Control

Everyone wants to have a bit of control over something in their life. They want to have power over someone or something. It is not such a bad thing so long as they limit their control and do not interfere in the lives of others. Why is there a problem about control? Because people don’t see beyond its meaning. Here is the meaning as defined in the dictionary: control means to order, limit or rule something, or someone's actions or behaviour. So from this, it is clear that individuals want to order, limit or rule someone’s actions or behaviour. Then control becomes problematic because nobody wishes to be controlled, limited, or ruled themselves. We all want freedom. Think about that. Put yourself in the position of the other. None of us would like that, would we?

Controlling others is the opposite of Buddhism, which teaches that each person in the world should control themselves. The Buddha said, “Overcoming yourself is better than overcoming everyone else, because then the victory is yours, and cannot be taken from you by anyone”. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Therefore, we should learn to control our own greed, hatred and delusion. We should not let such factors bother others. There is a story which helps explain this well. Here is the story:

There was once an ascetic who was meditating under a banyan tree close to a forest in Northern India. The king came by to meet him and seek his wise counsel and blessings to conquer the whole of India. Seeing the ascetic in meditation, the king waited for a while. But the ascetic continued to meditate.

The enraged king walked up to the ascetic and roared, “I want to conquer the whole world and came to seek your blessing! But you disregard me by not speaking to me!”

The ascetic opened his eyes and smiled, “O King! You want to be the mighty conqueror of many lands but tell me how can you ever conquer other people when you can’t conquer your own anger?” The king bowed his head in shame and left wiser than before.

In reality, there are many stories like this. So this world is messy because people try to control others. People never ever learn to control themselves which would be better because then individuals would learn as they live their life what type of person they are. They would know that if something is not good for themselves or others, they should change it for the better. This would help the world be a better place to live in.

Learn to know life. Let knowledge control and lead our lives towards to happiness.