Stories that change... minds
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The eternal return
My Karate Sensei told us this story. "Long time ago when we studied Karate in the Japanese village, we tied our gi ( practice uniform ) with a rope and that rope was your white belt. Most of the time we practiced in the fields or in our yards, so the white belt would eventually became brown and after even more years of practice it would become black. That's how you get your 'black belt' " "Then," he would say, pausing to let this powerful teaching sink in, "as you continue your practice even longer your black belt starts to fall apart and the threads come out white." "Remember" he said, " the true goal of all Karate is to become a white belt again." Barefoot and happy Starring down at his feet, a client once said, "I feel really uncomfortable doing new things." So I also starred down at his feet and asked, "How uncomfortable is that?" "These shoes?" he asked surprised, " Oh, they're not even mine" "Their not?" I asked. He shook his head, "No, they're a gift, actually they're all gifts, you know, like birthdays and Christmas. You know, now that I honestly think about it, I don't think I've ever got anything I really liked on my own" For a while we both stayed silent as this old life script was being recognized and processed by his deeper mind. Then he burst out laughing. Moments later he took off his shoes, said 'Thank you!' and walked out of the session in his socks, smiling, excited and happy. The following session he told me how that very day he went home, collected a bunch of his other ill fitting "gifts" and dropped them off at some far off thrift store. For the next year he just kept getting rid of more and more stuff he never liked or that didn't really fit him all that well anyway: goofy sweaters, bad habits, pointless conversations, negative people and so on. I think it's funny how the 'gifts' others give us are some times just ill fitting shoes and useless chachkies and sometimes they're nothing but life changing metaphors. Just down the street A friend of mine moved from the U.S. to Hong Kong to study Tai Chi with a revered Grand Master. When he arrived the Grand Master said that it would take my friend years of diligent practice before seeing significant results from his Tai Chi practice. So my friend asked the Grand Master if there was some good self defense system he could learn while developing his Tai Chi. The Grand Master sent him to an American boxing gym just down the street. Don't do this in church! In a remote village a new Buddhist temple was set to open and the young novice monks eagerly awaited the Old Venerable Master to arrive from afar and dedicate the new temple with all the appropriate rituals, prayers and ceremonies. When the Old Venerable Master was seen coming up the hill, the novice monks all ran inside, lined up in a row and bowed in reverent greeting as the Master entered the temple. Upon entering and without hesitation the Old Monk made his way to the temple's beautiful centerpiece - a gilded statue of the Buddha - where upon he lifted his robe and with a great sigh of relief began to piss all over the statue. Shocked, shaken and glaring daggers, the novice monks were besides themselves with confusion and rage. With great compassion and loving kindness for their plight the Old Venerable Master asked them, "Tell me brothers, where can I possibly piss where the Buddha is not?" |
