Spots

Faulty world

As I was walking hurriedly through the milling crowd I collided with a glowing cigarette held by a casual hand. The burning tip of the cigarette broke off against my beautiful brand new black striped trousers and with a mild sadness I slowed my pace—oh my specially tailored favorite one day old trousers! Still walking I inspected the white spot on the fabric and tried to rub it off. No big success. I could see clearly the whiteness of the spot. The fabric must have been irreversibly burnt—I thought. My sadness deepened. In the midst of the jostling crowd I felt lonely—what a bad luck. My mind drooped. The bright sunshine dimmed. But I had to walk on as everybody has to.

With every step now I slowly widened the focus of my mind from the single white spot on my trousers. I felt the spreading. It spread slowly all over the full length and breadth of the trousers. I thought, yes, the total area of the fabric is much larger than the spot. The size of the spot reduced.

The working of human mind is really intriguing. My mind now left the trousers and started spreading its attention to the immediate environment around me—the people, the cars, the shops, the street. The view went on increasing its bounds. I could visualize in a few moments the heaps of houses in my crowded city, then the expanse of green countryside, on and on, up and away, the earth became a small spot in my viewscape. A spot much smaller than the white spot on my trousers.

And I forgot the loss of spotlessness of my trousers as I knew then that my landscape is full of all kinds of countless spots.