The Ripples… A man was sitting by a lake. He was throwing small pebbles into it from time to time. A young boy happened to cross by. He was intrigued to see that after every few minutes or so, the man would toss a pebble into the lake. The boy went up to the man and said, "Good pastime, this stone throwing, he?" "Hmmm," said the man. He seemed to be deep in thought and obviously did not wish to be disturbed. Sometime later, the man said softly, "Look at the water, it is absolutely still." The boy said, "Yeah, it is." The man tossed a pebble into the water and continued, "Only till I toss a pebble into it now do you see the ripples?" "Yeah," said the boy, "they spread further and further." "And soon, the water is still again," offered the man. The boy said, "Sure, it becomes quiet, after a while." The man continued, "What if we want to stop the ripples? The root cause of the ripples is the stone. Let's take the stone out. Go ahead and look for it." The boy put his hand into the water and tried to take the stone out. But he only succeeded in making more ripples. He was able to take the stone out, but the number of ripples that were made in the process were a lot more than before. The wise man said, "It is not possible to stop the movement of the water once a pebble has been thrown into it. But if we can stop ourselves from throwing the pebble in the first place, the ripples can be avoided altogether! So too, it is with our minds. If a thought enters into it, it creates ripples. The only way to save the mind from getting disturbed is to block and ban the entry of every superfluous thought that could be a potential cause for disturbance. If a disturbance has entered into the mind, it will take its own time to die down. Too many conflicting thoughts just cause more and more disturbances. Once the disturbance has been caused it takes time to ebb out. Even trying to forcibly remove the thought may further increase the turmoil in the mind. Time surely is a great healer, but prevention is always better than cure." Moral of the Story Before you allow a thought or a piece of information to enter your mind, put it through the triple filter test of authenticity, goodness and value. ArchivesJune 2006 July 2006 July 2007 October 2007 March 2008 April 2008 September 2008 October 2008 October 2010 November 2010 December 2010 January 2011 February 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 March 2012 April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 November 2012 December 2012 January 2013 February 2013 March 2013 April 2013 May 2013 July 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 November 2013 December 2013 January 2014 February 2014 March 2014 May 2014 July 2014 August 2014 September 2014 October 2014 November 2014 December 2014 January 2015 September 2015 October 2015 November 2015 February 2016 March 2016 May 2016 June 2016 July 2016 August 2016 September 2016 October 2016 November 2016 December 2016 March 2017 April 2017 May 2017 June 2017 July 2017 August 2017 September 2017 March 2018 April 2018 May 2018 June 2018 July 2018 September 2018 January 2019 March 2019 September 2019 Subscribe to Posts [Atom] |