Hallmarks of a Weak/Strong Mind~

[TOvA~]

What are the signs and symptoms of a weak or strong mind? Here are some of the indices.

o
A weak mind is hard; it lacks in resilience and fluidity, and
compassion; a strong mind is resilient, fluid, and compassionate.
o A weak mind is egotistical; a strong mind is humble.
o A weak mind makes statements that contradict each other; a strong mind is consistent, harmonious.
o A weak mind looks at oppositions; a strong mind sees complements and strives after resolution ( samadhana).
o
A weak mind starts its sentences (in speech and writing) with "I" and
frequently repeats various forms of this pronoun. A strong mind avoids
the first personal pronoun and its variants.
o A weak mind is
addicted to words like no, not, refuse, deny, challenge, 'my stand', 'my
view', and other such expressions. When a strong mind refuses it does
so with sensitivity and consideration for others' feelings.
o A weak mind feels that others are resisting or refusing it. A strong mind has faith in others' positive and good reaction.
o A weak mind remembers the hurt and harm caused by others to it; a strong mind forgets these.
o A weak mind forgets the good and kind acts others have done to it; a strong mind remembers these.
o A weak mind forgets what hurt and harm it has caused to others; a strong mind remembers these.
o A weak mind remembers the good and kind acts it has done for others; a strong mind forgets these.
o People submit to a weak mind out of fear; people submit to a strong mind out of love.
o
A weak mind defends its own position; a strong mind defends its
opponent's position and finds excuses for one who has resisted him.
o
A weak mind forgets things for lack of interest in others, and because
of emotional befogging; a strong mind remembers what interests others,
and emotional fog does not obscure his/her 'recall' mechanisms.
o A weak mind justifies its acts; a strong mind apologizes.
o A weak mind does not forgive; a strong mind forgives and also forgets the incident.
o
A weak mind criticises others and speaks ill of them; a strong mind
seeks to understand the other's weaknesses and grants strength.
o A
weak mind gets tense and stressed; the same stimuli that cause tension
in a weak mind immediately trigger a relaxed state in a strong mind.
o
A weak mind resists others and blames them for resisting it; a strong
mind meets no resistance and its path is made easy by others.
o A
weak mind is hurt by others' anger; a strong mind sympathetically seeks
to find the history of the pain and suffering that is causing anger and
seeks to remedy the same.
o A weak mind sees others' faults; a strong mind sees its own faults.
o A person with a weak mind is easily fatigued; one with a strong mind regenerates quickly.
o A weak mind makes a mental issue out of physical illness; a strong mind introduces mental healing into the body.
o
A weak mind wants others to be responsible for it and then resents
them; a strong mind takes responsibility for others without feeling
burdened.
o A weak mind follows set patterns; a strong mind invents.
o A weak mind is lethargic and complacent; a strong mind takes initiative.
o A weak mind is suspicious; a strong mind trusts.
o A weak mind struggles to accomplish any objective; a strong mind does without doing and accomplishes by its mere presence.
o
A weak mind finds small irritants to be too large to suffer; a strong
mind has an oceanic capacity to absorb and does not register the
irritation.
o A weak mind cannot taste the fullness of any experience
and therefore its craving is never satiated; a strong mind, being
well-centered, tastes and experiences everything in fullness, enjoys
'more of less' and is contented.
o A weak mind is self-centered,
seeking its own pleasure and often being thwarted in it by those in whom
it generates resistance; a strong mind constantly seeks the fulfillment
of others, thereby ceasing to evoke resistance, and causing others to
find pleasure in giving it fulfillment.
o A weak mind reacts to
trivia; the strong mind holds the larger picture in a more expansive
time frame (dirgha- darshi and doordarshi); therefore it is not
disturbed by small events, little words, temporary situations.
o A weak mind has a small horizon; a strong mind has a large horizon in all subjects and matters.
o
A weak mind sees only parts; a strong mind carries the vision of a
complete whole in which all atoms and galaxies, all ideas and sciences
are a single interconnected whole.
o A weak mind finds it difficult to learn new things; all sciences are easily opened to a strong mind.
o A
weak mind lives in fear (of loss, repeat of natural disasters, ghosts
and possessions, attacks, illness, poverty, death); a strong mind grants
reassurance to all beings by his/her very presence.
o A weak
mind, suffering from inferiority, keeps reasserting his (individual,
religious, national, tribal, political) superiority; a strong mind holds
back on such assertions because of an interior self-assurance which
embraces all opponents and opposite views.
o A weak mind is full of
inner conflicts and a thousand questions about the smallest step,
seeking answers to each question and each answer raising a crop of a
million more questions; a strong mind flows in harmony and his/her
questions have not been answered but have been resolved.
o A weak mind demands; a strong mind gives.
o A weak mind feels insulted; a strong mind honours.
o A weak mind rejects everything; a strong mind assimilates what may seem most unacceptable in appearance.
o
A weak mind seeks its own pleasure and gratification; a strong mind
discovers a subtler, more refined, more intense and more lasting
pleasure, that of knowing that someone has been pleased by his/her acts.
o A weak mind speaks loudly; a strong mind speaks only from within a depth of interior silence.
o
A weak mind struggles to choose one of many options; a strong mind
incorporates the most contradictory options into a single scheme.
o A
weak mind overindulges, overeats, over-possesses, overstates,
overdresses-because it tries to fill its emptiness with exterior
objects; a strong mind has an inner fullness, is therefore mild,
restrained, without feeling restricted or deprived. A strong mind
under-indulges, under-possesses, understates.
o A weak mind lives in fear of others, constantly overprotecting itself and thereby inviting attack; a strong mind lives in love and that love alone is its protection.
o A weak mind's endeavors and relationships are unstable; in the presence of a strong mind all is stabilized.
o
A weak mind cannot concentrate on any effort, and wanders aimlessly; a
strong mind is a concentrated one and thereby well-centered in life and
in meditation.
o A strong mind, finally, is a saintly mind that grants freedom to others and liberates them from their own enslavement.

http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/Indolog...s32005.asp