In the Dhammapada, one of the oldest and most essential collections of the Buddha's teachings, the first chapter is titled “The Twins” (Yamakavagga), because many of its verses appear in complementary pairs. The first two are especially profound, for they place the mind at the centre of all human experience.
In essence, these verses teach that the mind is the forerunner of all states: it initiates them, shapes them and gives them direction. If a person speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering will inevitably follow, just as the wheel of the cart follows the track of the ox. But if one speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy will accompany one like a faithful shadow that never leaves.
The teaching is revealing. For it means that we do not live reality as it is, but as our mind interprets it. When it is laden with filters, conditionings, wounds, desires, fears and projections, we lose the capacity to see clearly. Then we respond to life not from lucidity, but from confusion.
That is why meditation is so important. To meditate is not to escape the world, but to cleanse the mirror of perception. It is a path of inner purification that helps us recognise our filters and let them go little by little. When the mind grows still and becomes more transparent, we begin to see life with greater clarity, greater truth and greater luminosity.
Then life is a source of happiness
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Yogarahasya
