“What you are aware of, you are in control of, what your are not aware of is in control of you.”
Awareness by Anthony De Mello.
This is a line from Awareness (one of the very few books I reread annually and have posted about before) that I’ve been coming back to again and again over the past few days.
This line is referring to being aware of your own thoughts, your own motives, at all times. There is very little we have control over, but we do have control over that. I guess it’s another way to say “think before you speak/do,” but that’s such a hard thing to actually practive that it needs to be said a million different ways a million different times.
Similar to this, I’ve been reading Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy and there is a bit that I thought was very much related, which went something like this (I’m paraphrasing a bit): “if someone insults you, takes advantage of you (or otherwise upsets you), you don’t have to just let it go (although you could!), but you should react from a place of wisdom. Don’t let their lack of wisdom be your own.“
This is something I’m trying really hard to get better at.
Comments welcome!