There are four kinds of attitudes that are good to have in life.
Friendliness
Being friendly, and more so with people who are happy. If you are not friendly with happy people, you will be jealous. This is because you think that your enemy is happy, and you cannot tolerate your enemy being happy. So, shake hands with happy people. Such an attitude does a lot of good to your mind.
Compassion
Be compassionate towards people who are miserable. If you are friendly with unhappy people, you will become unhappy. And if you become unhappy, you can never help them to come out of their misery. So, there should be a different flavour to your relationship with them.
Many people have gotten into trouble by being friendly with unhappy people – both become miserable. It is like a doctor going to a patient who is sick, and the doctor also becomes sick. If the doctor thinks: How can I alone be healthy? Let me also share the patient’s misery, then who will help the patient? So, what should be the attitude with people who are miserable? Compassion, not pity.
Happiness
For people who are doing good work or who are successful in the world, you should feel happy as though you are doing it. For example, if someone is a good singer—singing and bringing joy to everybody—seeing him, you should think, “I feel so happy that this person is singing so well, and making everyone happy.”
If someone is a good entertainer and he entertains everybody, you should feel happy about it. If someone is a great architect and builds beautiful buildings, you should feel happy about it. Whenever someone does a good job, share that happiness with them – we need to have this attitude.
Indifference
When people who are doing horrible things in society—destroying themselves—we usually get angry at them. When you are angry, your mind suffers a huge loss. You lose so much energy – you lose your mood and your enthusiasm. When energy and enthusiasm goes away from you, you become angry and are no better than the other person. So, what should you do in such a situation? Have a sort of indifference in your mind.
For example, there are thieves in the world. They are there – what can you do about them? First, accept this and then be indifferent. However, this does not mean you do not take any action. Your mind is indifferent (unaffected), but you act on it.
A strong mind can carry around a weak body, but a weak mind cannot carry even a strong body. These are the four attitudes that will help you keep a peaceful state of mind.
