A long, long time ago, a beautiful elephant lived in the forest of India. Her skin was as white and silky soft as the feathers of a swan. All the people who ventured into the forest and happened to see her were amazed at her beauty. Word spread across the land about this great, big, strong, white, beautiful elephant.
When the king of that land heard about the elephant, he wanted it for himself. He sent his elephant trainers out to find her. They caught her in a huge net, drove her back to the palace grounds, and chained her to a stake.
When the elephant didn't do what the trainers told her to do, they jabbed her with their training sticks. Soon, red, blue, and purple bruises broke out all over her beautiful white skin, and she was constantly terrified.
One day the elephant went crazy with fear. She reared up on her hind legs and her chain broke loose. She ran up into the mountains, so far and deep that the trainers couldn't find her. They searched and searched for a long time, but at last they gave up. Eventually they forgot about her.
But the elephant did not forget about them. Every time the wind moaned, whined, shrieked or blasted, she dashed off in terror, racing around in big, loopy circles, thrashing her trunk wildly from side to side.
Even though she was free, she might just as well have been recaptured by the king's trainers, for now her mind was often so troubled she forgot to eat. Her big, strong body became thin and weak. Running in heedless fear, she would frequently trip and collapse over rocks, fallen branches, or holes in the ground.
The only thing close to peace the elephant ever felt was when she'd lean against one special tree to catch her breath. This tree had a smooth, thick trunk and a big, sheltering crown of leaves where the wind would gently whisper.
The tree could sense the fear that was tormenting the elephant and felt great compassion for her. One day, it whispered these words:
"Do you fear the wind?
It only moves the clouds and dries the dew!
Look inside your mind?
There, fear alone has captured you."
As soon as the tree finished whispering these words, the beautiful elephant smiled. Suddenly she realized that she had nothing to worry about but her own habit of always being afraid. From that day on she was at peace with herself.
Sometimes when we meet something bad or got phobia of something, the kind of image that we have is imprinted in our mind, sometimes is the imagination that give us the kind of fear or what we called the anticipated fear. Shaun has shared with us in the training at Phuket that Fear actually stand for False Evidence Appearing Real..I admit it is true something for me..being fear of something actually not happening at all..actually I got phobias of cat, but I didn't have cat bitten me when I was young, just being chased by them before..but I still got the fear when I see them. Even my mum laughed at me that I am so big sized than the cat, still fear of them, which she don't understand.Sometimes I wish to have more courage to face the cat. Haha
*Laugh*
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