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Sinbad
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How To Catch a Monkey
#3821375 - 02/23/05 09:03 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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When our mindfulness has strengthened to the point where we are present in the moment with the arising and passing of each though and feeling, we Will begin to gain insight into, and direct understanding of, our own grasping mechanisms. This is when we begin to understand what is meant by freedom from thought. We want to be free. AT a certain level we know that we are in bondage. What we generally don't realize is that the bondage is of our own creation. There is a very good Indian story that illustrates this situation. Its about how to catch a monkey.
What you do if you want to catch a monkey is attach an empty calabash to the ground and cut a small hole in it, just bug enough for the monkey to get his hand through when his fingers are extended. inside you put some nuts. Monkey comes along, puts his hand through the calabash and grabs a handful of nuts, and guess what? He can't get his hand out. So he is caught, You just stroll up and monkey screams and struggles and jumps around but he never thinks of letting go of his nuts. So you've got him. You've got him by the nuts
And this is exactly us. We grasp, but we cant see where. The place we are grasping is the idea of 'me' - the egocentric fixation. We've got caught up in compulsive cycles of thinking and we have fixated on the idea of self. That is the fist closed around the nuts. As long as we are holding on to that self that we have made into something precious, our hand is trapped in the calabash. This is because we haven't realized the connection between the grasping and the bondage.
So we start to understand the meaning of letting go. Its not just this phrase saying 'let go'. Letting go is a very highly disciplined action. It is the action of training ourselves to see and know and be present with that moment of arising. Then to see the compulsive cycle of buying into it through the three modes of grasping desire by trying to grab, grasping rejection by trying to push away; and grasping negation by trying to block it out. All three of these constitute grasping because every time we engage in one of these we get caught in whatever thought or feeling is there, because its all reactive. Any reactive movement within the mind leads to bondage.
Let us all be mindful of our reactive tendencies, so we can free ourselves from frustration.
Thank you for reading
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CrazyBusiness
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: Sinbad]
#3821409 - 02/23/05 09:13 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Very insightful. I read somewhere, a while back, of a similar trap for raccoons, involving a hole drilled in a log with something shiny at the bottom, and four nails driven into the whole at an angle, for barbs.
-------------------- ...in my opinion Life's too short, man.. Life's too short. Dont hate me, and I wont put space between us. Dont lie to me, and I wont dislike you. Keep an open mind, and I'll love you. My advice of the week(do this, you'll like it): listen to Mahogany Rush. Representing Beatiful British Columbian classic dank. Just think, Columbia for coke, British Columbia for buds. truth
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redgreenvines
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be kind to your monkey
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CrazyBusiness
Stranger thanyou think
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Quote:
redgreenvines said: be kind to your monkey
well the monkey trap seems quite a bit more kind than the raccoon one of similar design, to be sure. Insane that an animal will hold onto a little peice of tin though it is the reason nails are being forced into its arm when it tries to escape. If only they/we could learn to let go, or even better step back and look before we grab hold.
-------------------- ...in my opinion Life's too short, man.. Life's too short. Dont hate me, and I wont put space between us. Dont lie to me, and I wont dislike you. Keep an open mind, and I'll love you. My advice of the week(do this, you'll like it): listen to Mahogany Rush. Representing Beatiful British Columbian classic dank. Just think, Columbia for coke, British Columbia for buds. truth
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
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letting go is excellent setting traps escallates
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gnrm23
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heh... on "that 70s show" the big dumb cutie dude was caught (in a cabin in the woods) with his hand stuck in a vase 'cause he wouldn't leggo of a bag o' weed in his fist inside the vase...
(& boy was red foreman (the "dad") ever PO'd)
-------------------- old enough to know better not old enough to care
Edited by gnrm23 (02/23/05 02:08 PM)
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TheShroomHermit
Divine Hermit of the Everything
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: Sinbad]
#3823421 - 02/23/05 04:57 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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I had a feeling this post would have this particular way to catch a monkey. I have seen footage of this being done, and it's amusing as hell.
A bushman will put food in an appropriately sized tree hole with a monkey watching. The bushman starts to leave, and keeps walking untill the monkey runs up to the tree and gets his hand stuck. The bushman runs back (monkeys aren't that dumb, they will soon figure out why they are stuck) and throws a rope on the monkey and ties him to the tree. The bushman waits for days untill the monkey is very thirsty. So much so, that when it's released it will run away and go straight to it's source of water. The trickery is necessary because the monkeys won't reveal the scarce watering holes if they are being watched.
