Peace of Mind

Once Buddha was walking from one town to
another town with a few of his followers.
This was in the initial days. While they
were travelling, they happened to pass a
lake. They stopped there and Buddha told
one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get
me some water from that lake there.”
The disciple walked up to the lake. When he
reached it, he noticed that some people
were washing clothes in the water and,
right at that moment, a bullock cart started
crossing through the lake. As a result, the
water became very muddy, very turbid. The
disciple thought, “How can I give this
muddy water to Buddha to drink!” So he
came back and told Buddha, “The water in
there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit
to drink.”
After about half an hour, again Buddha
asked the same disciple to go back to the
lake and get him some water to drink. The
disciple obediently went back to the lake.
This time he found that the lake had
absolutely clear water in it. The mud had
settled down and the water above it looked
fit to be had. So he collected some water in
a pot and brought it to Buddha.
Buddha looked at the water, and then he
looked up at the disciple and said, “See
what you did to make the water clean. You
let it be … and the mud settled down on its
own – and you got clear water… Your mind
is also like that. When it is disturbed, just
let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle
down on its own. You don’t have to put in
any effort to calm it down. It will happen.
It is effortless.”
What did Buddha emphasize here? He said,
“It is effortless.” Having ‘peace of mind’ is
not a strenuous job; it is an effortless
process. When there is peace inside you,
that peace permeates to the outside. It
spreads around you and in the
environment, such that people around start
feeling that peace and grace.