One day, Buddha was walking from one town to another with a few of his followers. While they were travelling, they happened to pass by a lake. They stopped to rest there and Buddha asked one of his disciples to get him some water from the lake.
A disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy. The disciple though, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink?”
So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in the lake is very muddy. I don’t think it is suitable to drink.”
After a while, Buddha again asked the same disciple again to go the lake and get him some water. The disciple went back to the lake. This time he found that the mud had settled down and the water was clean so he collected some in a pot and bought it to Buddha. Buddha then looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be and the mud settled down on its own. It is also the same with your mind. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it little time and it will settle down on its own.”
