In plain words
A bad mind comes from bad sight and bad hearing. So the mind is never bad. This is white (like the handkerchief); its very nature is white. Through being used for wiping and put down, it turns dirty. In the same way, the mind is ever pure. Through your bad sight, bad speech, bad hearing, bad thoughts and bad deeds, that mind becomes filthy. It turns dirty. The mind is always pure! ‘How am I to change it into good?’ a boy asked. There is no need to change it. If you keep the five senses under control, the mind is always good. If you see something bad, then remember God! Then that bad is destroyed. If you see something bad, close your eyes. Remember God. Picture that to yourself. If you hear any bad words, at once call good words to mind. In this way, when there is bad, if you grow the good, the bad goes away of itself. There is a bad smell. Drive it away. Or else, grow a good fragrance! Where there is something foul, we light an incense stick. For what? This fragrance sees to it that, though the foulness is there, it does not trouble us at all. Think of the good. Do not listen to the bad, ‘What more? What more?’, but keep thinking of the good! Children do not have that broad outlook. If someone speaks ill, ten more gather round. When ten join together like this, one to another, they are dogs indeed! I will tell a small example and close My discourse.
Make sacrifices and gain the good
One moonlit night a dog ran and ran and looked for a place to lie down. When it lies down, by its nature it turns round and round, puts its nose where the breeze comes from, and lies down. As it turned, its shadow too kept turning. Seeing that shadow, it took it for a dog, poor thing! Seeing it, this one began to bark. Why did it bark? It barked at its own shadow. When one dog barked at its own shadow, all the dogs in the village barked. This is the natural way of dogs. Why is that dog barking?