Once upon a time there was a monkey who was very fond of cherries. One day he saw a delicious looking cherry and came down from his tree to get it, but the fruit turned out to be in a clear glass bottle, so he had to put his hand into the bottle to get it out. As soon as he had done so he closed his hand over the cherry but then he found that he could not withdraw his fist holding the cherry because it was larger than the internal dimensions of the bottle’s neck. Now all this was deliberate because the cherry in the bottle was a trap laid by a monkey hunter who knew how monkeys think. The hunter, hearing the monkey’s whimperings, came along and the monkey tried to run away, but because his hand was, as he thought, stuck in the bottle. he could not move fast enough to escape. But as he thought he still had hold of the cherry he consoled himself. The hunter picked him up and tapped the monkey sharply on the elbow making him suddenly relax his hold on the fruit. The monkey was now free – but he was captured. The hunter had used the cherry and the bottle and he still had them. This monkey-way of thinking is the mind-way also! And in the end when death, the hunter, comes everyone is found caught in his own bottle. Remember, before the hunter comes make sure your hand is out of the bottle! Do not cling to anything, to any idea, because clinging is the bondage. Even if one is clinging to the idea of liberation – moksha or nirvana, one will be in bondage. With clinging meditation is impossible because clinging is mind – the bondage, and no-clinging is meditation – the freedom. The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new. ― Pema Chodron Been Contented goes beyond our material wants; contentment sets us free from the illusion of having more or “Better things”, or expecting “better times” it sets us free from the illusion that somehow things should be different.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 14:29:17 +0000