You are a slave, and so am I

The events of 11th June, 1963, meant the world would never be the same again. 

Ngo Dinh Diem came into power in South Vietnam in 1955. He was hailed as the saviour, the torch-bearer of democracy in a former communist regime. He was going to save Vietnam. Leaders around the world felt the same, and they supported the mission. 

Diem fought for democracy. He fought for South Vietnam becoming the republic of Vietnam. He fought against the authoritarian northern rule. Or so he proclaimed he would do. He was elected into power, and mayhem ensued in Vietnam.

Diem, a devout Catholic, despised Buddhists and their beliefs. Unfortunately, much of South Vietnam was Buddhist. You can see the problem with this. 

Buddhism underwent severe oppression. Diem killed any Buddhist who went against him. Buddhists conducted peaceful protests to end this injustice, but their efforts were in vain. Until the morning of 11th June, 1963. 

On a busy street in Saigon, it was a morning like any other. Until a blue car stopped in the middle of the road. 2 monks emerged, placed a cushion and proceeded to praying. Thích Quảng Đức came out, and sat on the cushion. One of the monks poured a 5 gallon petrol can on Duc. Everyone watched in shock as the monk lit a match and set Duc on fire. Silence.

Duc sat there unmoved. The air was filled with the smell of burning flesh. Cries emerging from the crowd. But Duc sat there. Didn’t even flinch a muscle. He accepted his fate. He peacefully accepted his fate.

After practising meditation for 50+ years, Duc was able to control his thoughts. He accepted the inevitability of death and was able to stare death in the face, and not look away. He was the master of his mind; his thoughts. Therefore, burning alive was not even painful. He didn’t need to flinch a muscle not because he can’t or didn’t feel pain, but because pain is nothing but your mind’s reaction. He was in control of that reaction.

Today, we struggle to go an hour (or less) without scrolling. We are slaves of our impulses. We are slaves of external factors. The hard truth is that we are slaves of our own mind. Our thoughts control us, we don’t control them. These thoughts, this chatter, is what separates us from other animals. Our ability to be conscious is our biggest weapon, and our biggest weakness. 

Thích Quảng Đức was not an enslaved by his thoughts. He controlled the chatter of his mind. Of course, it took him more than 50 years to be able to do this. And most of us will never be able to do it.

The truth is we worry too much. We procrastinate too much. We ruminate too much. We TikTok too much. Our mindset is fixated on tomorrow, on things that aren’t in our control. Chatter arises when we let our mind spiral down in an endless loop of what-ifs, and we completely lose control. We are so worried about all the unimportant things that we don’t even know what’s important anymore.

By trying to live a perfect life, we have forgotten what perfect is, because nothing is ever perfect.

Duc was able to accept that the world isn’t perfect, and that we have no control over anything. Knowing things aren’t perfect allows you to escape the illusion of perfect. It allows you to escape your inner chatter, and control it to your advantage.

If this was a fairytale, here’s the moral of the story: fairytales don’t exist. Things are never going to be perfect. The source of much of our chatter is the desire to overcome our own inadequacies. We fixate on small things because we want our life to be picture-perfect. But it never will be.

Accept this. The inner chatter will subdue.