In Chapter 1 ("Meditation", pps. 40-41) of Meditation Eknath Easwaran relates a charming and important story:

Once I went with an old friend to a meeting in the hills. The road twisted continuously, and his driving impressed me. On hairpin turns in India I have seen drivers lunge and clasp the wheel tightly, their faces grimly set. But my friend took each curve with an easy spin of the wheel, letting it swing back on its own.

"That's amazing," I said. "How in the world did you ever manage to learn that?"

He answered tersely, "Machines obey me."

This is a good analogy with the mind that is disciplined in meditation. When we are fully concentrated on the passage, the mind obeys us. It will make the exact turn necessary. We know the road, the curves, the precipices, and where we felt intimidated before, now there is the satisfaction of mastery.

Nicely put. And at a deep enough level, if you believe in mathematics and physics as much as I do, everything is a machine!

^z - 2010-10-29