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"Mind
your own business" is a good rule. It
would probably be safe to say that more than half of
the evil in the world is due to well meaning
busybodies who just cannot refrain from
interfering. Needless to say, such people
never have harmony or success in their own lives,
for it is an invariable rule that those who mind
their neighbors' business, neglect their own.
All
this is true, and we cannot recollect it too often,
but in a deeper sense it is equally true that what
we mind--what we give our attention to--always does
become our business, and sometimes our
destruction. When you interfere mentally
in any condition, you involve your life in it to the
extent of that interference. When you take
sides mentally, or become emotional
concerning the matter, and still more when you talk
about it, and still more again when you do anything
about it, you are making yourself a party to it and
will have to take the consequences.
In
other words, you cannot involve your thoughts in any
subject without bringing the natural consequences
upon yourself. You can call this involving
yourself in the karma of the situation, if you like,
but whatever you choose to call it, the fact will
remain. To interfere mentally in any
situation involves you in the consequences just as
much as would a physical interference.
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Of
course, where it is your duty to concern yourself in
any matter, you must do so constructively and
spiritually--and then the consequences to you can
only be good.
The
Bible says, "he that passeth by, and meddleth
with strife belonging not to him, is like one that
taketh a dog by the ears" (Proverbs
26:17). If, when those around you are talking
negatively about something or someone, you chip in
with your contribution to the witches' brew, you are
taking a strange dog by the ears--so look out!
If you get emotionally tangled in what is not your
affair, through indignation, self-righteousness,
hatred, or otherwise, you have seized the dog again,
and you will have to pay for it. If you rush
about interviewing, telephoning, busying yourself in
the same spirit, you have tackled the dog once
more--and he will bite! And even to think
negatively concerning such matters in the secret
chamber of your own heart, will bring you
proportionate and natural punishment.
It
is always right to think rightly about any
person or situation, and if you do this many
opportunities will come to you to help people
practically too, without any breach of the law we
have been considering, and without coming near the
dangerous dog.
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