To be at peace with 'what is' and to still be creative is harmony at work and in life. For this, you should know how to handle your mind.

The Almighty descended on Earth to find out how grateful people were. He met a man and asked him, "Do you recognise me?" The man replied: "How can I forget you? You have made my life miserable". Said God: "But you were born blind and I gifted you eyes!" "That is true. But now that I can see, I can distinguish between the ugly and the beautiful. I woo beautiful women and when they reject me I feel hurt. I did not have this problem when I was blind", complained the man.

As He went round, God met a man who was lying in a gutter. He recognised the Lord and said; "You have made my life miserable. I was lame. You gifted me with legs. Now I am mobile and I run after this or that. I land up in the bar and when I get drunk I still try to run around. Now see, I have fallen in the gutter". The Lord was shocked to find out that his blessings were taken as a curse.

He was about to leave the town when He came upon a man trying to hang himself. "What are you doing? You were dead and I gifted you life", said the Lord. "You cursed me by gifting me life. When I go home my wife thinks I am a ghost, when I go to work, my boss also thinks I am a ghost", cried the man.

When the mind is filled with ignorance, it creates a hell out of heaven. How does one train one's mind? The way you train your dog. Observe the training of a dog. It is given simple commandments, of a firm 'yes' or 'no'. These commandments are assertive and consistent. The dog also needs love and appreciation. A trained dog is a great friend. If you don't train the mind, then your life goes haywire, just as an untrained dog can be a nuisance at home.

You can will your mind to say "no" and to stop worrying. But make sure your commandment is with understanding. In order to create harmony one has to be observant. To observe involves giving attention. Science observes the external world. It directs its attention towards the world outside. Whatever cannot be observed with the senses, is observed with aids like telescope and microscope. The starting point of science is observation and attention.

The spiritual seers use a similar technique of observation in order to discover the self. There is the visible world that is outside the senses. There is an invisible world of thoughts, emotions, likes and dislikes. The objective world has its reality and the subjective world has its own rea-lity. To observe the self is self-observation. Change in the external will not change the self. Self-change will make all the difference in one's life.

If you are keenly observant, you will be able to see the inner reality of the world of thoughts and emotions. Then you will realise that there are no two realities — because the two realities meet. What impacts us more deeply is our world of thoughts, our feelings, our likes and dislikes and not so much the external reality. This has a direct impact on the quality of life. You have to observe how this inner reality functions in your life. The mind has to be trained with understanding and love.

There is another form of reality that is beyond the mind. The invisible reality that is beyond the mind is in the very nature of peace. We can discover this with the help of meditation.