The king of the monkeys was wandering through a forest one evening when he came to the edge of a cliff. Looking down far below he saw the bright moon reflected on the river waters. “That is a magnificent jewel,” he said to himself adding “and I must have it.”
He brought his desire to other monkeys, all of whom objected saying it would be nearly impossible to get down that far from the cliff and retrieve the jewel. The monkey king overruled them saying: “I have a plan. One monkey can hold onto a tree and all other monkeys will form a line with each one holding tightly to the tail of the monkey in front. Then we can lower our monkey chain down to the water and the last monkey will be able to reach the jewel retrieving it for me.” The group thought it could be done so 500 monkeys dangled down to the water but the weight was too much for the one holding the tree and all five hundred monkeys fell into the water and drowned.
That popular Eastern story is a lesson about the mind. Too often we have “monkey minds” which do not consider carefully enough the consequences of an action before it is taken. While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of those actions. That is the law of Karma which operates through the universe. People have experienced tremendous sadness because of careless thinking and acting saying “I didn't mean for it to turn out like this.”
The way to avoid such troubles and tragedies lies in mind management. It is important to think things through, consider all options, and take the most skillful action. Only then are the odds in our favor that the consequences will be positive rather than negative and disappointing.
He brought his desire to other monkeys, all of whom objected saying it would be nearly impossible to get down that far from the cliff and retrieve the jewel. The monkey king overruled them saying: “I have a plan. One monkey can hold onto a tree and all other monkeys will form a line with each one holding tightly to the tail of the monkey in front. Then we can lower our monkey chain down to the water and the last monkey will be able to reach the jewel retrieving it for me.” The group thought it could be done so 500 monkeys dangled down to the water but the weight was too much for the one holding the tree and all five hundred monkeys fell into the water and drowned.
That popular Eastern story is a lesson about the mind. Too often we have “monkey minds” which do not consider carefully enough the consequences of an action before it is taken. While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of those actions. That is the law of Karma which operates through the universe. People have experienced tremendous sadness because of careless thinking and acting saying “I didn't mean for it to turn out like this.”
The way to avoid such troubles and tragedies lies in mind management. It is important to think things through, consider all options, and take the most skillful action. Only then are the odds in our favor that the consequences will be positive rather than negative and disappointing.
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