Let the bull run amok and just keep riding it || Acharya Prashant (2015)

Question: Sir, when one tries to see the mind, and when the thought is contained in it, when it seems that the thought is running, then this running is suffocating. The thought finds another direction to move. Then again it finds another direction, again mind sees it, and again it gets blocked. This chain continues.

Acharya Prashant: *Seeing is very subtle. Blocking and all are not needed. You must give it (mind) a lot of freedom. You must give it all freedom to run amok. Like an untamed bull, allow it go anywhere it wants to. You just keep riding the bull. That requires guts. *

You just keep riding the bull, and let it go wherever it wants to go.

Listener 1: Sir, what does ‘riding’ mean?

AP: Riding is riding! ‘Riding’ means being together, and being on ‘top’. Being together, and being on top – that is riding.

Keep riding it.

L2: Sir, if I let my mind go amok, how would I be attentive? For example, if I have to listen to you, then how would it be possible if I let my mind go amok?

AP: The problem is not that the bull is running, the problem is that – you are too afraid to ride it.

Ride it. See what happens.

L3: Sir, if we are riding it, and the bull is not going as it wants to go, then? We are blocking it.

AP: Let the bull face that problem. Why are ‘you’ complaining?

L4: Sir, you have said a number of times, ‘ Be with the mind and see how things are going.’ But we are extremely afraid to see what might happen. There is this intense fear that, ‘ If I am with the mind, what will happen?’ There is no trust or faith that things will be alright, things go haywire.

AP: Have Faith !

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