This morning Bodhi went to the closed room to get a few items. Just as he turned the knob and opened its door, he was encountered by a foul and claustrophobic ‘closed room’ smell. He went in quickly and as I helped him get the items he needed, he said, “Quickly open the windows and leave the door open. The heat and humidity had made it worse. As I pulled the shutters a cool breeze filled the room. Yet, it took a long time for the room to recuperate fully.

Once Bodhi was out of the room, and walking on the corridor to his room, he suddenly paused and stood at one place contemplatively. His expression turned sorrowful. In the dim light of the corridor, I could perceive clearly the pain in his half-closed eyes that were looking up meditatively.

“Oh this closed room makes me feel the pain of human mind that has been closed too long! This room was unbearably claustrophobic even when closed for three days. It hurts me so much to think of the plight of one cut off from Nature!” 

After a pause, he continued, his voice low and I could feel the crack in his voice fighting off the urge to break down. “The mind. And its thoughts. This is all that rules a human’s destiny. All miseries are caused in the mind. Until one may transform one’s mental rut and its passing groove of thoughts, the mind will be like a cluttered, closed room. You may put the person in the most exquisite palace of gold and fulfill all demands moment to moment, and yet one will go through the hell of a closed room if not liberated from the cage of his own mind.”

Debdutta Didi