There is a a Zen Buddhist fable I have heard a few times that goes along the line of this. A very dedicated monk was walking in the dark of the evening, and stepped on something squishy and he slipped. In the dark he could barely make out what it was he had stepped on. Convinced he had stepped on a frog, and thus killed a life, he went to bed feeling horrific. He barely slept, worrying all night and woke early in the morning and went hurriedly into the garden to discover he had in fact stepped on a small over ripe eggplant, dropped by a cook on the path.
I frequently call to mind this Zen story of the frog and the eggplant. I use it and ask myself when my mind runs away in a panic at situations I can’t really see properly yet, am I dealing with a frog, or an eggplant here? Can I even tell in this light? Do I have all the information yet? I hope you can bring this to mind when you next might simply have a squashed little vegetable all along…
With love,
Jac
Photograph I took in Kagoshima, Japan a few years back in the Samurai village