When you make a mistake (do harm to self or other) which I know you do, just forget it. Yes. That’s what you do. Try not to jump into thinking with both feet into the dirt and sink into the muddiness of it. Your hands are already dirty. Just forget it. And then take your energy and wash your hands. Wash your hands of it. But of course really you are washing all of you. Your hands are just giving you a picture of how it is done. When you get all mucked up in some dirt – which isn’t bad or good – it’s just dirt, you wash the dirt off. Isn’t that true?
At some point your hands are covered in it and in order to do anything else you have to wash your hands. That’s what you do with mistakes. And the way the mind washes up is to see the dirt and forget it. It’s like that saying, clap your shoes together, clap off all the dust from your shoes and walk away. It’s just another way to say wash up.
The mind needs to forget it. Just don’t take it so seriously – because that would be like leaving clumps of dirt on your hands and well that’s not how you clean up your hands. Now sometimes we have to use some stronger soap, and sometimes we have to scour our hands especially if the dirt is mixed with greasy, sticky stuff. But really it’s the same thing.
The mind needs to see the dirt without an ick factor – just see that you were working in the dirt and some of it stuck to your hands or got under your fingernails and the next step is to clean it up.
When it comes to the mind we do it with the soap of forget it and drop it and leave it and let it go. Really. You don’t have to go on and on about it – with complaints, with resentment, with worry, blame or anger. NO. You clean it up and the sooner the better. Dirt tends to get grimy and cruddy if left unattended.
And for heaven’s sake, which is where the lotus blooms in your heart, don’t cover it up with intoxicants. That will never do. You have to face it and forget it. Even when the dirt has formed dark ruts on your fingers and palms.
We all have seen hands that are laced with dirt which mean they need extra tough soap. But that’s OK. It’s not bad or worse. It’s just been neglected. And neglect comes about from various reasons – we are not paying attention or we are too busy – or too stressed out or we run away from the dirt thinking it is bad or some silly thing like that.
I hope you can see this. I hope you know that you can forget it – not bury it – but see it and forget it. Burying it is like putting on gloves over dirty hands. It’s not to pretty up the hands with painting the fingernails or wearing special jewelry. NO that won’t do. It’s to wash up the dirt.
In the mind, wash up is to see the dirt and forget it, drop it, let it go, leave it.
I know there are times when you have to cut off a callous on a neglected hand – well that’s ok – there is no condemnation or shame there. You see the callous and you take care of it. You may have to soften it. In hot water and epsom salts. And use an emery board. It might leave a little bump – a little misshapen area on the hand but that’s OK. You’ve done the hard work and now you take care of what you neglected as best you can.
So I hope this helps. Helps you take care of the mind which is afterall neurologically connected to your hands in a really big way. The mouth being number two in neurological connection which reminds me of that old saying of ‘wash your mouth out with soap.’ AHEM!
So clean up the dirt in your mind with forget it. I know some of you may wonder about forgiveness – well, don’t worry about that so much. If you look at the mind like you look at your hands you’ll see the dirt and forgiveness will take care of itself. It will come naturally as part of the clean-up. When the hands are roughened by lots of dirt we often seek out some fragrant hand cream. When we wash up the mind, the fragrance of the ever-present lotus permeates the world.
Forget it. Drop it. Let it go.
Image Credit: https://buddhaweekly.com/vajrasattva-great-purifyer-among-powerful-profound-healing-purifications-techniques-vajrayana-buddhism
