Chandrika | Monday, April 2, 2012
Article from Daily News and Analysis
“The mind is a restless being, wrestling with the world, dissatisfied. Guide it within, where peace resides.” (Gita, 6:26) All problems, it’s clear, arise in and because of the mind. No wonder, the Buddha wisely described human thoughts as drunken monkeys, jumping around, screeching, chattering, clamouring for attention, carrying on endlessly. So how does one mind the mind?
The Buddha answered with a parable. A village was infested with monkeys, which raided homes, plundered food and fled before being caught. Chasing them, beating them, screaming abuse — nothing worked. Until a holy man said, “Why control the monkeys?
Appease them, instead. Have a banana plantation at the village edge.” The monkeys never entered the village again. The Buddha clarified, “So with the mind. Don’t impose on it — give it something enjoyable to do. Give it meditation.”
Kabir spoke of the mind’s compulsive rotation. “Caught within the constant motion of two grinding stones, is there anything that can escape whole?” The solution? The mantra — repeating a holy sound. A pious weaver punctuated everything with the comment, “By the will of Rama.” One day, waylaid by robbers, and forced to carry their goods, he was unfortunately caught. In court, he explained, “By the will of Rama, robbers captured me. By the will of Rama, I was made their coolie. By the will of Rama I was arrested.” Convinced he was insane, the judge ordered, “Release him.” Unfazed, at home, he said, “By the will of Rama, I was robbed of freedom. By the will of Rama, I am free.”
The Upanishads depicted the mind as horses running wild, pulling in different directions. Anxiety, frustration, depression, lethargy — how can this toxic cocktail be handled? The answer — by being in the ‘here’ and ‘now’. A clockmaker was about to fix a pendulum, when it wailed. “Sir, I tick 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year — that’s millions and millions of ticks. I’m tired. Let me be.” The master asked gently, “Can you do just one tick?” “Yes.” “Then do that, each second. That’s all.”
The Buddha explained, “When you breathe in, know you breathe in. When you breathe out, know you breathe out. That’s enlightenment.”
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Article from Daily News and Analysis
