How I Stopped Serving Tea to My Monkey
First thing to know is this: My monkey loves tea. It'll stay as long as I keep pouring.
One day I realized that I was spending a great deal too much time serving tea to that monkey.
So, I stopped.
Where that monkey has gone to I don't know.
(Parable for how we relate to the passing thoughts.)
1 comment:
I was very scrupulous in my youth. Every thought had to be filed, understood. And, as a Catholic boy trying to be good ... those "bad" thoughts.
Once, in high school, I went to confession during one of the daily masses and confessed to some million plus impure thoughts. I would stay awake at night diligently counting those thoughts. It was even a source of self created consternation that I might lose count.
The priest at my confession asked me to see him in his office. He reassured me that thoughts of all kinds were perfectly normal. And, not to be so concerned. It was quite a load off, believe it.
That scrupulous pattern persisted. Maybe not so neurotic about bad thoughts, but getting balled up with troubling thoughts.
I've made some progress. Not much interested in my thoughts at all.
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