I got this as a forward a couple of days back. We all get tons of forwards everyday and most of them are repetitive, unacceptable, funny, teasing a certain kind of people and so on. Not many make you think for a moment… This one did, to me.

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a small water body. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that water body.” 

The disciple walked up to the water body. When he reached there and was about to collect the water, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through it. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. 

The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!” 

So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink.”

After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back there and get him some water to drink. 

The disciple obediently went back. This time he found that the water body had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha. 

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be … and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water… Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own and peace would be restored. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.” 

What did Buddha emphasize here? He said, “It is effortless.” Having ‘peace of mind’ is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside. It spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling that peace and grace.

 It just made me think this… Most of them I know (me included) say that they don’t have peace of mind; they crave for it; I even see sites dedicated to giving tips for the same. But the solution seems to be a fairly simple thing to do. Just letting it be! That is all. I wonder why we don’t want to let it be!!

Until next,

Vid 🙂