A couple of weeks ago I started doing regular meditation sessions with my Yoga students. Step by step our Sangha is consolidating:
Sangha means: Friends' community that travels the Way.
In the first meditation practice, after having concluded the 20 minutes session. I decided to share a story with them by way of reflection, and today I decided to do it here as well:
The story is called "Ananda and the Water":
On a hot summer day, the Historical Buddha Gautama was walking through a forest with his main disciple, Ananda.
Thirsty, the Buddha turned to his companion:
Ananda, not more than an hour ago, we crossed a stream. Please take my bowl and bring me some water, I'm very tired. - Said the Buddha.
The Buddha had grown old.
So, that's how Ananda did it. He had gone back along the road he had travelled, but when he returned to the stream he found that only a few wagons had crossed the cause, pulled by oxen, and the bottom had been removed. The water was now dirty.
This water was no longer drinkable. So, Ananda walks again to where the Buddha was, with an empty bowl, and says to him
You'll have to wait a little while. I'll walk the road ahead of you. I've heard that there's also a big river 4km away and I'll be able to fill your bowl.
But Buddha insisted:
Come back and get me the water from that creek. If the water is still dirty when you are there, wait, do nothing, without going into it, sit quietly and watch. Sooner or later than you think, the water will start to clear up. Wait until the dirt settles and then fill my bowl and bring it to me.
Ananda was perplexed. He could not understand the Buddha's insistence. But he did not disobey him, and he set off again on his way to the small stream.
Once in the creek, Ananda, upset, ended up discovering that although the water was still murky, it gradually became visibly clearer as time went by. So, he sat down on the bank and waited patiently for the river to flow. Gradually it became crystal clear, and he took the bowl and filled it with water.
Then, at that moment, he understood what the Buddha wanted by making him sit there doing nothing and just waiting.
Then he understood that the Buddha wanted to teach him something else.
Ananda returned by the way to the Buddha and full of joy bowed before him and thanked him.
It is I who should thank you, for you have brought me the water. - Buddha said.
No Guru, when I got to the river I was very angry. But sitting on the bank I saw that not only had the river cleared up, but so had my mind. Just as with the water from the stream, if it entered the stream, it would have clouded my thinking again.
If I jump, within the mind I generate confusion, problems begin to appear - He continued - I have understood, that I can sit on the bank of my mind, observing everything that it drags; its dead leaves, its pains, its wounds, its desires.
I will sit at the edge of my mind, and as with the water, I will wait every time there is obfuscation, for the dirt to settle and the water to become clear again.
For this, Guru, I thank you.
Quick Meditation
For five minutes, watch your breathing. During that time, just turn your attention to the flow of air through your nose, and after that open your eyes and continue with what you have been doing during the day.
That way you will become aware of "the flow of your mind", and everything that goes with it, waiting patiently until the water clears. Do this meditation twice a day, or more. And you will have a clarity of thought that you did not used to have before.
If you have questions about this way of cultivating your attention and realizing what is happening in the present moment, ask me in the comments or write to me through our community at Discord: ERARIUM, and I will be happy to help you.
Thank you very much for reading me.
I am Julio Cesar Arvelo, practitioner and teacher of Ashtanga Yoga and Meditation.
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