The Untrapped Mind ... in 40 words
Posted: Sunday, January 25, 2009
by Ralph P. Brown
Mirrored Windows
This is one of the most profound single sentences ever uttered. It is from Konosuke Matsushita:
"The untrapped mind is open enough to see many possibilities, humble enough to learn from anyone and anything, forbearing enough to forgive all, perceptive enough to see things as they really are, and reasonable enough to judge their true value."
There are five values in this forty word sentence that work towards an untrapped mind. You could spend a lifetime learning each of these values and incorporating these into your life and it would be well worth the effort. Just think what it would mean to you, to your family, to your place of employment or to your community if these values were at the heart of your life.
Let's take a look at each one:
FORBEARING: Another word for forbearance is tolerance. Tolerance is closely related to humility in that it acknowledges that we all make mistakes. You want to be just as quick to overlook the mistakes of others as you are to have others overlook yours.
FORGIVENESS: When someone commits an egregious error against you, do you allow the light of forgiveness to shine - or do you allow the pain to fester? I like what Samuel Clements said about this, "Forgiveness is like the scent of a rose left behind on the heel of the foot that has crushed it." Lack of forgiveness traps the mind in negative and harmful energy. This energy is corrosive and damaging.
PERCEPTIVE: One of the hardest things for man to do is NOT form an opinion about people, places, events or anything else. Even if we know the nature of something it is not until we know how it relates to all other things that we learn wisdom. We must have all the information we can get before we take the things we have perceived and reason upon them.
REASONABLE: Determining true value can be tricky because our reason can be short-sighted and stop once we see that (insert person, place, thing or event here) benefits us here and now without seeing the possible long-term effects. For instance overeating, over spending and excessive drinking may provide joy in the short term but have deleterious effects in the long run. If our reason is short-sighted in its scope and we fail to perceive far enough, then our reason is limited. Sometimes to our detriment.
You may have noticed how each value seems to hinge on the one before it. This is one of the reasons the quote of Konosuke Matsushita is so profound. How far can this quote take you in your self-development? In your career? In your relationships? For Mr. Matsushita this philosophy has taken him to the head of one of the largest electronics corporations in the world, Panasonic including all its subsidiaries.
How you get this to be a part of your life is different for each person, but the pursuit of such a life is in the best interest of everyone!
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)What a brilliant piece of literary work, Ralph! I really like it. And your writing style communicates clearly without being uninteresting. Thanks for sharing Mr. Matsu$%&*@$%&a's philosophic quote and expounding on it for the benefit of your readers, including me. ~mogama~
Ralph,This is a wonderful piece of work...just fabulous! Thanks for sharing it.Ronyae and Mogama,
I wanted to thank you for the kind words in regard to my article. Because I believe that every time we make a connection with people we add power to our own circle, I am thrilled that we have made this connection!
I would like to invite you to view other articles I have written and visit my website where you'll see visual interpretations of my culture and spiritual ideas.
I look forward to any comments, questions, critiques that you may have. It may take me awhile but I answer all inquiries and again, thank you for taking the time to respond.
In Spirit,
Ralph
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