Let’s start with a story. Yogiram was a beggar and was sleeping on the side of the road. He woke up hungry and started searching for some money in his pockets to buy some food. He found a 10 Rupees note and went to the market.
He was looking for want to buy, suddenly he saw a very mysterious-looking LAMP on the table. This lamp was extraordinary with lots of jewels and expensive stones embedded in it. But the price written on it was only 10 Rs. He got curious and went near the table.
“Is this really only for 10 Rs?” he asked the man sitting in front of the table.
The man said, “Yes it is”.
“Is there a catch?” Yogiram asked again.
The man said, “I have already used it and got whatever I needed from it, so I am selling it now”.
Thinking that he could sell the lamp at a higher price Yogiram bought the lamp. The moment he held the lamp a Genie came out of the lamp and asked him “What do you desire my Lord?”
Yogiram was hungry and asked for food which suddenly appeared in front of him. He was amazed and very happy.
Now understanding how it works he started demanding more things. All his desires were fulfilled.
Two years had passed and all his desires were fulfilled but he was facing one problem. It was difficult for him to sleep or rest. The moment he would try to rest or sleep the Genie would come out and ask “What do you desire my lord?”.
The Genie who had once given him so much happiness had turned into a cause of suffering. The LAMP was very valuable for him to throw away. He started looking for some solution to this problem.
He went to a Guru and discussed his problem with him. The Guru said something in Yogiram’s ear.
Yogiram came back home, the Genie came out of the Lamp asking the same question “What do you desire my Lord?”.
To this Yogiram replied “I want you to create a 20 feet long pole for me, fix it in the ground and then start climbing it. When you reach the top then climb down and then repeat.”
The genie started following the instructions of his master, got tired, and fell asleep after some time.
The lesson
The GENIE is our MIND, it is always looking for some kind of activity. Random thoughts keep coming to our minds and we keep giving attention to those random thoughts even if they might not be useful at the moment.
The mind is obviously the most useful tool that humans have but it gets distracted very easily. You can order your hand to pick up a glass of water but can you order the mind to think one particular thought? While the mind has the capability to do that but is hard, it keeps on jumping from one thought to another.
How to train the mind?
So how to train the mind? Do the same thing Yogiram did. Give the monkey mind one activity. The Activity that Yogiram gave to the Genie was climbing up and down the pole, similarly, your activity for the monkey mind could be focusing the attention on your breath (or using any other technique of meditation).
While the mind can still jump to another thought but you keep bringing your awareness to the breath. These back and forth jumps will keep happening and you will gradually be able to fix your mind on the breath.
This training can slowly become helpful in your other daily activities. The one-pointed mind can easily focus on one particular job and finish it fast and efficiently without getting distracted.
