The afternoon was clear and breezy.
The young man sat under the mango tree, turning his phone in his hands.
He wasn’t using it — just holding it, as if waiting for a message he knew wouldn’t come.

The teacher walked out with a basket of freshly picked mangoes.

He set it down and asked:

“Who are you waiting for?”

The young man startled.

“I… I’m not waiting for anyone.”

The teacher smiled.

“You’re holding that phone like someone holding a quiet longing.”

The young man sighed and put the phone down.

“I… depend on others too much.
A message, a compliment, a bit of attention…
and my whole mood changes.”

The teacher sat beside him.

“What do you think makes you dependent?”

The young man hesitated.

“Maybe… I’m afraid of losing people.
Afraid of being abandoned.
Afraid of not being loved.”

The teacher nodded.

“To step out of this fracture, you must learn the nature of freedom.”

He picked up a mango and placed it in the young man’s hand.

“Look at this fruit.
It grows because of soil, water, sunlight, wind.
But it clings to nothing.
It receives what comes, and lets go when conditions end.”

The young man looked at the mango resting quietly in his palm.

The teacher said:

“You suffer because you cling to others as if they are your lifeline.
But they are only one condition among many.”

Then he spoke with the clarity of Krishnamurti:

“Look closely: who is dependent?
Can you find that person?”

The young man closed his eyes.

He searched.
He searched in the fear of being abandoned.
He searched in the longing for affection.
He searched in the emptiness when no one was there.

But there was no “dependent person.”
Only fear.
Only longing.
Only sensation.

He opened his eyes.

“I… can’t find anyone.”

The teacher smiled.

“Exactly.
There is only clinging.
No one who clings.”

He stood and pointed to a kite flying over the fields.

“Look at that kite.
It flies because of the wind.
But it doesn’t own the wind.
When the wind comes, it rises.
When the wind leaves, it falls.
No suffering.
No clinging.”

The young man watched the kite drift gracefully.

The teacher said:

“Freedom is not needing no one.
Freedom is not being chained by the belief that someone must make you happy.”

Then he added:

“When you stop seeking completion from others,
you begin to see completeness in this very moment.”

The young man closed his eyes again.
He felt the fear of losing people —
but this time, he didn’t call it “me.”
He let it pass like a cloud.

When he opened his eyes, the fear was still there —
but lighter, like a breeze.

The teacher said:

“Today, when you feel dependent, don’t say ‘I need them.’
Just see: longing is passing through.”

The young man nodded.

Not because he had become free,
but because he finally understood:

Freedom doesn’t come from cutting people off.
Freedom comes from seeing that there is no “self” to be chained.