So hi there,
And welcome to the session.
Today I'd like to tell you a sort of Zen story called The Chinese Farmer.
It's not really a Zen koan,
More of a story whose message has a basis in Zen Buddhism and similar philosophies.
I first heard this story from a philosopher or writer called Alan Watts,
Who you might have heard of,
And I and others I've told it to have found it sometimes useful in various different situations in life.
That's why I thought I'd share it today,
In case it's useful to anyone else as well.
So in this session I'd like to tell you the story of the Chinese farmer and then afterwards I'll tell you two things I personally take from it as a starting point for your own understanding.
So let's hear the story.
It goes like this.
There was a Chinese farmer and one of his main focuses as a farmer was horses.
One day all of his horses ran away into the forest.
The villagers came to him and said,
Oh no,
That's terrible.
The farmer said,
Maybe.
The next day the horses returned again,
But they brought with them an entire flock of wild horses.
The villagers came to him and they said,
Wow,
Isn't that amazing?
The farmer said,
Maybe.
Now the farmer's son was trying to learn to ride one of the horses one day,
But the horse bucked and threw him off.
The son broke his arm.
The villagers came to the farmer then and said,
Oh no,
That's too bad.
The farmer simply said,
Maybe.
The next day conscription officers from the army came to the village to recruit people.
They came to the farmer's house for his son,
But they rejected him on the account of his broken arm.
The villagers came and they said,
Wow,
That's great,
Isn't it?
The farmer simply said,
Maybe.
So that's the story.
It's pretty straightforward.
Now I'll go through two interpretations or messages that I personally take from this in the hope that they'll either be useful to you in themselves or that they'll help you to understand or think further about the story to come to your own unique meaning.
The first message I drew is a little more abstract than the story itself,
As you might expect from Zen and similar philosophies.
My first interpretation is this.
Throughout the story,
Events happen that the villagers who attach themselves to specific outcomes see as good or bad specifically.
This is pretty obvious,
But worth clarifying.
This attachment means that for the entire story,
They're on a sort of roller coaster from good to bad and back to good and so on.
Clearly,
This seems like a pretty turbulent path to take in life.
The farmer,
On the other hand,
Doesn't attach himself to any specific outcomes.
He simply observes and accepts what is,
Just like we do practicing mindfulness.
This means that the farmer finds balance from a place of detachment from specific outcomes.
Now,
While we might take this at face value,
I.
E.
Not attaching yourself to winning a certain prize,
Being offered a specific job or anything like that,
I find that we can also take a more abstract message from the story.
We see that the farmer can find some balance through not attaching himself to the world around him,
But we might not at first consider that the mind itself can be seen as a part of the world around us.
From a Daoist perspective,
For example,
We might say that the story is encouraging us to detach from everything and go with the flow of the universe,
The flow of everything,
Becoming one with it in the process.
In this light,
It would make sense to consider the minor part of this acceptance,
As it is a part of the flow of the universe,
Or the Dao.
If there is anger,
We accept anger.
If there is joy,
We accept joy.
But it can go even deeper than that.
If there is anger,
But there is also a resistance to accepting anger,
Then we accept both.
How?
Simply with awareness.
I like to say that awareness is our natural acceptance,
Deeper than what we mean when we talk about acceptance in an everyday setting,
That is.
Acceptance does not have to be linked to joy or satisfaction.
It can simply be acknowledging something's existence.
So to be aware of something is,
In this sense,
To accept it.
As I say,
It's a little deeper than our everyday meaning of acceptance.
In any case,
I hope you get what I'm trying to say here,
That it might be the abstract symbolism of detachment from the entire universe,
Including the mind,
Rather than specifically detachment from certain distinct events in the immediate world around us.
The second interpretation that I take from this story is much,
Much more literal,
And it's a lot easier to explain.
Rather than a guide or principle to be practiced,
It's simply a message to bear in mind,
And remember should it prove useful.
As I feel,
And I've seen and experienced,
It can be.
A light to cast away shadows,
Perhaps.
This second message goes like this,
That a good thing might well be followed by a bad one,
But also that a bad thing will usually be followed by a good one.
This is perhaps frustratingly different to the first,
And no doubt intended,
Message of the story,
But I remind you that straining towards something hopeful like this is a part of our nature,
And so is equally part of the universal world around us which we must accept,
Just like the resistance to accepting anger.
This second message can be very useful during a tough time.
I've used it a lot,
And so have people I've told about it.
It helps to remind us that dark must always be followed by light in some form,
And in realizing that light must also be followed by dark,
We can become more like the Chinese farmer by finding a degree of balance through understanding.
And on that rather reassuring note,
I'd like to thank you for joining me today,
And I hope that this story and interpretations can be helpful to you in whichever way you find most useful.
Thanks again for coming along,
Hope to see you again soon.
Bye bye.
