The Master welcomes mosquitoes and allows them to feed.
Others think him mad.
Others itch and scratch,
While The Master remains serene.
Mosquitoes. Who could like them?
I have never met anyone who does.
I have come to see mosquitoes as things of fragile beauty.
Teachers who teach without teaching.
Like anyone, I used to jump up and down, swatting and cursing.
Then I would itch, and then I would scratch.
Now I share my blood with them: realizing I have plenty to share.
I wait for them to finish, since to interrupt might injure or kill.
And now I do not itch.
And now I do not scratch.
"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito."
ReplyDelete--His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Can your Master sleep with a mosquito? :):):)
PS: I KNOW you mean it metaphorically, keep smiling....
When I am the Master, yes, I can sleep with a mosquito.
ReplyDeleteWhen I am not, they irritate me.
That noise they make is just so anxiety-making.
But mostly, I let them bite, knowing that will satisfy them for a long time.
Massed hordes of them are something completely different :)
My experience is that people living in the country can live with mosquito bites during the day (but not when they try to sleep). City folks like me can't stand even one single bite (besides we are afraid of getting Dengue fever).
ReplyDeleteLesson learned: City folks should choose other method to train their spirituality.
City folks are really up against it.
ReplyDeleteThey have nothing going for them, to assist in a spiritual unfolding.
I can not live in cities, any more.
Fear of Dengue Fever is a valid point.
But it is not the fever that is the danger, but more the fear of it.
Mosquitoes, and wasps, and many other things, unbalance people. And tao is about balance.
Learn to balance.
Learn to stay balanced.
Learn that there is nothing else to learn.
You're right, "more the fear of it". City folks are too protected and too compartmentalized, and they love "spectator sports"! Country folks are more holistic. Farmers are warm.
ReplyDelete...and they are tough negotiators too. But I love to negotiate with them to buy their ripest bunch of whatever fruits they have - irrespective of their negotiation skills. Since they are also the shrewdest businesspersons, they gonna sell them real cheap to me because they know that those fruits shall worth nothing tomorrow, and it gonna worth a lot to my stomach today - so a deal is gonna to be made - as Adam Smith would have said: assuming people to be rational.
...because both me and the farmer knows: the balance point is what I'm willing to pay and what he is willing to sell.
Lesson learn: Mr. Adam Smith knew something about Tao too!
Most people know something about Tao.
ReplyDeleteBut what they know about other things unbalances their knowledge.
What they don't know is that everything they know is about the same thing.
Tao.
Not knowing this, people pit knowledge against knowledge, ending up with nothing that works.
Lao Tzu said it well:
Confusion is created in those who think they know.
Thinking one knows, is not the same as knowing.
Tao has many faces...like going to a restaurant, nowadays most people will say they will order (and consume) a balanced diet; in actual fact they order quite differently, and for some, their nutritionists will disagree with what they consider balanced, yet their adamantly say that they do order a balanced diet....
ReplyDelete...Once in a meeting (personal experience), there was a heated discussion, suddenly a colleague said with wisdom: We should have a balanced view....5 seconds silence...and the arguments continues....
Nice talking to you!
PS: Balance is such a nice word, everybody knows, and most (if not all) think they are... (unfortunately we can't ask Lao Tzu, or even if we could, he would probably recite his Dao De Jing to us again...:):)
Balance is achieved when one is satisfied that one is balanced.
ReplyDeleteOthers may disagree.
Balance allows one to suffer that disagreement, without unnecessary conflict.
...think about it. When a mature tiger strikes down and kills an old deer (O dear, the killer always chooses an easy target), it is balanced for the eco-system, and it is balanced and nice for the tiger, but pain and fear will consume the old deer during its last moments (don't believe me, read "The selfish gene").
ReplyDeleteNice talking to you.
We were discussing people, weren't we?
ReplyDeleteAnd who can say what an old deer might feel in its final moments?
I am under the impression that death will be the pinnacle of living.
Fear may play a minor part, as will pain, but that too, is part of life.
...I thought I was talking to THE crow...anyway, I got confused myself. Really need a break now. NO offense.
ReplyDelete