neon valley: January 2008

Thursday, January 24, 2008

每当犹豫不决﹐ 回到我从来之处﹔
所到之處成了回家之路。
-禪門诗人石霜

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Circular nature of life. Result aren’t final. A ability to look beyond one’s fortune, good or bad.

A Blessing in Disguise (Chinese Folk Story)
赛翁失马焉知非福

A long, long time ago, there was a kind old man who lived on the plains outside the Great Wall of China. The gentle old man had only two passions in his life: collecting rare breeds of horses, and his son, whom he loved more than anything else.The old man and his son would ride their horses every day. They would travel great distances to trade horses, meet new people, and enjoy the good fortune that life had bestowed upon them.One morning, a servant left the stable door open and one of the old man’s favorite stallions escaped. When the neighbors heard the news of the stallion’s escape, they came to comfort the old man. They told him they were sorry he had had such bad luck.But strangely enough, the gentle old man was not upset. He explained to his neighbors that losing the horse wasn’t necessarily bad luck. There was no way to predict that the horse would escape, it just happened, and now there was nothing that could be done about it. “There is no reason to be upset,” said the old man. The neighbors soon realized that there was nothing they could do to help get the horse back, and that they shouldn’t feel sad for the old man’s misfortune.One week later, the stallion came back, and he brought with him a mare. This was not just any mare, but a rare and valuable white mare. When the neighbors heard of the old man’s good luck, they quickly came to congratulate him. But again, the old man was not excited. As he had explained before, it was not necessarily good luck that had brought him this new and beautiful white horse. It just happened, and there was no reason to get excited over it. Still a bit puzzled, the neighbors left as quickly as they had come.A short time later, while his son was riding the white horse, she slipped and fell. She landed on the son’s leg, and broke his leg, so that he would always walk with a limp. Again, the neighbors came to the old man’s house to give their sympathy for the bad luck that had befallen his son. One of the neighbors suggested that the old man sell the mare before anymore bad luck could happen, and others said that he should take his revenge and kill the mare. However, the old man did neither. He explained to the neighbors that they should not feel sorrow for his son, nor anger towards the mare. It was purely an accident that could not be predicted, and there was nothing he or they could do to change it. At this point, the neighbors thought the old man was crazy and decided to leave him alone.Two years later an enemy invaded the country, and all of the old man’s neighbors were drafted to defend the country against the attack. Because the old man’s son was lame, he did not have to join in the fighting. The war was very bad, and most of the old man’s neighbors were killed, but his son was spared because he had been hurt by the white horse two years earlier.

Monday, January 21, 2008

The Lion's Roar

A lioness was jumping from one hillock to another. While doing so, she gave birth to a cub. The cub fell into a flock of sheep that was passing by. He got mixed up with the sheep and started to live and behave like them. He had no idea that he was a lion. He had never roared like a lion; sheep don’t roar. He had never been alone. They are always in crowd, which is cozy, safe. They are afraid of being alone.

Then, the cub started growing up. It was a strange phenomenon. Mentally, he identified with the sheep but biologically not. Nature takes it own course! He became a beautiful young lion, but because thing happened so slowly the sheep also got accustomed to the lion as he got used to them. The sheep thought he was little crazy – did not behave, kept on growing, pretending to be a lion! HE couldn’t be a lion. They had seen from birth, they has d brought him up, given him their milk. And though he was no-vegetarian by nature, this lion had lived like a vegetarian because sheep are vegetarian. He ate grass with great joy. So they accepted the fact that he was bigger and looked like a lion. A very wise sheep said, “It is just a freak of nature. It happens once in a while.”

The lion himself also accepted this. The very idea that he was a lion was improbable! He was surrounded by all those sheep, and sheep psychoanalysts: “You are just a freak of nature. Don’t worry. We are here to take care of you.

One day, an old lion passed by and saw this young lion among the sheep. He couldn’t believe his eyes! He had never seen or heard of such thing, that a lion was in the middle of a flock of sheep and no sheep was remotely afraid. And the lion was walking exactly like the sheep, grazing on grass. The old lion forgot he was going to catch a sheep for breakfast. He felt so strange that he tried to catch the young lion. But he was old and slow; the young lion escaped. Though he believed he was sheep, the presence of danger eliminated all such identification. He ran like a lion, and the old lion had great difficulty in catching up. But finally the old lion got hold of him and our young sheep-lion wept and said “Forgive me, I’m poor sheep!”

The old lion said, “You idiot! Come with me to the pond.” “Look at my face and look at yours. Look at my body and look at yours.” In a second, there came a great roar! All the hills echoed it. The ship disappeared; he was a totally different being---he recognized himself. His identification with the sheep was not a reality, just a mental concept. Now he saw the reality. The old lion said, “Now I need not say anything. You have understood.”

The young lion felt a strange energy, which was dormant till then. He could feel tremendous power, though all this while he had been a weak, humble sheep. All the humility, all the weakness, all of it simply evaporated.

Joshu: The Lion's Roar - Osho