I was doing my nightly sitting practice when I heard what -at first, sounded like a slurping sound and I froze in terror.
The noise lasted a few moments-then, cut out and the first thing I imagined was that a lunatic had- for reasons unknown- besides being insane- hid in the closet. Nevermind that I had showered-bathed my son and all series things- allowing for this said-maniac to leap out. I sat- completely still- the only sound being the rhythmic breathing sounds of my son- as he lay sleeping on the bed.
The noise cut through the dark again- this time sounding more like a hissing noise and abruptly stopped. I thought – no, maybe not a deranged person needlessly hiding in the closet but an animal lurking under the bed .
After sitting completely still-barely breathing – the sound occurred again. This time it sounded like something electrical – I thought there could be something wrong with one of the outlets. I sent my partner a word; “there could be a possible fire hazard up here” – then, I proceeded to investigate.
After a long hushed search throughout the room- I indeed, ended up finding the culprit …
I’ll get to the anticlimactic finding later on but this prompted me to think of the story of the monk who believes there’s a snake on his path but – turns out- it’s only a rope. The fear and anguish he feels at not being able to get home because of the snake -followed by the relief and laughter that it was just an illusion.
The parable is a stand in for our own awareness – the true nature of reality being akin to that of the rope – where instead, we most often believe it to be something to fear or stress over.
At the time I was reading a book entitled “The Heart of the Buddha’s teaching” by Thich Nhat Hanh where he asks his disciples to remind themselves of this question often. “Are you sure ?”
And – most often- if I delve into it, it’s usually just a discriminatory observation that never illuminates a situation.
I often laugh at my son’s interpretations of things and although my own may be slightly more plausible – they are often quite off the mark.
I find myself automatically coming to a judgment about someone or something based on – quite often – very little. We are making observations based on our storehouse of knowledge and it will always be limited compared to the mystery of the cosmos. Ie the interconnected nature of everyone and everything
We were at a park and in the distance we heard gun fire (it was hunting season ) and my son exclaimed “big balloons are popping…yep!”. The smoke billowing from the Soup factory comes from the big vats of soup they must continuously be cooking and-all boats- from freighters to yachts- are going to grandmas (she lives on an island ).
We view it all through a screen of our perpetual churning thoughts ; comprised of the culmination of all the judgments we’ve made.
This is good and that is bad.
I do wish I could let it all go – see it for what it is but for now I do my best to clear it as often as I can remember. Whenever you catch yourself inbetween thoughts – go back to the breath; It’s our anchor.
And – about that noise…I discovered that someone ( all fingers pointing to my son ) had flipped over the clock just so – that it was resting on the snooze button and because it’s a cheap manual clock -it was periodically making a strange whirring noise; akin to a robot slurping. So, no maniacs resting in the closet nor creatures lurking under the bed but – to be fair, it did kind of sound like a slurp.
