What You Think, You Become...

chanakyakripa

Longago when Buddha and his disciples were residing in a small beautiful village,Buddha always preferred to sit in front of a lotus pond to meditate. Hismeditation would go for hours together, before he returned to his cottage,along with his disciples. And this was his routine, every day.

Allhis disciples were very happy to go with Buddha and meditate along with him infront of the lotus pond, except two. No doubt they were sincere and loyalfollowers of Buddha, but they were living with a doubt, why Buddha is choosingonly the same spot to meditate - in front of the pond, when the whole exoticgarden is available with very pleasant smelling flowers and greatambience.  Though they wanted to know the reason, they dared not ask himabout it.

Theirview about Buddha’s choice slowly spread across other disciples and thiscreated a turbulence and topic of discussion in the group.

Oneday Buddha understood the unrest in the group and called a senior disciple andasked him the reason for it. He replied “Lord, when the whole beautiful gardenis available for us, why do you prefer to meditate in front of this lotus pond,all the times”.

Buddhasmiled at him pleasantly and answered, “will certainly tell you, but beforethat let me ask a question to you all. Can anyone of you tell me the height oflotus flower?”

Onesaid two feet, the other said 3 feet and the guessing of height of lotus flowercontinued with various answers coming in from all disciples. One of them said,“Lord, we can’t really judge it accurately, because the height of the lotusdepends upon the height of water it is in”

Buddhaendorsed it, “You are right, my Son. Now tell me to what height will you reachin your life?”. Disciple looked at him silently as he had no idea of thisquestion.

Buddhalooked at the other disciples and said, “Like height of lotus depends on theheight of water, height of our life depends upon the height of our thoughts. Tobe reminded of this truth always, I sit in front of this lotus pond”.