You carry your bag to the train station, and climb aboard.
As you walk up the couple of steps onto the train, you place your bag above your head.
10 minutes into your journey, a polite stranger curiously asks, “why are you still carrying your bag?”
What is the bag that you carry? What goodies are packed into the suit case?
Where is your train headed? And, if you are suffering, why are you straining to keep the bag over your head?
Surrender.
That fateful message.
Let go.
Release your suffering.
Put that bloody bag down… and enjoy the ride.
Meditation is that moment where you realise that holding onto your pain makes as much sense as holding a bag whilst you are riding on a train.
This little story was told to me by a simple, but beautiful man at Gurutattva Ashram, Dandi, India.
I remember thinking to myself; he has a point.
How easily I fill my suitcase on my travels. And how easily I staunchly carry that bag above my head on the train.
Addicted to my suffering, and to the notion that hard work is required, I cling to that bag and feel proud to be the strong bloke holding it up.
And then I sit for meditation.
30 minutes can feel like a long time.
Often, it is 29 minutes into my sit that I realise I can put my bag down.
I sigh with relief.
The train is headed to the destination. I made it aboard.
It has carried me, it will carry me, whether I cling to my bag or not.
The helpful strangers advice hits home; I put the bag down and mosie over to the dining cart and grab myself a cuppa.
Out of the window I see that we are approaching the next train station.
The train stops.
A man walks onto the train, carrying his bag over his head.
10 minutes later, curiously I ask, “why are you still carrying your bag?”
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