Once there was a farmer digging on his land. As he was digging, suddenly“bang!”, he hit something. As he dug it up, it turned out to be a jar. Maybe there was something magical inside, maybe it was a treasure, who knows? He opened the lid and a cloud of smoke rose up in the air. The cloud of smoke turned in to some kind of creature. After the smoke had settled he saw that it was clearly a giant. The giant said in a big voice, “I will serve you. Anything you ask me to do, I will do it.”
The man was surprised but he thought, “This seems too good to be true.” It did seem too good to be true. He had a lot of work that he had to do by himself. A giant would be really useful to help with all the chores and work that needed to be done. Then the giant said, “But if you don’t keep me busy I will get bored. When I get bored I get hungry. When I get hungry I will have to eat you.”
Uh, oh! Now the man got scared. He must not let the giant get bored. Well he was a farmer so he had lots of things that needed to be done. The farmer thought, “I can always find something for him to do. He’ll never get have to get hungry. “So he thought of something that would definitely take the giant a long time to do. He said, “OK I want you to take out all the rocks from my field and prepare the whole garden behind my hut.”
The giant said, “Yes master” and chanted some magic, “Ommm Pyaaang!” and in a single instant all the work the farmer wanted, was done! “Finished master, next task.” The farmer thought, “I never thought he could do that so quickly. I’ll have to come up with something more difficult that will take a long time for him to do.” So the farmer tried to come up with more things that would take a long time. He said, “Build me a house. I want the wood to be specially selected from a rare forest. I want the walls to be specially decorated” and the farmer made the most complicated instructions he could. The Giant said “Yes master..... Ommm Pyaaaang!” Amazingly the house was made exactly as the farmer instructed. “Finished master, next task.” The farmer was terrified. Whatever he could think of, the giant finished it in a second. When the farmer had to go to sleep then the giant wouldn’t have anything to do and would eat him.
So the farmer came up with a perfect idea. He thought of something that would always keep the giant busy. The giant did it and the farmer felt relieved. He went to sleep very relaxed and happy while the giant did what he was asked. Do you know what it could have been that the farmer told the giant to do?
Here is what the farmer told the giant. He said, “I want you to make a pillar forty meters high. Once you make it, I want you to climb up it and then climb back down it. Then I want you to climb up it again and climb back down it again. Continue climbing up and down the pillar until I tell you to stop.” The giant said, “Yes master...... Ommmm Pyaaaaang!” and a pillar appeared. The giant began climbing up and down the pillar. He climbed up and down all night while the farmer slept. From then on whenever the farmer needed something he just said, “OK giant, you can stop climbing. I want you to cook some delicious food now.” And the giant would do whatever the farmer asked. Then the farmer would say, “Giant, I want you to climb up and down until I say to stop.” This is how the farmer lived the rest of his life. In fact, he’s still alive and the giant is still climbing up and down the pillar.
Now, do you know that we all have a giant that serves us? It’s a giant that we can’t see. If we train it and ask it to serve us it can make amazing things happen! If we don’t tell it anything and let it go loose, we will regret it. The giant we all have is called our mind. The mind is a great servant and having the giant climb up and down the pillar, is like making your mind meditate or repeat mantras. The best thing is if we make our minds meditate while we are doing everything else we do in life. If we conquer our own mind, then we conquer the whole world.