Stopping The Mad Mind

Anecdotes

oi-Staff

Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 16:01

A Sufi story about cutting the chord of mental binding to set one free of all attachments.

Junaid, the Sufi mystic taught his disciples practically taking up any situation that popped up. Once he was passing through a market place of a town where he came upon a man who walked his cow by a rope, literally dragging it. Junaid at once asked his disciples to surround the man and the cow. The man who was curious to know the intention of the famous mystic, stayed quiet to wait and watch.

Junaid then turned to his disciples and asked, "Tell me now, who is bound to whom, the cow to the man or vice versa?"

The disciples said, "Of course, the cow is bound to the man, as the man is the master of the cow and is holding on to the rope fastened around the neck of the cow"

Now see!" said Junaid and pulled out a scissors and cut the chord that was around the cow's neck. Immediately the cow began to run and the man started running after it.

Junaid alerted his followers,"Look the man is in fact running after the cow and cow is actually running away from the man. The man in truth is bound to the cow and not vice versa" The angry man enquired Junaid as to what kind of an experiment it was. Junaid turned to his disciples and said, "Like the cow all the the nonsense that you are harbouring inside is not interested in you.

It is you who is interested IN them. The moment you loosen the grip, you will understand the futility of them and they will start to disappear like the cow that escaped !

Osho says through this short story that all that is required to handle the mad mind is to just get disinterested in it . Once one's attention is withdrawn from it, the binding chord of attachment is snapped. Getting disinterested with the stuffs of the mind creates a space that expands gradually until the mind disappears totally in the vast expanse.