So hello. Continuing with this theme of stories that we live by today's focuses stories that open. So using this acronym for story, we have the source story, trapping stories. And then today's opening stories. And I've seen over these years that I've been Buddhist practitioner here, especially here in the West, all kinds of attitudes towards stories and thinking and words that are dismissive of them, that treat them as traps that treat them as problems that we mindfulness practice is about breaking out of stories completely, and they all story somehow, our, our obscure reality, or it's not quite real, quite right. And, or even the even having any words for things words are somehow a barrier towards wordless can direct, non dualistic contact with reality, some like that. And certainly, it's true that stories and words and all that can interfere with our life, that's why the talk yesterday about trapping stories, there can be trapping words that keep us restricted, narrow, tight, constricted. But there are also words and stories that are opening that opens us to possibilities that kind of free us from the traps of stories. And for me, kind of the enigmatic or the kind of hidden pandemic. Example of this that I love when I saw it, the first read it was in the autobiography, Autobiography of Helen Keller, who was, was blind, couldn't hear, couldn't speak. And she was raised without any words at all. And we're kind of a wild animal, almost apparently, something like that. And some of you know the story better than I do. But she had a teacher, who at some point, put her hand underneath the faucet of water, one hand. And the other hand, she spelled with her, the teacher spelled with two fingers to teach teachers fingers, the letter letters for water. And Helen and our biography writes that the light went on for her. She the world opened up for her, that now she's understood, there were words that refer to the objects in the world. And, and now she could have, she could communicate, you can understand she could organize the world that her whole world made sense start to make sense. So this idea that words interfere, stories interfere is not not always the case. There are some stores which are opening. And they open us and they open us from the traps. They're the what the stories that free us from the trap, the traps of stories that we live in. And so I'd like to tell you, maybe a little bit read tell you a story from my book, a monastery within that in the monastery, after new monastics had been there for close to a year, they were starting to get restless and started to wonder why they were there and had settled in enough to start seeing their monastery has problems even and a lot of the interpersonal issues and monasteries are often places people go who have the greatest need of spiritual practice. But because of that great need, they often will have challenges that that brought them there and they bring the challenges with them. And, and so monastic life can be difficult with all the challenges challenging, fellow monastics there there. So, so there was a custom for the abbess of the monastery to take after about a year to take the new monastics on a pilgrimage to the holy sites of Buddhism. And when they heard this, the new monastics were quite excited, they read about the holy sites in India where the Buddha was born. The Buddha first taught where the Buddha was enlightened where the Buddha died. And
and they so they packed their bags and ready to go and went on a bus. And the first thing the abbot did was take them to a old age home. And, and there they saw people who were quite old Old and amazingly old and frail and wheelchairs, and blind and toothless. And some of them, you know, were quite frail. And they'd never seen such a collection of older really older people and it was kind of surprised to see it. They went back on the bus and the abbess took them to the local hospital where they saw people it'll all kinds of stages of illness that you know, dramatic illness and Alzheimer's and major injuries that people had and living with there was going to be live with them, that's their life and and monastics, were kind of stunned to see the collection of illness and injuries and physical challenges that people can live under. And then the abbess took them to the, to a mortuary. And to see hospice patients, seeing people who are dying last days of their death, seeing people who had died seeing people laid out on the mortuary slabs to be prepared for whatever's next. And they've never seen such a all in one place, so much debt that so much dying. And it was a little bit stunning. Then they went back to the monastery, and they went to their Infirmary in the monastery, and there was an old old monk, a monk who was maybe, you know, 99 years old and had long monastic life. And, and he was also dying. But they went to see him in his room and there was a peace in the room. There was a serenity. And when they went to sit with him, he didn't really talk. But he was certainly very cognizant, aware that they're there. And he had this delightful sparkle and warmth, in which he received the visiting New monks. They'd never seen someone at the brink of death, who had such warmth and peace and love. Then the abbess took them back to the, the meditation hall to give them some teaching. And she said, you have now seen the holy sites of Buddhism. Now it's for you to practice. And the holy sites were sick, old age sickness, death. And then the monastic who read who was discovered peace. And so the story is a story of reframing. of opening up now the monastics had a whole different attitude to their life in the monastery that they didn't have before. Maria Rilke, Rene wielka, writes that everything terrifying, in its deepest being is something helpless, that wants our love. So that's not a story. But it's a reframing statement, that everything terrifying needs are love. That's a terrifying idea, because they're frightening things. And now we're supposed to love them. But this idea that we reframed, we have stories that reframe and open up our world. And if you have enough of this, you begin to appreciate that maybe the trapping stories are shouldn't have the last word, maybe they're not absolute, or, you know, ultimately true. And this is how it is. Maybe there's other perspectives to bring. And good stories, bring that bring our opening are, are offering a new possibility, a new perspective, that's freeing rather than limiting. And so, I'd like to end with a story, which I'm also fond of, that. I've told told many times, many times I've told it in children's programs. And so I'm sure some of you have heard it. Many of you have heard it, but maybe as you hear it, you can not dismiss it because you've heard it before, but rather apply it because you know it how is this relevant for you in your life? How's this a story, which is opening
is a story from China of the old farmer who was getting old and weak and he had a young son who helped him on his farm And, but they also had an old horse that were plowing your fields and taking care of things. And at some point, the horse died. And how Aranda ran off into the mountains or something. And fellow visit, villagers said, Oh, disaster has struck poor you in this, how are you going to manage this terrible what's going to happen to you now without your and and so the old farmer says we shall see. And so the young son goes up into the mountains to look for the, I guess, the horse that ran away the old horse or something, he comes back with a found in wild horse and brought it back and new young horse and the villagers say, Oh, now everything will be okay for you. And the farmer says we shall see. And then as the son was training the horse, he fell off the horse and broke his leg. And they said, Oh, this is terrible for you, your son does all the work can't work now. And this is a disaster. And the farmer said, Oh, we shall see. Then the king of the country decided to go to war with a neighboring country. So he recruited all the able bodied young men. But of course, the young man had broken his leg. So he couldn't be drafted. And so then the villagers came to the Fed. Oh, you're so lucky that your, your son wasn't drafted. He's here. And he'll he'll, he'll he'll well enough. This is great. And of course, the farmer says we shall see. And, and there's no end to the story. Some stories, you know, good stories supposed to have an ending. But the story just goes on and on and on. We shall see. Maybe so maybe not. We'll we'll see. So this is as an opening story. What are your opening stories? What are what ways can you reframe that the the trapping stories that you live by? What are the stories that you live by that do not serve you? And is there in fact, a better story to tell not to make something up, but the trapping stories already made up? They're just perspectives. And stories that tell us possibilities, stories that tell of love, to love everything, to care for everything is neither a true thing or a false things. It's a possibility thing. And sort of stories that let us live into the possibilities that are inspiring, meaningful, and help this world stories that teach us to love everything. So thank you. And we'll continue tomorrow. And with a little different twist on this opening stories. They're stories that release us and maybe they release us from stories. So thank you
