Someone I know brought up his fear of old age and death. It made me think of a Zen Parable I had read a long time ago. I always carry it close to my heart and it has been a source of inspiration for me.
Have you ever heard about the Zen Parables? They are called a Koans, a Japanese term that dates from the 7th century. These parables were used to produce doubt, inquiry, encourage reflexion and discussion on the nature of being human. They were also used to educate students to broaden their insight into the Buddhist teachings.
At first sight, their topics may seem contradictory or unrelated creating a feeling of disconnection with the main theme. Upon investigation, they are actually quite profound, and may lend themselves to multiple interpretations.
One of my favorite koans is one I read in 1998. Back then we did not Internet so it took me a long time to interpret.
Pema Chödrön, in her The Wisdom of No Escape: How to Love Yourself and Your World describes it as a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there. She climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass, so she looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly.
What Does this Parable Represent?
The tiger above may represent our past, our traumas and difficulties that, if not worked on and brought awareness about, can 
threaten to ruin our lives with worry, fear, anxiety and even shame.
The tigers below may symbolize our future, and the constant speculations about the challenges we may face. As human beings, this is actually the predicament we all face: our death.
The story highlights our tendency to focus on the tigers of our lives. And most of us disregard the strawberries that are around in every moment.
If we do not see the strawberries, it is because we are not paying attention. If we could pause and notice, however, we can take the deliciousness of life in the present moment. In that way, we would not get lost and distracted in our past or our future.
Every moment is precious. It is a real gift. We can choose to redirect our perspective and focus on appreciating the goodness we are surrounded by. We are swimming in abundance and yet we feel we are lacking.
There are so many delicious strawberries in every moment: our children, our loved ones, a flower, a tree, the sun, water, the morning breeze, the rain, our beautiful human body that has been hosting our soul for so many years, our eyes, our food. The list goes on and on.
There’s so much wisdom, magic and wonder all around us coming in the form of relationships, nature, conversations and experiences. It only takes being open and aware, and not lot in distractions. The strawberries, then, represent the good things all around us.
The vine may represent our life timeline. We, just like this woman, are all hanging from the vine, our life journey. The mice gnawing at it may be the small worries and doubts that keep persistent and wearing distress, the myriad different tests that life throws at us. And we can control nothing except the lens with which we look at our experience and how we respond to it.
It is notable that she holds the vine with one hand while grabbing for the strawberry with the other. Maybe that is to remind us of the middle way: we must be aware of our challenges and not cast them all away haphazardly to go after the strawberry.
However, for at least that brief moment, she is simultaneously allowing herself to explore the strawberry and partially loosening her grip on the problems she has to solve. She is not letting this moment pass because who knows when will be the last time she can taste a strawberry?
What Can we Learn from this Koan?
We think that the point of this journey is to find solutions to our problems, but like Pema says, things do not really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.
The truth is, we cannot avoid the cliff and tigers forever. And the relentless passing of time is nibbling away at our lifeline. It is not under our control. What is under our control, however, is whether or not we will notice, eat and enjoy the strawberry. Because whether we enjoy or ignore it, we’re still getting eaten by that tiger.
The key is not to trust your mind when it is going through a storm, and remember that everything changes, that even pain is temporary. Letting go of anxiety about imperfection will help us find the strawberries in our life more easily.
It might be the only moment of our life left; it might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of the Now.
What are some of the strawberries that surround you in your daily life? Can you share a personal story of a time when in the midst of challenges, you stopped to be delighted by the goodness in your life?
Thank you, Monica for sharing this zen parable. I am practicing and it has changed my life. I have been on this mindfulness path for about 3 years and it has changed my life. I did not who I was and because of that I could not find any path to solve my anxiety issues. With mindfulness I could realize who I really am, and then I could manage my anxiety issues by noticing every time I recognize any triggers.
I then noticed that my fearful thoughts never find any solution (trying to change my past or trying to solve the future). I now remember this zen parable… It really works!!
It seems that Pema Chodron gave it a feminist modification, since a Zen monk is the subject of the story, not a woman.
Thank you for your reflection, Martyn. I am not sure what Pema’s intention was, but she may have wanted to mainly raise awareness of the lesson we can learn from the story in which case whether the main character was a man or a woman becomes irrelevant.
Martyn, Look at (and enjoy) the strawberry, not the tigers!
A beautiful story about an inkblot that tells the story of the story teller.
Thank you.
The trouble with koans is that everyone wants an explanation but they don’t realize that the explanation is what the koan purposely avoids.
Like you I grew up during the days before the internet, back when you had to either figure things out for yourself or take people’s word for things. The internet has been wonderful in terms of helping me dispel earlier false beliefs but at the same time it propagates these beliefs far faster than I can handle!
One thing I do like about the internet is the variety it provides.
In one version of the koan you wrote about the person has to let go of the vine to reach the strawberry (and they do!). That’s how it ends, which for me is so illogical because now they are really going to die!
I haven’t had a “moment of truth” but I have had my share of epiphanies; however, I’m coming to a realization that even epiphanies are just things that distract my attention, that keep me from reaching for the strawberry–or from even seeing it in the first place.
I’m coming to realize that my epiphanies are just tigers disguised as epiphanies, that there is no truth to seek out; there is only this strawberry right in front of me, but am I actually seeing the strawberry that is right in front of me or am I just once again caught up in my own bs?
I was listening to a dharma talk a couple of days ago and in it the speaker said, “When you are struggling with life and doubting that you might be in delusion, that’s when you are close to enlightenment; when you think you are close to enlightenment is actually when you are deep in delusion!”
Chuang Tsu (the Daoist) talked about the dreamer who awakens from a dream only to realize they are still dreaming. He asks “how do you know that your life isn’t just a dream, that you are still asleep? Am I really grasping at that strawberry or only dreaming that I am?
I’m feeling like there is no answer so I can just drop the question.
Gasso!
I love your reflection on the internet, Matthew, and I feel the same way. Regarding the koan, there could be so many interpretations. The important thing is that we become self aware, and aware that the way we perceive our past and whether we hang on to it or let go, and the way we speculate about our inevitable future can rob us of the many strawberries we will come across on our path. We will inexorably go through many “lifequakes” on our journey, and we have to choose how we will reframe our perception of those challenges and how much of our precious energy we will devote to the tigers and the strawberries.