Calming the mind

Mr Hải found the footpath rather charming and kept following it to see where it led. The path ended in front of the bamboo gate of the yard of a simple thatched house. The gate was half closed; Mr Hải pushed it gently and walked in, crossed the yard, and stood on the veranda looking in through the open door. Suddenly a man came out from inside, greeted him and asked:

• Hello, can I help you with anything?
• Oh, no, I'm just out for a stroll, and my feet carried me here.
  Seeing that the visitor seemed unwilling to turn back, the host said:
• Then we must have an affinity. Please come in and have a cup of tea.
  Inside, the house was simply furnished, most of the things home-made. But the house and its owner gave Mr Hải a feeling of cleanliness and gentleness. The host sat beside Mr Hải looking out of the big window, out over the yard, over the fields at the foot of the vast hill. What a peaceful scene. The host poured tea for Mr Hải and said:
• My name is Minh, and I've lived here for 8 years. And you, I suppose you've come from somewhere to see the scenery here?
• My name is Hải. I live in the city and I'm the director of a property company. The pressure of work was so great that I began to lose control of my emotions, often snapping and getting hot-tempered, many times shouting at and insulting my colleagues, and I feel I'm at fault. I couldn't restrain myself, so I handed work over to my subordinates and took the chance of going far away to ease my mind, hoping to regain a little psychological balance.
• What kind of property business do you do?
• We don't have much capital, so I don't expand wildly; I finish one project at a time and recover the capital as I invest. I also hold to the policy of serving low-income buyers, helping them have a home so they can live in peace and make their living. Pursuing this policy is very hard. The selling price can't be high, but the houses still have to be of good quality, with all the features a family needs, and at the same time there must be a little profit to reinvest. We have to use our whole minds to solve this problem, and in the end we are exhausted. Doing business just for profit, buying at a low price and selling at a high price, is very easy.
• Your heart is good, so surely Heaven and the Buddha will take pity on you.
• I don't know whether they do, but my mind has declined so much, I'm so stressed, I lose sleep constantly, I can't concentrate on work any more, and my sharpness has dropped markedly compared with before. Your mind must be at ease here?
• Then perhaps I'm here waiting for you. I practise meditation here to calm the mind. If you want to learn, I'll show you.
• Oh, wonderful, Heaven and the Buddha really did take pity. Please teach me.
  Mr Minh took a sip of tea and said:
• Have you noticed that whenever your mind is stirred, your breathing becomes disordered?
• That's right, Minh. When I'm emotional or angry, my breath comes hard and fast and all over the place.
• Now do the opposite: breathe gently and the mind will be calm. The mind and the breath are closely linked. The mind affects the breath, and the breath affects the mind. It is very hard for you to make the mind calm as you wish, but very easy to control the breath and lead the mind along with it. This is the first secret. You must breathe gently and smoothly; do not strain to breathe in much, breathe in only a little, but draw out the out-breath a bit longer. The out-breath helps the mind become still more easily than the in-breath, so the out-breath should be longer than the in-breath. Go on, try it.
  Mr Hải sat still on the chair and breathed gently. Five minutes later, Mr Hải said:
• I can't tell clearly, but I think I feel a little more comfortable already.
• Now listen to this. When you lose your composure, when you think under strain, does your body move constantly?
• Yes, that's right, when I get tense my hands and feet and whole body keep moving, sometimes I even jump up and down.
• That's because mind and body are connected. When the mind moves, the body moves, and when the body moves, the mind moves. Now keep the body from stirring, soft and relaxed, and the mind will become calm along with it. Go on, try it.
  Mr Hải sat still on the chair, quietly controlling his body. After a while Mr Hải said:
• Minh is right. When I pay attention to controlling the whole body, keeping the muscles soft and not letting them stir, the mind feels more comfortable too.
• And one more thing. When you think, what do you think about, and where is your mind at that time?
• Well, I think about all sorts of things in the world, so my mind flies off all over the place too.
• Then at that time your mind has left your body. That is, when the mind is stirred it leaves the body, and when the mind is calm it returns to the body. When you rest throughout the body and control the whole body, you are also pulling the mind back so that it no longer runs outside.
• That's right, Minh.
• And one more thing. Sitting on a chair with a backrest like this to control the body and the breath isn't very good. Go over to that plank bed and sit with your back straight and your legs crossed; it hurts a little at first, but it will be easier to calm the mind.
  Mr Hải went over to the plank bed and climbed up to sit, but could not cross his legs because they were so stiff. Mr Minh had to help by massaging and bending them for a while before he could rest his legs crossed one over the other. Then Mr Hải kept his back straight and sat still, controlling the breath and controlling the body.

After a while Mr Hải stopped, pulled his legs out and winced, but his complexion looked comfortable. Mr Minh guided Mr Hải in massaging both legs and rubbing his body. The two returned to the chairs to drink tea. Evening was beginning to fall. Mr Minh said:

• If nothing prevents you, stay here overnight and practise sitting in meditation a few more times to get it right before you go back.
• If nothing prevents me, I think I'd like to stay here for good.
  The two went into the kitchen and cooked rice together. Soon they laid out the meal and sat eating together. Mr Hải asked:
• Are you a Buddhist, Minh?
• Oh no, I don't follow any religion.
• As far as I know, this meditation method is Buddhist.
• As I understand it, this meditation belongs to humanity and to nobody in particular. Anyone with wisdom and ethics will understand meditation. The Buddha, or Jesus, or Lao Tzu, or Confucius, or any sages and philosophers wise enough must understand meditation, that's all.
• I'll try to practise meditation to calm the mind. Once I have experience, I'll guide my colleagues to practise together so that everyone suffers less. There are so many tiring things in life, my friend.
  That evening they sat in meditation together, talked until late and then went to sleep. The next morning Mr Hải took his leave of Mr Minh and went home. 🌻

Calming the mind has many benefits. The first is relieving stress, helping the soul to be relaxed, calm, peaceful and happy. The second is supporting health, increasing resistance and creating a latent inner strength for the body. The third is regenerating and renewing the brain, making us smarter and improving memory. The fourth is being able to control emotions, not letting anger or excitement dominate our mind. The fifth is greatly changing our views of life, seeing everything more positively, more tolerantly and more deeply. There are still many benefits of practising calming the mind.

Calming the mind and ethics are also very closely related. An ethical person finds it easy to practise calming the mind, and a person who practises calming the mind also finds it easy to have ethics. The true sages, in whatever religion, are all people with the ability to calm the mind deeply. We say true sages, meaning people with truly ethical character and wisdom, not saints conferred by that religion. A person who has been conferred sainthood is not necessarily a true sage, because they are recognised by people who are not yet sages. A true sage needs no one to confer anything; they have an ethics and wisdom that few can fathom.

In India, the government has meditation taught in prisons and sees prisoners change for the better. Many companies in Japan and Korea have their staff practise meditation to help them work with more vigour, more creativity and more endurance.
However, meditation is not easy to practise. Only an ethical person can get through the hard early stage of aching legs, numb legs and confused thoughts. When the mind has settled and the body has become soft, meditation is boundless happiness. Many monastics like to sit in meditation, but there are also monastics who are afraid of practising meditation.

The day the whole world loves meditation will be the dawn of humanity.