A jug fills drop by drop

[1]

Amrit Sadhana [1]

All of us tend to neglect smaller moments of life because our attention is fixed on distant and bigger goals. We never realise that these goals exist more in imagination than in actual. The mind basically does not like to focus on details because it thrives on fantasies and dreams. Details are earthy, they bring the mind down to face reality.
The mystics keep drawing our attention to the small, to the present moment so that we do not wander in our thoughts and go on missing what is now.
But we ignore the eternal wisdom of mystics and suffer unnecessarily as we walk through life.
Buddha has an adorable way of expressing profound wisdom by giving simple day-to-day examples. These meaningful words of Buddha are worth pondering”
“Do not make light of your failings,
Saying, ‘What are they to me?’
A jug fills drop by drop.
So the fool becomes brimful of folly.
Do not belittle your virtues,
Saying, ‘They are nothing’.
A jug fills drop by drop.
So the wise man becomes brimful of virtue.”

If we ignore our small failings they accumulate and one day become a big mass of evil. At that point there is nothing we can do to destroy it. And this is equally true of our smaller virtues. Everybody has some innate good qualities, some skills, inherent kindness which they share every now and then unknowingly. But that goes unnoticed and unrecognised from both the giver and the receiver. It may be a small gesture like opening the door to an unknown person, giving a piece of chocolate or giving a hug to someone who is feeling ignored. These are not considered big acts but are tiny seeds sown at the right time in the right soil. One never knows what returns you will get when they come to fruition.
Another mystic, Osho, elaborates on the diamond words of Buddha and brings out the hidden splendour in them. Life consists of small things, there are no big things. A single act may not look very significant either as evil or as good. A single smile may not look very significant, but a single smile is part of a long process. A single flower is not the garland, but there will be no garland if there are no single flowers to put together.
“Do not belittle your failures, do not belittle your good acts. Each and every act is significant: if it is bad, you are going to suffer; if it is good, you are going to enjoy life. And to enjoy life is the only way to be spiritual. There is no logical proof for the divine, but when you are overflowing with joy, when you can dance with joy, in that dance a gratitude arises on its own accord. A thankfulness, a prayer, is born, and in that prayer you are reborn. In that prayer not only are you reborn, godliness is born, too. Life consists of small things, and you have to transform each small thing through your awareness into a beautiful act. Then ordinary things can become extraordinary.”
I wish these gems were inculcated in the curriculum in the formative years of kids. This is the greatest treasure, the “real estate” we will be handing over to the generation next. They will learn to respect and transform every drop of their experience till their jug is brimful of virtue and empty of folly. And they will be watchful of their mistakes and rectify them immediately so that they don’t grow into a big tree. Life lived with awareness is life divine.

— Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.