Once it happened: I was staying in a rest-house. And a political leader was also staying there—a very small rest-house in a very small village. The political leader came to me in the middle of the night, and said, "It is impossible to sleep. How are you sleeping?" He shook me, and said, "How are you sleeping, there is so much distraction?"
Somehow or other at least two dozen dogs…they must have made the rest-house their abode—the whole village's dogs. Maybe they were having a political gathering also—and they were so many; there was such a loud barking and fighting.
He said, "But how are you sleeping? These dogs won't allow me to sleep, and I am tired."
So I said to the political leader, "But they are not aware of you. They don't read newspapers, they don't listen to the radio, they don't look at television; they are not aware of you. I was also here before you. That is their usual way: they are not doing it specially for you. You are fighting, resisting. The notion that they are disturbing you is disturbing you; not they. Accept them!" I told him to do one small meditation. "Lie down on the bed. Enjoy their barking. Let it be a music. Enjoy it. Listen to it, as attentively as possible."
He said, "How is it going to help me? I want to avoid, I want to forget that they are there, and you are telling me to listen to them. That will disturb me even more."
I told him, "You just try. You have been trying your way, and it has failed. Now try my way; and you can see that it has been successful with me."
He was not ready for it, and he didn't believe it; but there was no other way, so he tried. And within five minutes he was fast asleep, and snoring. So I went and shook him up, and I said, "How are you sleeping? How is it possible?"
lf you accept, nothing can distract you. lt is the very rejection in you that creates the distraction. So, if you want to meditate without distraction, don't reject anything. The traffic noise has to be accepted—it is part of this world, and perfectly okay; the child crying and weeping is part of this world, and perfectly okay. Once you say that everything is okay, just watch the feeling that everything is okay and accept it. Something within you melts. Then nothing distracts. And unless this happens, you can go anywhere you like and you will be distracted by one thing or another. foll308
