How to calm a disturbed mind: A beautiful story
Raja Jamalamadaka
Head - Roche Digital Center (GCC) | 2X GCC head | Board Director | Keynote speaker | Mental wellness coach and researcher | Marshall Goldsmith award for coaching | Harvard
Once Buddha was traveling with his disciples. They happened to pass a lake that supplied water to the nearby villages. It was a hot day and Buddha was thirsty – he sent one of his disciples to fetch water from the lake. When the disciple reached the lake, he noticed that the water had become very muddy since a bullock cart has just crossed the lake. Finding the water unfit for consumption, he walked back and suggested to Buddha to move to the next available water body. Surprisingly, Buddha asked the group to stay put and asked the same disciple to fetch water from the same lake in an hour. The disciple obediently went back after an hour. This time too he found that the waters were muddy – though a lot less than earlier. Buddha asked him to go back in another hour.
The third time, the disciple found that the mud had settled down and the water was clear enough to be used for drinking. He collected some water in a pot and gave it to Buddha. Buddha looked at the water and said, "How did you solve the challenge of cleaning the muddy waters? By doing NOTHING - you let it be. With time, the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water. Our mind works in exactly the same way! A disturbed mind is the same as the muddy waters. To solve the problem of a disturbed mind, you do NOTHING – you let it be. With time, the disturbances will settle down on their own and you will get clear and calm mind. The process of calming the mind is effortless.”
This small story has a lot of learnings that can solve a great degree of challenges we face in in our lives:
- The lake naturally had sediments at the bottom. The water got muddy when these sediments got mixed with the water due to a routine episode (bullock cart movement).
a. Every mind has thoughts. It is natural and normal for the mind to be disturbed due to episodes of life that unsettle these thoughts.
b. You cannot wish away vicissitudes of life.
2. When the water is muddy, it is unsuitable for consumption.
a. When in a disturbed state, the mind is unsuitable for usage.
3. Clearing and Calming a disturbed mind is like clearing the muddy waters – you do NOTHING.
a. In any disturbed state, just allow the mind to settle down by itself.
4. When the water was muddy, Buddha didn’t react instantly. Had Buddha reacted to the muddy waters, he would have lost the chance to drink the water.
a. When you find (yours or others’) mind disturbed, don’t react instantly or impulsively.
b. Reacting to a disturbed mind is like throwing stones in muddy waters. It muddies the water even more.
5. Even the muddiest waters get clear with time.
a. Even the most disturbed mind can return to a calm state with time.
6. The muddy water wasn’t the real problem. The real challenge was to show patience long enough for the mud to settle down and the water to get clear.
a. A disturbed mind is never the real problem. The real challenge is to show patience long enough for the thoughts and disturbances to settle down and the mind to get clear.
b. A situation is never pleasant or unpleasant by itself, the mind’s state makes it so.
Do you relate to these points? What has your experience been with regards to calming a disturbed mind? Please leave your comments in the comments box below so that I can learn from your experience.
Raja Jamalamadaka is a thought-leader in the field of organization effectiveness and neurosciences and a coach to senior industry executives. His primary area of research is the functioning of the brain and its links to leadership attributes like productivity, confidence, positivity and decision making. He is a technology veteran, entrepreneur, mentor to startup founders and a board director. If you liked this article, you might like some of his earlier articles here:
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4 年So true...nice Article.
BUSINESS DEVELOPER / RECRUITER @LAB HR SOLUTIONS.
7 年try to let it be..
Leadership and Organizational Development Consultant
7 年Thank you
Partner, Singhania and Co LLP
7 年This interpretation though very simple is a very effective one. Has been doing the rounds as WhatsApp msg forwards since a long time. Yet the way each person percieves and interprets the same, reacts to it , could be different and that's evident from the various comments. Some of us might agree to the way you have percieved and presented while some might have their own . The interpretation given by Raja Jamalamadaka is somewhat similar to what I felt at the time I first read the story as a frwd msg . I was going through a disturbed state of mind and this message helped me calm down . I did nothing about the situation and the way it has been taken care of by the Almighty is amazing !! I might be handling issues in hand in different ways too as @Pritesh Swamy mentions , sometimes go out in search of other options but that day my heart said to just follow Buddha's way and I did. I feel @Aditya Madiraju is right . We have to be ready and the teacher appears . If we are trying to honestly sincerely find an amicable way and connected to our greater self spiritually , we are always shown the way .