One day Buddha is passing by a forest. It is a hot summer day and he is feeling very thirsty. He says to his disciple Ananda, “Go back to the small stream we passed a few miles back and bring a little water”. Ananda goes back, but by the time he reaches the stream, a bullock cart has passed through the stream and made the stream muddy. It is no longer possible to drink the water — it is too dirty. He comes back empty-handed, and says, “You will need to wait a little. I have heard that a couple of miles ahead there is a big river. I will bring water from there.”
But Buddha insists. He says, “You go back and bring water from the stream we passed. And don’t come back if the water is still dirty. If it is dirty, you simply sit on the bank silently. Don’t do anything, don’t get into the stream. Sit on the bank silently and watch. Sooner or later the water will be clear again, and then you fill the bowl and come back.”
Ananda goes back, sits on the bank just watching the river flow by. Slowly slowly, it becomes crystal-clear.
And he understood why Buddha sent him back. Sitting on the bank of that small stream, he became aware that the same is the case with my mind. To jump into the stream will make it dirty again. Jumping into the mind also creates more noise, more problems, arise.
Sitting by the side of the mind, a moment arises when everything is clear, calm arises, perspective is attained and solutions offer themselves.