Our consciousness is like a dark room with many different pieces of furniture in it. Let us imagine
that we are going into that room. We cannot recognize what kinds of furniture are in the room,
because everything is dark in there. We cannot see where our bell is standing, where the chairs and
the table are placed, and where the mats and cussions are lying on the ground. We can walk through
the room and touch all these different objects, but because we cannot see them it might happen that
we stumble. The bell, the chairs, the table and the cushions are symbolizing our emotions like
anger, fear, jealousy and loneliness. When we stumble on them, we will suffer.
But suppose that there is a small candle that we can light now, so that we have a little light in the
room. We can see that right in front of us there is a mat lying on the floor, and we can step aside in
order to not step on it. The energy of mindfulness is exactly like that light of our candle. When we
have the energy of mindfulness in us, it means that there is light in our mind. We can recognize our
anger when it is coming up, and we can say to ourselves: „I see that in this moment there is anger
arising in me. If I continue to listen to this conversation, the anger will grow.“ Because we can see
that clearly, we are able to to prevent our anger from being nourished even more.
