Stop running after people

One day, Mr. Robert, a philosophy teacher, was walking with his students near a local farmers market. Along with him were students named Ryan, Jake, Daniel, and a few others. Suddenly, they saw a man pulling a cow with a rope. The man was trying to take the cow home, but the cow didn’t want to move at all. It just stood still. This had been going on for a while. Mr. Robert said to the man, “Hold on a second, please.” Then he turned to his students and said, “Come stand around here.” He added, “I want to teach you something important.” He asked, “Tell me who is really tied to whom. Is the cow tied to the man or is the man tied to the cow? Who is the real master and who is the servant?” Jake replied, “Sir, it’s clear. The man is the master. He’s holding the rope. The cow is tied. So, wherever the man goes, the cow must follow. That means the man is the master and the cow is the servant.” Mr. Robert smiled and said, “That’s a good answer, but now watch this.” He took a pair of scissors out of his backpack and suddenly cut the rope. As soon as the rope was cut, the cow ran away and the man started chasing after it. Mr. Robert then said, “Now look what’s happening. Can you see who was actually tied to whom? The cow had no interest in the man. In fact, it wanted to escape. But now the man is running after the cow. That means he was the one truly tied.” Then he said, “Just like this cow, we all have negative thoughts in our minds like anger, jealousy, fear, and pride. These thoughts don’t really care about us, but we keep holding on to them. We think we are in control of them, but in reality, they control us. We carry these thoughts for years, filling our minds with useless and harmful things. We don’t want to let them go. In fact, sometimes we even enjoy being caught up in them. But the moment we stop being interested in those thoughts, they run away just like the cow. In life, we often believe that we own many things and even people. But honestly, we’re not the owners. Because of our needs, we become their servants. The more we depend on someone or something, the more they control us. So remember this, being free and peaceful is a choice. You can make that choice right now. You can let go of all the mental junk and start a fresh, beautiful life because a quiet and empty mind is the happiest place to be.