Post by donq on Dec 1, 2023 2:36:00 GMT
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (habit)
Today I (re) read some insight stories and would like to share them here:
"A man in search of wisdom studied a wide variety of disciplines, including yoga, metaphysics, and various social and natural sciences. When he studied psychology, he was intrigued by the ability of rats to learn to negotiate mazes, the speed with which rats learn from trial and error, their ability to utilize that learning in new situations, and the rate at which labyrinth-running behavior can be extinguished. Ultimately, the man abandoned his study of psychology. He concluded that rats are smarter than people. Rats eventually lose interest in running mazes when they finally realize that cheese can no longer be found at the end of the maze. But human beings continually return to the spot where the cheese had been, thinking that since cheese had once been there, it would be there again. Or they think that since their parents said that they had once had cheese, it would be there for them, too. Or they learn in school that it would be there, so they loiter in the complex network of tunnels and blind alleys until it finally appears. Rats go for the cheese only when it is there, but human beings relive and find sustenance in their stories of cheese and often become locked into patterns of search that might last for generations."
(from Hudson & O’Hanlon, 1991)
"There was a Zen Parable about a man running away from tigers. He ran and ran and the tigers were getting closer and closer. When he came to the edge of a cliff, he saw some vines there, so he climbed down and held on to the vines. Looking down, he sees that there were tigers below him as well. He then noticed that a mouse was gnawing away at the vine to which he was clinging. He also saw a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to him, growing out of a clump of grass. He looked up and he looked down. He looked at the mouse. Then he just took a strawberry, puts it in his mouth, and enjoyed it thoroughly."
In hindsight, I wonder why we have to be like that. Though we know something are bad, why we cannot stay away from them. Nor even try?
Today I (re) read some insight stories and would like to share them here:
Being Stuck
(from Hudson & O’Hanlon, 1991)
"There was a Zen Parable about a man running away from tigers. He ran and ran and the tigers were getting closer and closer. When he came to the edge of a cliff, he saw some vines there, so he climbed down and held on to the vines. Looking down, he sees that there were tigers below him as well. He then noticed that a mouse was gnawing away at the vine to which he was clinging. He also saw a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to him, growing out of a clump of grass. He looked up and he looked down. He looked at the mouse. Then he just took a strawberry, puts it in his mouth, and enjoyed it thoroughly."
In hindsight, I wonder why we have to be like that. Though we know something are bad, why we cannot stay away from them. Nor even try?
