Freddy the Buddhist Frog
A retelling of the parable of the Monk and the Tigers.
There is an ancient parable, usually credited as Buddhist, that in my opinion applies to much of our lives today.
Original Parable (in my words)
A monk was travelling a steep mountain trail when he came upon a tiger. The tiger, deciding he was hungry, charged the monk. The monk, not inclined to accept the invitation to stay for lunch, scrambled down the cliff face using a handy vine.
After seeing that the tiger could not get to him and pausing to catch his breath he noticed that, although the vine descended down to another trail, there was a tiger there as well, looking up at him. What to do?
Just then he heard a scratching sound above him and saw two mice beginning to gnaw on the vine. Great, now what do I do?!
As he was pondering his predicament he noticed a ripe wild strawberry growing on the cliff face within easy reach. After admiring its beauty for a moment, he reached out and plucked it, putting it in his mouth.
Savouring that delicious strawberry the monk realized that this was a perfect moment.
My interpretation
I have read various versions of this parable and many interpretations of its meaning. I take this as a story to remind us that, no matter what struggles we are dealing with in life, we should take time to appreciate the simple pleasures.
It further occurred to me that this was a perfect parable for dealing with the current world predicament.
Everything seems to be going wrong at once:
- Droughts and water shortages where there haven’t been before
- Extreme flooding where there hasn’t been before
- War, with the threat of nuclear escalation
- Pandemic
- Supply chain disruption
- Spiraling cost of living
- Winter coming on with many people unable to heat their homes
- An endless stream of doom and gloom news and stories
What can anyone do?
I like Freddy’s solution, which I’ve written here in parable form.
Freddy and the Drought
Once there was a little green frog, no bigger than a human thumbnail. He lived in an herb garden that had lots of large stones for keeping cool in the summer and warm during his winter hibernation.
One summer the rains failed. Late June, no rain. July, no rain. August, a teaser sprinkle but no real rain. September, still no significant rain. The previous summer there had been a drought but by mid-August rains had started; at least enough to keep a little frog happy.
This year was looking bad. He had grown somewhat and needed more water than what he was getting. Even the crevasses deep within the rocks were drying out. What to do?
Winter was coming on so a little frog needed to think about hibernating. However, he needed a certain amount of dampness to hibernate safely. He didn’t know how to get to the pond where he had been hatched in. It seemed to him to be a long, long way away.
Without water, a frog would die. Without a good hibernation spot, a frog would die. Spend too long away from the shelter looking for a new home and some creature might eat him. Oh, whoa is me! Then Freddy had an idea.
Not far from his rocky sanctuary was a greenhouse. And it seemed to have lots of water. The local human went in there every few days and watered all the plants. What’s more, the human left the door and vents open so that the greenhouse didn’t get too hot. Maybe a frog could settle in there? Let’s go see it.
So, hopping out of his garden, and keeping an eye open for passing birds that might want to snack on a frog, Freddy made his way to the greenhouse. Hopping inside he realized that this would do nicely.
There were green lettuce plants coloured just like him. There were lots of damp nooks and crannies that could hide a frog and bugs that he could eat. And the human came and watered the plants, and now Freddy, every couple of days.
Freddy realized that, for now, this was perfect!
An Elder Taoist and Climate Change
Like Freddy, I have been considering what to do about changes in climate and its effects. I have concluded that all any of us can do is “extend the glide path.”
In other words, using the metaphor of a plane that has lost power to its motors, do everything one can to keep the plane gliding as long as possible. In the meantime, one might find a place to land or get the motors working again. Once all that has been done, all that is left is one’s attitude about their circumstance.
Eventually, we are all going to die. Some of us are from old age. Some are from climate disasters. Some from war. Some from the pandemic. Ultimately, how we die doesn’t matter that much. We will be soon forgotten.
So the question becomes “Do I angst, recriminate, and rage against the inevitable? Or do I, having done all that is reasonable, allow myself to enjoy the beauty that is in the world around me?”
I choose the latter. There is too much beauty, right here, right now, to spend my time struggling against that over which I have no control. Instead, I choose to appreciate the universe in all its awesome glory, even if at some point I am a victim of the chaotic flow of nature.
“Oh look! There’s a frog!”
Here’s an addendum to this story. Freddy reminded me I left our an important picture! Sorry about that.
Thank you for reading my article. If you found it interesting, here are my earlier Freddy stories.
Here are some articles by writers who inspire me to write about nature. If you enjoyed my article, perhaps you will also enjoy theirs:
Here is William J Spirdione’s piece on the power and beauty of water and how it affects all of us, something we realize more fully during a drought.
Dr. Fatima Imam gives us a beautiful photo journey to the mountains of Kashmir as a respite from an academic conference.
My favourite story from this past week is this one from Janin Lyndovsky. It reminds us that there was a time when everyone ate organic food and how much better it tasted.
I wish to thank the following people who recent chose to follow me and my writing. Your interest encourages me to continue writing. I hope you enjoy this new story.
Alberta, Filza Chaudhry, Simão Cunha, MartinEdic, Joyce Corey, Jillian Enright, Harmony S, LGBTQ+ Writers Unite, thekempster, Wolfe Rygaard, Ryan Moran, BSN, RN, Conni Walkup Hull, Rebecca Romanelli, Kaia Maeve Tingley, Pene Hodge, Valerio, Semra, Aslynn Roe, Kerstin Krause, Poetry Education, indi.ca, Josephine Crispin, Vincent Van Patten, Mia Verita, Douglas Giles, PhD, Serge Bokov, James Beaufait
Thank you for following me.
And finally, so that you can continue to follow Freddy’s saga, here are those who kindly clapped, highlighted or commented on the original Freddy stories. I hope you enjoyed this update!
Yana Bostongirl, Mukundarajan V N, Margie Willis, The Autlaw, Jim Parton, Joyce Nielsen, William J Spirdione, Gunnar De Winter, Charlotte Kingsbury- Fink, Jake Courtney, Carol Labuzzetta, Eunice Rabert Hernández, Jenny Lane, Coastal Gale, Carmellita, Erica Paige Schumacher, Dr. Fatima Imam, Alexander Semenyuk, Diana Meresc, Mani Goel, Plum Street Chili, Kat Wexford, Laurellynn, ItsAlwaysRightNow, Darren Richardson, Gustave Deresse, Janin Lyndovsky, Karthik Rajan, Martin von Mars, Aunty Jean, Mia Verita, Dr. Preeti Singh, Jillian Enright, Casey Stanley, Wendi Gordon, Kerstin Krause
I wish you well!