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WildRunner
Obey little,Resist much
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I'm curious what kinda Indians dealt with monkeys, and felt it necessary to comprise a lecture out of em. Couldnt of been from N. America... Or maybe there were monkeys' once upon a time...
-------------------- If you dont know where you're going, any road will take you there.
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Sinbad
Living TheMoment
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: WildRunner]
#3823481 - 02/23/05 05:11 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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I think most of you are missing the point, and getting lost in the story. I thought that this may happen.
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: Sinbad]
#3823790 - 02/23/05 06:14 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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there is a point?
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TheShroomHermit
Divine Hermit of the Everything
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I'm with you. If I learned anything from this thread, it's this...
DON'T EVER START A SERIOUS TOPIC AND INVOLVE MONKEYS!
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PhanTomCat
Teh Cat....
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: Sinbad]
#3824957 - 02/23/05 10:07 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Sinbad said:Assumptions are similar to expectations. Due to our expectations we assume certain things. We assume meditation is going to produce certain effects. We assume we are capable or incapable or certain things. However, assumptions blind the mind. They make us incapable of seeing what is there, They are the basis from which we misinterpret experience and external data.
Your overall words and ideas seem very contradictory to the overall points you are trying to make.... (Generally speaking of course.... )
Since (in my mind, - you have not answered my questions yet) I prooved your "assumptions" thread wrong, does this mean I should assume or not assume that you are right in your ideas here too....? OR, would I be wrong in "assuming" that all of the "assumptions" in your ideas here seem to be based on your "assumptions" - to which you deemed to be "blinding" as it makes one "incapable of seeing what is there, and are the basis from which we misinterpret ...?"
Irony is so sweet when one sees it....
-------------------- I'll be your midnight French Fry.... "The most important things in life that are often ignored, are the things that one cannot see...." >^;;^<
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psikooz
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: PhanTomCat]
#3825151 - 02/23/05 10:34 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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In buddhism there are 4 nobel truths, i will focus on the first 3 to explain this story.
The noble truths:
1.In life there is suffering. 2.There is an end to suffering. 3.To end the suffering you remove the cause.
The monkey is suffering while it is stuck, to end its suffering it removes the cause and from there it can be free.
IF you feal like you are suffering, you must know that in life there is negativety, things arent allways going to go your way. But you must also learn that you can control your suffering at all times. You just look for the causes and analyze how they are effecting you, once you remove the causes of negativeity in yourlife you will begin to see new things opening up.
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PhanTomCat
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: psikooz]
#3825351 - 02/23/05 11:02 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Now THOSE are humbling words that I can understand and "FEEL"....
It is to be noted that one can CHOOSE to see or not see the negativity - UNLESS that negativity is forced upon you by another.... But then, there is understanding, and compassion to deal with that crap....
I now *feel* that this thread deserves the 5 mushroom rating that it has....
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Sinbad
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: psikooz]
#3826077 - 02/24/05 02:19 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Yes, thank you, that is the essence of my point. But we are looking to disolve our suffering, not control it.
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Edited by Sinbad (02/24/05 11:00 AM)
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Sinbad
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: PhanTomCat]
#3826386 - 02/24/05 07:14 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Please read my reply to your post in the 'Assumptions' thread, then tell me where the contradiction is, im really interested to know.
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JacquesCousteau
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: Sinbad]
#3826897 - 02/24/05 10:32 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Haha.. well, I thought the story was a very good attempt to use logical thought and metaphor to describe the act of letting go.
But my eyes are open to this particular concept, so my understanding of it doesn't really say whether or not it has the potential to open someone's eyes.
None the less, I absolutely LOVE trying to relate this concept to others by way of logical thought and metaphor. (because I was not able to understand until I finally found a source that gave me "my ideal learning style" (which happens to be logical thought and metaphor.))
So yeah, I really liked the story. Haha.
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trinity7
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: psikooz]
#3826909 - 02/24/05 10:35 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
psikooz said: You just look for the causes and analyze how they are effecting you, once you remove the causes of negativeity in yourlife you will begin to see new things opening up.
In my experience, analyzing doesn?t help much. It goes on and on and you?re caught up in the next trap. But just watching what?s going on somehow seems to shift everything.
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redgreenvines
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Re: How To Catch a Monkey [Re: trinity7]
#3826999 - 02/24/05 10:55 AM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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i like this thread too i think it is about letting go I think that is the most important thing to learn among all things
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Sinbad
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Yep!
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