy and you disagree. Can you refrain from commenting? Discussing perception of an event, can you stop yourself from answering in the key of your Monk Mind?
The very first building block of Monk Mind is not to brag or convert. But how is reality you keep yourself from doing that?
In an action. Something happens to you and you react to it. React in your best conscience. Do the moral thing but do not discuss the philosophy behind it.
If you don't need to act, you don't need to discuss it either.
Very hard to do. Impossible.
Fortunately, reality gives us feedback every time we do it. You try to explain something and you make someone angry at you. They resist the idea. They resist to understand, why?
Does not matter. The discussion now is in the realm of "who is right". Does it make you happy to participate in such discussion?
If not, why are you in it?
And looking at those interactions, time after time, you get reminded - do not convert others into your own belief system. We are mostly judged for what we say and not what we do. This should be the opposite but it isn't.
Empirically, you observe that this is how things are. And this is good.
A trend allows you to validate once more that there was no need in sharing.
At the end of it, philosophy is either voluntary adopted or imposed by force. No discussion will change anyones mind. And this is good too.
