Yogi Bhajan lecture : Commanding the mind

I think there is no beauty in you if you don't have tolerance. You have to have a sense of tolerance, no matter what someone does, what they say, how they attack you, what they want from you - you stay calm. This is the capacity of the ocean - how many rivers into it affects? Remain calm, quiet and peaceful. 

There is one thing we all have inside us and that is called the mind. The mind's job is to think. It plays with human energy in many directions. This is the mind's responsibility. It is designed to see the whole presence of man and how man can develop. It does two things. It gives man the power of insight and penetration, and it destroys it. It goes both ways. You cannot say that your mind is this and that not. Your mind is this and that, both things. Now is the moment of truth: if you don't take charge of your mind, your mind will lead you. There is no way out. Either you direct your mind, or your mind will guide you. If your mind directs you, with all the wealth, power and happiness, sex and fashion, guns, cannons and bombs - you will get nowhere. The mind directs you towards what you feel physically. The mind will never lead you to what you feel spiritually. So your physical development may be rich, but your mental state will become narrower and narrower, and your spirit will not have a chance to go through that. When you are no longer in command of your mind, your mind will be in command of you. There is no way out. It is one of those situations. And when the mind rules you, the spirit slumbers.

Spiritual disciplines are harsh, I agree, but without that wicked harshness the mind doesn't listen. The mind carries you sideways and to places you don't want to go, but you still go there. Misfortunes guarantee fortune, and after the fortunie unhappiness ensues - they are like parallel sisters. They cannot be separated. To get out of this fortune/unhappiness, you have to have full control of your mind, your mind has to know you, and you have to know your mind, and this is what meditation leads to. The art of meditation is to control your own mind. We are human beings, so we have to think straight, we have to live straight and we have to stay that way . In this way we will be happy and prosperous, because it will be very easy for us to understand; it will be very easy for us to trust; it will be very easy for us to believe.

Excerpts from a lecture on 1 December 2001 in Espanola, NM /Y.Bhajan's teachings