Thursday, July 06, 2006

Little Boy by the Rice Field

During my trip to Northeastern Thailand in November 2005, a trip to visit my teacher's forest temple and to do some meditation practice, I saw a little boy sitting by the rice field one day. Just sitting there watching the sunset. My first thought was, "that boy must be so bored. I wish there were something for him to do. Maybe some toys. Video games would be good. Maybe he needs someone to take him to the movies." Then I thought, "but if he gets a video game system, he would want more games when he gets tired of the old ones. If he goes to the movie, he will want to see more and who will take him to the theaters in the future?"

I looked at the boy again. He was just sitting there, watching the sunset. He did not seem restless at all. Then I realized all that restlessness, all that stress came from me and not the boy. He was quite content. All those games and movies were far from his mind. No. They were never there in his mind. He had no need for them. Why would I introduce them to him and cause him to want more in the end? He was happy to just watch the sunset. He had peace. I should look at my own mind and see what needed to be cleared out.

Lesson learned.

8 comments:

Elemmaciltur said...

Hehehe, I wish some people in high places would think like that.

shanwen said...

How enlightening! Materialism is a constant vicious cycle. Like wanting more yarn !

By the way, you have a great blog ! lifts my day:)

Unknown said...

Very deep for a pre-coffee mind, but I do agree. It's funny, but I ended up at the adbusters site yesterday and have been giving the whole Western over-stimulated, over-spent, over-almost-everything observation quite a bit of thought.

And now you know why there are those who call me WanniEtta (capital E for Enabler)! hee hee

Jason said...

Hi Elemmaciltur! We should all look at ourselves more often. :-) No, not in the mirror. hehehe

Hi Shanwen! Thanks for stopping by. :-) Yarn good. Greed bad. :-)

Hi WanniEtta! hehehe That's really cute. :-) There are good and bad enablers. I am sure you are one of the good ones.

Anonymous said...

Lesson shared.
Thank you.

Only we can control our reaction to our experiences.

Ken said...

Hi Jason, just wanted to stop by and say hi! I've linked your blog on mine so I can keep up with what's going on with you and your knitting! Take care -Ken

Lacefreak said...

Jason,

Good thoughts! After reading your blog I was more content with what I got done today. Living in the moment is a challenge for me most of the time. That's why I like to knit. When I do it, that's all I'm into in that moment!

Ken said...

Jason, thanks for the comment on the music reviews. I was just wondering if I should stop them. I hadn't gotten any feedback, good or bad, about them up until now. But I guess I'll keep going with them, at least for now. Thanks!