Good morning fellow meditators,
How many of you tried labelling your thoughts during your meditation yesterday? If you did. I hope you found it helpful. Do try it a few times at least, but if you find it a hindrance, just go back to watching your breath only.
One thing that meditation helps us with is reducing our attachment to things, including our thoughts.
And with that in mind, I'd like to share something with you which has its own little story.
Back in 1998, I found an online post entitled 'The Coyote, a Metaphor for the Truth of the Cause of Suffering. It really inspired me and I printed it and have kept it all these years, now crumpled and yellowed, in my meditation folder. (Though of course I've made other copies now too). The piece gave the author's name and it seemed that he was a philosophy student.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago, and I really felt driven to try to track this person down, when his essay had been so useful to me for so many years.
And I found him, online! He is now a Professor of Theology at a university in the United States. He was astounded but very pleased that this had helped me so much. He'd all but forgotten about it.
So I'm reproducing a part of it below as an illustration of what happens when we get attached and obsessed by something:
"THE COYOTE"
"Yesterday I watched a Roadrunner cartoon on TV and its Buddhist theme became very apparent.
The Coyote tried and tries, several times every episode, to catch the roadrunner (to eat him I guess). He fails every time, being exploded, crushed, falling off cliffs and all sorts of horrible things. Each time he fails, his desire to try new Acme contraptions to catch the roadrunner are fuelled even more. But he ALWAYS fails. He never catches the elusive roadrunner. He never sees that if he'd just stop trying to catch him, he could be happier and end his suffering. He just doesn't get it.
Most people are trying to catch roadrunners all the time, and just like the Coyote, they just don't get it. They blame the roadrunner for making them unhappy, when in fact it's their own fault." -Ethan A Mills-
It hits the nail on the head. It's not just for Buddhists: it's a truth of the universe. The more we chase after something we can't catch, the more we make ourselves frustrated, angry and unhappy. So just like the monks from the story the other day, work at setting things down on the other side of the river. Let your unwanted thoughts GO.
I hope that will help a little bit with your practice.
Please all stay safe and well, and strive to be happy.
Happy meditation everyone.
A quotation for Monday 30th March 2020