Peace of Mind

Every time I get bored or feel alone I have this weird habit of going to my book shelf and select a book and a particular chapter or a paragraph randomly and read it. I do not know why I do this often but most of the time I do not like to read a book from cover to cover. One evening, I happened to select Sam’s Story by Elmo Jayawardana. Sam’s story is one of my favourite books that I dearly enjoy; I firmly believe that people like Sam truly enjoy this world and life. Surprisingly, I turned to the last page of the novel (I don’t know why I did this) and I found a paper article pasted on the page. Its title, Peace of Mind quickly attracted my attention and I read it enthusiastically. It was a story about Lord Buddha and it read thus: one day the Lord Buddha asked one of his disciples to fetch some water to drink. The disciple obediently went to a lake and saw that the water was muddy and turbid that it was not fit to be consumed. The disciple returned to the lord Buddha and reported that the water was not clean. After an hour the Lord Buddha again  asked the disciple to fetch some water and this time the disciple noticed that the mud had settled down and the water was clean. Then the Lord Buddha explained to the disciple that the peace of mind is effortless as much as the purity of the water in the lake. You give it some time and it will calm itself down.

Peace of mind is something we all search for in our life. We always want to be happy, fortunate and feel comfort. All of us like to smile and laugh; no one likes to suffer or feel pain. However, we live in a restless, busy world where everything is marketed. In this rat race, even peace of mind has a price. No way! No my dear friends, peace of mind is not for sale. The only method of experiencing peace of mind it letting things be itself just as the muddy water in the lake found its purity on its own. When you feel pain, when you are hurt, when you are depressed, do not try to control what you are feeling (I bloody well know that this does not sound this beautiful when you are in pain, I know this is too didactic and asking for too much , but let’s give it a try). Yes my friends, problems are a part of life. . When we try to control things that we cannot control we are in constant pain and we feel so lost desperate and … I don’t have words to explain that eerie feeling. We all feel, oh God! Why poor me! What have I done wrong and whatnot, but trust me, everyone has problems! It is a matter of fact that they come in different shapes and versions to people. I think the most beautiful lesson that the Lord Buddha has ever taught us is the lesson of letting things be itself. Do not worry too much about your future, your relationship, your career, your food, your house and whatnot. Let it be itself! Let’s live in the present and not worry too much about the future and regret too much about the past. Let’s try to enjoy this beautiful thing named ‘life’ and let it take care of itself. I would like to finish this blog article citing one of my favourite paragraphs from the book entitled The Art of Disappearing by Ajahn Brahm:

I’ve known a lot of monks whose health problems disappeared through the power of their meditation. The first time I saw that was with Ajahn Tate. When I first went to Thailand in 1974, he was in the hospital with incurable cancer. They gave him the best possible treatment, but nothing would work, so they sent him back to his monastery to die. He died

twenty-five years later. That’s one example of what happens when monks “go back to their monastery to die.”

What Ajahn Tate did was let cancer be itself, not worry too much about the cancer and continue his routine meditations. I know this is a tedious task, but each time I read this story I find peace of mind. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha  ! See you soon amigos !😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