There's a pertinent
story of a monk in the Buddha's time which relates the ultimate in sense
discipline. A married couple had a big row and the woman decided to run away.
She put on several of her best saris, one over the other, wore all her gold
jewelry and left.
After a while the husband was sorry that he had let her go
and followed her. He ran here and there, but couldn't find her. Finally he came
across a monk who was walking along the street. He asked the monk if he'd seen
a woman in a red sari with long black hair and lots of jewelry around her neck
and arms. The monk said: "I saw a set of teeth going by."
The monk was not paying attention to
the concepts of a woman with long black hair, a red sari, and lots of jewelry,
but only to the fact that there was a human being with a set of teeth. He had
calmed his senses to the point where the sight object was no longer tempting
him into a reaction. An ordinary person at the sight of a beautiful woman with
black hair, a red sari and lots of jewelry, running excitedly along the street,
might have been tempted to follow her. A set of teeth going by, is highly
unlikely to create desire. That is calming the senses.
For the
past few years I have been taking a water aerobic class for seniors. Three times a week 20 or 25 of us strip down
to our swim suits and climb in the water.
For some, it may not be a pretty sight to witness the tattoos and scars
from previous surgeries and sagging skin here and there. But once we all get in the water up to our
necks, I see bright eyes and smiles everywhere.
It is an amazing transformation that four feet of water can make.
Learning to
be Mindful of things as they really are is a noble pathway to being happy. But like getting to Carnegie Hall, it takes
practice.
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