Crossroads

Has it happened to you ? 

• x buys a big car and you feel low. 
• y does something "not so good" to you. - humiliates you perhaps. 
• You are left behind in an intense competitive world. 
• You are taken for granted. 
• Love, ditch. Or your crush is getting married.

Or think of any recent instance or moment which you felt bad about.( I am sure there would be thousands such moments for us common mortals. :)  )  

Such thoughts potentially give rise to different set of emotions in different combinations. There are two ways for the mind to go about.

1. One is to give in to it- krodha(anger), lobha(greed), moha(desire) and perhaps the most dreaded one which is - irshe(envy); nurture it and ultimately let it cause pain. 

2. The other is to examine where it is coming from. Go deeper into source of the thought, beyond the sheaths of body,mind, intellect and see the root of the ahankara or ego, the I-Consciousness. Remind ourselves about "who am I?". Once this is realised, the thought no longer causes pain. You will laugh over it.  You will feel much lighter. This however requires constant consciousness as it requires taking control of the mind from its natural flow. 

Most of us instinctively pick option one and after a time lag move on to option two. What matters is how quickly we are able to make this switch and reduce the duration of pain. It ranges from hours to weeks to even a lifetime. The sooner it is, more evolved we are. If we are able to do it as soon as the thought arises and nip it in its bud, and just shrug it off, it is perhaps the state of budha.