HOW TO CONTROL THOUGHTS OF YOUR MIND

 

One upon a time, there lived a Zen master in a Buddhist Monastery.

One day a man came to see him and said, Sir. My mind is very disturbed.

Many thoughts keep coming to my mind all the time.

Please give me some mantra to reduce the thoughts of the mind.

Zen master looked at him and said, my friend you start doing meditation every day, by doing meditation slowly and slowly your mind will start to calm down.

But the man said “ sir, please don’t tell me to do meditation. I can’t meditation. Because when I try to meditate even more thought starts to come to my mind

and most of the thoughts are negative which make my mind more restless.

The Zen Master said, don’t worry son, it happens in the initial stage of meditation but by practicing meditation slowly and slowly your mind will start to calm down.

But the man said, Sir, meditation is not my cup of tea. You please give me some mantra to calm down my mind.

The Zen Master saw that this man is not going to understand like this..

Then he said “ok” if you insist then I give you a mantra which can calm your mind. Then he whispered a mantra in his ear and said, you have to recite this mantra by

sitting alone every day.

The man got very happy and said, thanks master, I will surely recite this mantra every day. As he was about to turn back to leave, the Zen Master said ,

“but remember one thing” Don’t think of a monkey while reciting this mantra, otherwise mantra will become ineffective.

The man Said, “Sir why would I think of a monkey, I have never though of monkey in my whole life, you don’t worry about it, and he left from there.

The man came back home happily and sat down to recite mantra.

As he started chanting mantra, he remembered the words of the zen master’s that don’t think of a monkey when you recite this mantra.

As he remembered the words of the master, pictures of monkey started to come to his mind. He started to try and ignore the thoughts of monkey,

But the more he tried to ignore the monkeys, the more the monkeys started to come to his mind.

And after some times his mind was fully crowded with monkeys.

The man thought “why zen master gave me this instruction”.

If he knew that monkey was trouble, then he shouldn’t have mentioned it, no other animal is coming to my mind, and monkeys are not leaving,

The man got up and he took bath, changed to fresh clothes and again sat alone in a room to chant mantra.

As soon as he closed his eyes, monkeys were nudging him, they were all around him. wherever he looked he would see monkeys.

By night he even started seeing monkeys in face of his family members. Man was going mad.

The more he was trying to ignore the monkeys, the more monkeys were coming to his mind.

By morning he was almost mad. Next morning, he ran back to the zen master. He told him everything.

Sir, what kind of mantra you have given me, till yesterday I had never thought about monkey.

And now my mind is completely filled with thoughts of monkeys.

And monkeys are not leaving me even for a second.

Please help me and free my mind of these monkeys.

Zen master said, ok just relax, and stop reciting mantra.

Don’t do anything.

The man sat down relaxed and stopped reciting mantra.

The man was surprised that now there was no thought of monkey, everything went normal.

Then Zen Master said , you see my friend I just wanted to tell you about the nature of our mind. Never try to fight with your mind.

Just as the more you press the spring the more it will jump.

In the same way, the more you try to suppress you mind ,the more it will become stronger.

Be calm, start watching the thoughts of the mind and you will find that your mind will gradually become calm automatically and to watch your mind.

You need to do meditation.

 

MORAL OF THE STORY

If you see in our lives, we will find out our mind is just like that the monkey, which keeps jumping here and there all the time senselessly.

If you want to stop this monkey mind forcefully then you won’t be able to do this, like the more you try to press the spring, the more it will jump.

Similarly, the more you try to stop the thoughts of your mind, the more those thoughts will come to your mind.

Experts says that a human mind creates anything between 36000 to 80000 thoughts in a day.

If you will try to stop these thoughts forcefully then you wouldn’t be able to stop them.

Instead, the very effort to stop it gives it energy the very effort to avoid it becomes attention.

When you avoid starting something, you start paying too much attention to it.

Therefore, there is no need to stop thoughts.

Only thing you need to do is to watch your thoughts unattached, In our routine life, generally we are not able to watch our thoughts, but in meditation you can easily do it.

Therefore, you need to practice meditation to witness your mind. Some people experience that when they start meditation, more thoughts start to come to their mind.

But the reason behind it is that, when we start meditation the old impressions (sanskars) hidden in our mind start to erupt.

Just like if you clean your house then all the garbage comes out, similarly when you start meditating all the garbage of the mind starts coming out and you will start having more thoughts.

But you need not to worry about it and keep watching your thoughts unattached and continue your meditation practice.

Slowly and slowly when all the garbage of the mind comes out then the mind itself will start to calm down.

And you will start having less thoughts. And with long practice you will surely be able to control your mind.