A Guru was going somewhere with his disciples. They saw a man who was coming towards them with a cow. The cow had a rope tied around its neck and the man was holding the other end of the rope. The Guru asked his disciples, ”Who is the slave, the man or the cow?”. The disciples said, “The cow is the slave. It is tied with the rope. The man is the master since he is controlling the cow”. The Guru smiled and said, “ No! you are wrong. If the rope slips from the man’s hands and the cow starts running away you will find that the man will run after the cow. The man is also tied down with the cow, only his rope is invisible.”
We are also tied down with so many invisible ropes. We are not free.
We want to be happy but can we? Does it depend on us? No, our happiness and sorrow depend on someone else. Anyone can make you angry anytime he wishes. You might have vowed many times that you will not get angry, but all your vows come to naught time and again. Anyone can make you unhappy anytime he wishes. You have no control over your own emotions. You have control over other people’s emotions and they have control over yours. You are their slave and they are yours. You are not even free to choose your own emotions. It seems that the switches, which control our emotions, are not accessible to us while being fully accessible to others. You can switch on or off any emotion in me and I can do the same to you. But your own emotional switches are out of your reach.
This is the deepest form of slavery. We have become slaves by nature. At least, we should have freedom to choose our own feelings and emotions. If I wish to remain happy, why should someone else be able to take my happiness away so easily? If one wants to remain peaceful why should he not be able to maintain his peace irrespective of the outside disturbances?
It is a bit difficult to fully realize how much we are losing of life due to this process of delegating everything to mind. The greatest loss for us is that we no longer need to pay attention to anything. One of the most significant laws of life is that no experience is free in existence. If one wishes to experience anything, one has to pay. The only currency at the existential level is "ATTENTION". We must pay and it is the amount of this existential currency which determines how much we get in return.
Let me cite a very small and common-place example. Consider the simple act of drinking tea. A cup is first placed in front of you. You look at the cup, take in the color of tea-liquor and the cup. You then lift the cup and carefully take a sip. You register the aroma, taste and temperature of the tea and arrive at a conclusion regarding its quality. If it tasted good, you enjoy it contentedly. You take another sip and enjoy it too. Then......what happens? Do you return to your newspaper, TV show, conversation you were having with someone, or (if you are alone) to your reverie? Do you remember enjoying third or fourth sip onwards? Do you enjoy all the sips? Do you notice gradual cooling down of tea? Do you relish the taste any longer? The answer to most of these questions will show that you stopped paying attention to your cup of tea at some point. Most probably you would even forget when you took that last sip. What happens in this case? Your mind, the great automaton, your great servant takes over. It does such a great job that you do not need to pay any attention to your much cherished tea :-). You even forget that you are drinking tea. Under such a situation how can you enjoy what you do?
If you give a thought to this, you can see that it is true for any of your activities. Joys of life are hidden in small things - a glass of plain cold water, a delicious dish, wind blowing on your face, warmth of sun on your skin, getting drenched in rains, fragrance of a flower, chirping of birds and insects, watching the lovely smile on the face of your loved ones. Do you see the growing tree en route to your office? Do you notice some subtle change in people around you? Do you still enjoy these things, or have you relinquished all controls to your mind?
If you feel as if days are flying by at a fast pace, if the memories of yesterday seem hazy, you should start thinking of being in control of your life. Call your mind to order whenever you need it, but remain in control most of your time. Do not let your mind insert a hazy filter of past experiences or memories or your beliefs between the real you and the things you wish to experience. Pay real attention to whatever you are doing. Drink every sip with full awareness, chew every morsel of food consciously-try to feel the movement of your jaws, lips, tongue and throat. While walking, be aware that your feet are moving and your arms are swinging. Be aware of the rise and fall of your chest and belly when you breathe. Try to feel the warmth and softness/hardness of the hand and firmness of the grip when you shake hands. You lost control through these simple activities and you will gain it back through the same activities. Just remember to do everything as consciously as possible. If you try to drink a cup of coffee with full attention, you will know what I am talking about.
Do you realize how your mind prevents you from experiencing things? Let me explain. You see a flower and your mind starts its commentary-"it is a rose", "it is red", it is so beautiful, the fragrance is so sweet etc. etc. This commentary interferes with the plain and simple acts like seeing or hearing things properly, and you are lost in the chattering of the mind. It does not let you pay attention to the thing in front of you. Do you realize that our eyes have become "unseeing eyes"? Have you ever felt that your ears have become "unhearing ears"? It is as if the mind inserts a translucent filter between our senses and the things to be experienced.
Once you are start experiencing things directly, without the utterly useless commentary of your mind, you will find that at a given moment only one can exist-your awareness or your mind. You will find that awareness changes the whole experience. It has the magic touch of the philosopher's stone. It changes everything into pure gold. We need to be more and more aware.
Become aware and you become your own master. If you are aware, no one can make you angry or jealous or envious or unhappy. Become aware and the system of automated responses halts. Then you can choose how to respond to a given situation. Let your responses come out of pure awareness and not from the storehouse of the past data. Life is changing every moment and each moment asks for a new look and new response. Become aware of everything happening around you in a given moment and you will find peace descending upon you. This peace cannot be disturbed no matter what the level of noise outside. Once you shut up your mind, you would become a center of silence and then you will know of a life which is so different from what you have experienced so far.
