The Bull by the Horns

Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows him like the wheel follows the foot of an ox.

Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

Dhammapada 1-2

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People in my Sangha (fellowship of AA) usually say; “Bring the body and the mind will follow.” If I want to argue the point I miss the beauty of the paradox. A good friend from my distant past used to say, “Watch what you think because thoughts have density.” These two notions don’t contradict each other if I look at them as a paradox and not a contradiction.

            The instant I accept that I need help the action of reaching out for it follows. The two, thought and action, are tied together sometimes so close that it is difficult to grasp which came first. For instance; an alcoholic walks past a bar, looks inside, sees old friends and next thing he knows he is sitting at the bar with a drink in his hand. No one ever got drunk thinking about a drink because an action of taking the drink is required. This is but one example… a version with slight variations of the theme. For the alcoholic the action of reaching into his pocket to pull out a phone is sometimes sufficient to reverse the thinking preceding that first drink. In the end it doesn’t matter whether it is mind over matter or matter over mind if I get away from linear thinking and embrace the dialectic of the paradox. This is what philosophers call, "Taking the bull by the horns."

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