THAT'S MEN:Recession is not the only thing in the world
THERE’S AN old Buddhist story which has something to say about our present perilous situation. Actually, it doesn’t have an awful lot of comfort to offer but it’s worth reading and taking to heart anyway.
A man is out for an afternoon stroll when a tiger appears, intent on eating him. The man takes to his heels pursued by the tiger. He is near a cliff and as the tiger gains on him he lowers himself over the edge and clings on with his hands. When he looks up he sees the tiger, claws raised, ready to rip his hands off.
The man lets go and clutches onto a vine which happens to be hanging conveniently beside him. To his relief, the vine supports his weight and he begins to consider whether he should wait for the tiger to go away and then climb back up or whether he should make his way down to the bottom of the cliff.
As he ponders this, a mouse appears, trots over to the vine and begins to nibble on it. The man realises that before very long the mouse will have nibbled all the way through the vine and he will plunge to the ground.
He wonders if the ground is far below and if he might survive the fall. He looks down. Alas, another tiger just as unpleasant and hungry as the first one is waiting for him below. The man appears to be entirely out of options.
Then he notices something – a strawberry bush growing out of the side of the cliff. The bush has produced a single, ripe strawberry. The man reaches over, picks the strawberry and puts it into his mouth. It is the most delicious strawberry he has ever tasted.
That’s the end of the story.
I’m sorry if you hoped he was going to find a way to escape, but Buddhist stories don’t tend to end like that. He’s going to fall when the mouse finishes chewing through the vine and when he falls he is going to be eaten by the tiger.
But first, he will have had the experience of tasting that delicious strawberry.
What I take from this is that our current situation may turn out badly for you, me or any of us, but that’s not the only thing in our world.
There are also simple pleasures in life and, if we want to make the best of things, then we’d better reach out and experience them as we plummet to the ground. If we’re going to fall into the jaws of that tiger no matter what, we may as well enjoy ourselves on the way down.
In a previous column, I mentioned my grandfather who lost all his money decades ago through a combination of an economic downturn and an investment too far.
When the money went, he used to cycle to Dublin on business, a journey of 20 miles, to save on the train fare. He also used to spend a good deal of time writing poetry.
Because he wrote in a very strict, old-fashioned even for the time, rhyme and metre, it must have taken him many, many hours to write each poem. But he did it, he said, because it kept him sane.
I am not suggesting that we address our national problems by becoming a nation of poets. All I’m suggesting is that we can go around tormenting ourselves about how things are or we can find things to do that will bring some pleasure into our lives alongside whatever stresses we may inevitably face.
Writing poetry didn’t get my grandfather his money back, but it was a refuge in the midst of stress and strain. So remember that just because the days are dark and tigers of all descriptions are waiting to eat us, that’s not the only part of our reality.
Our world also contains simple, affordable pleasures which, if we give them a chance, just might put a much-needed spring in our step.
Padraig O’Morain (pomorain@ireland.com) is a counsellor accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His book, Light Mind – Mindfulness for Daily Living, is published by Veritas. His monthly mindfulness newsletter is free by e-mail.