I just touch down in Penang from Bangkok and on the flight, there was this man sitting behind me snoring all the way from the departure from Bangkok until the announcement of arrival in Penang. The snoring was so disturbing and I was tempted to ask the air steward to wake him and make him aware of the disturbance that he is creating around him. But, I hesitated and bear it all the way. Thinking deeply, it was not his fault as he has no control over how his body will react unconsciously when he fell asleep. I was so disturbed is beacause of my restless mind , wondering and jumping from one scene to scene. The image of my sick BiL was just lying on the surface of my mind, proping up every now and then sending my mind into a turbulent and unsettling the peace from within.
Ajahn Brahm have taught us to do nothing when we are angry because what we do or say will be wrong, Just be aware of our fixing mind and restrain from taking any action to make it right. The more we want to patch up the problem, the problem will get bigger, Just let it be as it is for awhile until the appropriate time to do something about it, Whatever is said cannot be retrieve back and whatever pain we have caused others cannot be repaired immediately. There is a chicken story which is often cite by Ajahn to illustrate this teaching,
One day, a follower of Ajahn came to see the great teacher and told him that he had said something bad to his wife and she was very hurt and he felt bad about it, He asked Ajahn for a solution, so Ajahn asked him to go to the market to buy a dead chicken and on the way to see him, he asked him to pull out the feather from the chicken and throw it on the road side until the chicken is naked and he will bring the chicken to Ajahn, His follower did just that and when he bring the dead naked chcken to Ajahn , the teacher asked him to put it in his refrigerator and bring the chicken to see him tomorrow. The next day, he brought the chicken to Ajahn and Ajahn asked him to go back to collect back all the feathers and put it back on the chicken, His follower was amused and tell Ajahn that it cannot be done. Then Ajahn told him, whatever is said is like the same condition of the naked chicken, there is no solution to the question, So, before we speak, we have to be very careful of what we say or do, Remember not to do or say anything when you are angry and getting angry is hurting yourself through other people's imperfection,
Our restless mind is like a monkey mind having a party, jumping and poking fun at our mind, We know that we need to still our mind and control our emotions but many times, we are the loser as we have not discipline our mind properly. It takes alot of effort and training to be a master of our own mind but nothing is impossible. A thousand mile journey starts with the first step. We can do it through meditation and we need not hurry but doing it gradually. Learn to let go and relax and follow the meditation steps as mentioned in my earlier article. Start now to have a healthy and a beauty mind to enjoy life to its fullest,
Namaste.
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