A Buddhist Parable That Will Make You Stop Thinking So Much

I Live After All

I am an artist

In the way I live my life

I am a writer

In the way I live my life

Most of all

I am a human

Every part of me

My hands and feet

Head and heart

Each bump of my curves

Are shaped by memories

Like soldiers

Who live

To see another

Precious day

I know this is all I have

And with all I have

I make magic

I create something

Out of nothing

In the way I live my life

And because

I am alive

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In The Studio

So this week whilst I was tidying my mum’s house, I found a book I had borrowed to my sister. It’s a short book titled:

“Lord Buddha’s 67 quotes and short stories” by Richard

I myself borrowed it from a monastery library, a place where I used to go for weekend meditation retreats. I flicked through it as I was tidying absent mindedly and I landed on a page that spoke so clearly about a recent insight I had about myself.

I’m going to share this whole story with you, by Richard.

It’s a page long story called:

Digital art piece I made a few years ago ~ I imagined that when the Buddha was giving a sermon, the animals would all gather to listen

Buddhist Parable - Poison Arrow

Since the existence or nature of God is unknowable, some feel that can pointless or distracting to attempt to form images or theories. A Buddhist parable makes a similar point.

The Buddha always told his disciples not to waste time their time and energy on metaphysical speculation. Whenever he was asked about a metaphysical question, he remained silent.

Instead, he directed his disciples towards practical efforts.

Questioned one day about the problem of the infinity of the world, the Buddha said, “Whether the world is finite or infinite, limited or unlimited, the problem of your liberation becomes the same.”

Another time, he said,

“Suppose a man is struck by a poison arrow and the doctor wishes to take out the arrow immediately. Suppose the man does not want the arrow to be removed until he knows who shot it, his age, his parents, and why he shot it.

What would happen? If he were to wait until all these questions have been answered, the man might die first.”

Life is so short. It must not be spent in endless metaphysical speculation that does not bring us any closer to the truth.

Honestly, I feel like this very short but so sharp of a story summons everything I have been experiencing lately.

I wanted to share it with you in case you are also feeling the same way, or in case the burdens and questions of the world (or yourself) have made you feel confused or frozen in some way.

This period of my life is a time of trial and error, of building and learning, of communicating, of testing, both of myself and of the things I’m doing.

And over a certain period of doing it, the action has become my ultimate form of experience.

Sometimes it came out of choice. But mostly, it didn’t.

In a lot of ways, it feels like the train had already left the platform without me realising and I find myself in the conductor seat, choo chooing my way through new landscapes and making stops along the way with no recollection of how it ever started.

I could try to connect the dots but as the Buddha tells us, what use would that bring? Maybe some understanding, yes. Maybe some form of excitement and revelation, yes. But is that the truth?

No, I believe it would only be my perspective. My weaving of my own story.

Details from the Buddha mural in my praying room that is also available as a fine art print on my website

And somehow, since the train is already going, I find myself wanting to stay. And to stay with enjoyment. To find mental clarity and peace within the chaos. To fully live in whatever the moment brings.

I don’t find myself judging so much on what I am doing.

Yes I have a day job as a Landscape Architect. I go to work every weekday and I work as a team. Yes I am becoming a content creator on a weekly basis as I share myself and my life on Youtube, and through this newsletter. Yes I paint and write poetry at the same time as creating a business from it. Yes I love to travel and make time for my family and my partner.

And yes! I still want to become very proficient in weight training. And yes! I make praying a priority because I want to carry on the lineage of my family. Yes Yes Yes.

But I know I am not the only one. I know you, with all your humanly makeup and history and current circumstances and changing tides bring about the many yeses you are also conducting on your train.

Lotus details from the Buddha mural in my praying room that is also available as a fine art print on my website

Remember, it is not the what. It is the how.

And why did it take me so long to realise the how is so simple? I don’t know!

We just simply have to keep living. Doing what we do, when we do, in the best way we know how to do right now.

The rest, is simply, as the Buddha calls it, “metaphysical speculation.”

My partner Brett said to me this week, “Have no regrets! Go all out!”

Yes. Go all out! Have no regrets!

With each step we take is perhaps closer to this “truth” we have been chasing all along.

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