Once Buddha was walking from one town to another with a few of his followers. While they were traveling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there, and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Please get me some water from that lake over there”.
The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water, and, right at that moment, an ox cart started crossing the lake right at the edge of it. As a result, the water became very muddy. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink?!” So he came back and told the Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink”.
So, the Buddha said, let us take a little rest here under this tree. After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time, he found that the water in the lake was absolutely clear. The mud had settled down to the bottom and the water above it looked fit to drink. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to the Buddha.
The Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See, You let the water be and the mud settled down on its own, then you got clear water and it didn’t require any effort”.
Moral: Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put forth any effort to calm it down. We can make the best decisions when we stay calm.