Wisdom of a settled mind

After the quiet-mind sitting session, everyone gathered again to drink tea and share many interesting experiences. Mrs Hằng said:

• Friends, I have been following Uncle Hải's meditation hall to practise settling the mind for two years now, and I have realised many useful things. At first I understood settling the mind as a way to be less tense and sleep well at night. But after practising for a long time I found many accompanying benefits. First, in life I have become wiser. It turns out that until now I was in such a hurry and rush that I saw things shallowly. Now my mind is calm, without eager desires, and naturally I see things as clear as day.
  Once a partner came to invite me to join a project and presented its benefits and prospects. In the past I would have been greedy and jumped in straight away. This time I was calm and without any craving, and suddenly I saw a great many gaps in their calculations. So I analysed them for them, bit by bit. They were delighted, went back to prepare carefully again, and that time they succeeded.
  Second, in life I have become more ethical. In many matters where I would have handled them selfishly, now I naturally become more tolerant and understand the feelings of others, so I behave more rightly. Because of that, at the end of the day and the end of the year, when I think back, I am not tormented by regret.
  Mr Hải broke in:
• Forgive me for interrupting Mrs Hằng a moment. I like that phrase, understanding the feelings of others. That is the wisdom and ethics that someone who practises settling the mind gains. Ordinarily, whatever we do is to satisfy our own feelings. If we're happy we do this, if we're sad we do that, if we're touchy we do something else, if we're pleased we do another thing. Only for ourselves. Now our mind grows quiet and we naturally notice the feelings of others. We understand whether others are happy or sad, satisfied or disappointed, let down or fulfilled, hopeful or discouraged... Naturally our conscience makes us choose a way of behaving that leaves everyone happier and better off. I call that wisdom, and also ethics.
  Mr Cảnh also contributed:
• Once I was at Mass in church and suddenly I sensed that someone behind me was extremely tense and in despair. I turned round and found the daughter of a friend in the neighbourhood. She was sitting through the service with her mind elsewhere, her eyes red. After Mass I waited for her outside and invited her for coffee. I asked her what was making her sad and told her to say, in case I could help. Seeing I was sincere, she burst into tears and told me that her boyfriend had left her after she became pregnant. Now she didn't know how to tell her parents. The thought of suicide was hovering in her mind. I went to see her parents and persuaded them to overcome their prejudice and allow her to be a single mother. I promised to be the child's godfather. Thanks to that everything was settled gently. She gave birth to a very beautiful baby boy, and the grandparents were delighted. Because I had agreed to be godfather, the neighbours no longer dared to gossip, since I am a person of standing in the parish. Then that wretched boyfriend came back to ask to marry her, because he heard the baby boy was very beautiful and his parents craved the grandchild and pressured him to marry her to claim the child. The baby's mother and her whole family asked my opinion. To be honest I was tired of the weariness of married life, so I said I had no opinion. She pressed me again and again, so I answered that I did not trust that wretch's ethics and feared she would suffer again later. So she refused to go back to him and chose to live as a single mother. I suddenly remembered the Lord's words in the Gospel: I have come to divide people. I don't know whether that's right.

Mr Hải said:

• If that young woman lives single and happy, that is good. But thanks to that sense behind you, you saved two lives.

A few people asked:

• And Uncle Hải, what experience do you have of the accompanying powers of settling the mind? Tell us.
  Mr Hải replied:
• Before, I heard Mr Minh say that when you practise settling the mind to a fairly good level, you naturally keep remembering that there is nothing that is ME, and that is the noblest wisdom. I kept practising and also reached that point. Now I always remember my body and remember that nothing is ME. At that point I have a confidence in the path I walk, in the ethics I hold, that I cannot be wrong. And indeed in life I behave very well and very rightly with everyone.. 🧘‍♀️

We often wrongly suppose that to be intelligent we must think a great deal; in fact it is the opposite: the more the mind settles, the more intelligent we become. Intelligence is mostly intuition, sensing and anticipating, and proof comes afterwards.
A person who is fussy and restless gradually loses wisdom and clarity. A person who is very emotional, with much love and hate, also does not see things clearly. Only a calm, quiet person gradually opens insight.

If we want children to study well and be intelligent, we must have them practise settling the mind and meditation. Children at the growing age are usually very active, which is also necessary for the body's development, but they must also practise settling the mind to restrain it somewhat. If someone passes 30 without having learned to settle the mind, the brain declines quickly. By 50 almost everyone has some neurological brain ailment, to a lesser or greater degree. The practice of settling the mind helps us stop brain decline, and can even redevelop the brain. The benefit of settling the mind to the nerves of the brain is immense.

But the most interesting thing is that settling the mind gives us wisdom and ethics in life. We become clearer-minded and more generous. We understand others' feelings better. We behave more reasonably. And the more reasonably we behave, the more we feel AT EASE ABOUT OURSELVES.
Happiness is sometimes as simple as that.