How big is your problem

My wife was having difficulty in sleeping over the past few nights and jokingly I told her that it could be due to too much of work related stress of late. I seldom have difficulty in sleeping except that if I consume too much of coffee. The best part of coffee is of course its rich aroma but the worst part of it is its caffeine that can make you alert throughout the night.

No matter how big the problem is, sleep first and think about it later, that’s my way of overcoming stress, anxiety, worry and so forth. But last night, it was my turn to have difficulty falling asleep. Perhaps it was due to some unwanted emotions of late, nothing very serious but some emotions that simply annoying so to speak, and there is nothing that I could do about it.

Then I thought about an email sent to me by a friend, “Beautiful Thought by Lord Buddha” a few days ago...........

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers and they stopped by a lake as Lord Buddha was thirsty and thus asking one of his disciple to get some water from the lake.

The disciple then walked to the lake and so happened a bullock cart started crossing through the lake and as a result the lake water became very muddy. The disciple then thought, “How could I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!”

So he came back and told Buddha, “The water there is very muddy and I don’t think it is fit to drink”. After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake and found that the lake water was still muddy and he returned and informed Buddha the same thing.

After sometime, Buddha again asked the same disciple to get some water. The disciple reached the lake and found that the lake was absolutely clean and clear with pure water in it. The mud had settled and the water above it looked fit for drinking. So he collected some water in the pot and brought it to Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and he looked up to 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 clean 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. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down”.

To a wise man, having “Peace of Mind” is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process! But to ordinary people, we’re too busy in finding ways and means to stop the worries and such process could be tremendously exhaustive at times.