See story on Graceguts – Zen Story: Tigers and a Strawberry
I first came across this story during my Asian Philosophy class in college. We read it in a book called Zen Flesh, Zen Bones that I highly recommend. This story is in the form of a koan. It’s a brief statement, saying, or story designed to shock you out of the present moment and enable you to see beyond the rational. It’s like a verbal smack in the face, but without insult nor aggression. It’s startling. It’s like stepping into the sun after an afternoon at the movies. It takes time to adjust your perception.
For those of you reading The Naked Now you may recognize this concept as Richard Rohr’s push for contemplative, nondual thinking.
The story is said from Shakyamuni Buddha, that is, Siddartha Gautama himself while he was still alive rather than inspired by him later. When I read the story I feel a richness that seems to come from a story that has been retold many times. The mice may not have been in the first version. Even the second tiger may have come later.
People get obsessed with what the man needs to do to get out of that situation. They’re looking for what he should grab onto next. They are missing the point. What are you running from and what are you running towards? What can’t you escape? What do you find in the midst of it all?
My preference is to first approach the story as a narrative before seeking additional layers. A man running from a tiger seems pretty straightforward. We know what it is like to be panicked and afraid. We may even know the feeling of desperation of a man grabbing onto a root even though he knows this is, at best, a temporary solution and may only delay what he knows is coming.
What stops us in our tracks is the strawberry. You can just hear the listeners to the koan shouting at the man. Forget the strawberry. You have got to think of a way out of this situation. Focus, man! Yet the man not only sees the strawberry. In the midst of all that chaos he took the time to eat it. It’s not for added energy. His reaction was “How sweet it tasted!” I went to a Pastors’ Retreat a McMennamin’s in Troutdale. While I was at the soaking pool on the Pastors’ Retreat, I saw people talking. I saw people swimming. I saw people on their phones while they were in the water. One young woman was even wearing headphones. They weren’t relaxing. They weren’t tasting the strawberries.
Do you get tied up in the tigers? When someone bumps into you on the street do you remember the bully who purposely ran into you on the playground? When you cook dinner do you remember that time you burnt this dish? When you see your first gray hair at your temples do you see yourself with a full head of gray hair? Does that wrinkle in the corner of your eye make you go morbid? Each experience you are going through can be covered with layer after layer. You remember what happened before. You worry about what will happen next. That pancake in the pan in front of you goes from raw to burnt. Where has your attention been?
There’s a fun word for when a piece of paper gets cleared off and reused: palimpsest. Back before factories made paper, the paper was painstakingly hand made. Think of vellum or papyrus based paper.The paper was worth more than what was written on it. This is not at all like a novel today where you only value the paper for the words on it. The writing was washed or even scraped away. The thing is, the old writing was rarely fully erased. If you looked at the paper, particularly with modern forensic techniques, then you can see layer after layer of what was written before partially breaking through the latest text. Your mind can get that way.
Layer upon layer of thoughts fill your head. You are less and less able to capture the present moment. Your mind is a palimpsest. You’re not tasting the strawberry. You might not even know which tiger is causing that knot in your stomach anymore.
When I can’t get grounded or find my focus I follow the five senses. I look for 5 things I can see<look around room>. I feel four things I can touch: clothes, keys, shoes, cellphone. I listen for 3 things I can hear <listen to room>. I sniff for two things I can smell <sniff room>. I focus on my tongue for what I can taste.
What we can control is our response to the world around us. We do not live in a world without dangers and challenges. We find beauty where we do not expect it. Focus is what we can change.
Each day when I work at the hospital, I eat a granola bar. I focus on what I can taste: chocolate, peanuts. I focus on what I can hear: crisped rice, oats, peanut, and almond. I focus on the bite: oats,crisped rice, hard almond, softer peanuts. You can allow the experience to fill your senses.That may be what you need today. It is fine to stop there. If you are able to dwell longer in the moment then let your concentration deepen. You may find yourself thinking about where things were grown, the sunshine that gave them the energy and the soil that supported them. Let yourself feel gratitude.
The story of the tigers and the strawberry returned to me when I was walking through a Japanese garden in Portland with Leigh. Beauty surprises you sometimes in the middle of chaos. The garden is inside a busy city full of traffic, business, and people rushing around living their lives. We observed many beautiful flowers in the garden, particularly rhododendron.
Around this time of year in Japan, there is a traditional practice known as hanami. It literally means the viewing of flowers. While a literal translation of hanami can be about any flowers, the usage typically refers to cherry blossoms. There is a whole festival dedicated to spending time around cherry blossoms and contemplating them. People feast under cherry trees and drink sake. Reflecting on cherry blossoms reminds people to think about the beauty and shortness of life. Cherry blossoms in particular are known for blooming and falling in a short period of time.[i]
There is a Japanese concept called “Mono no aware” associated with cherry blossoms. It refers to an appreciation for things that do not last. It is said to be bittersweet and a sort of wistfulness.[ii]
Cherry blossoms are also seen as symbolically important to bushido, the samurai warrior philosophy. The blossoms are said to fall without losing their beauty. They let go gently, representing nonattachment to life and death. The cherry blossom was also connected to more problematic customs such as seppuku, a ritual death as an escape from dishonor and the kamikaze pilots who sacrificed themselves during World War II. [iii]The lesson of the cherry blossom teaches us to focus on beauty rather than fear.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us not to worry. He did not want us to pay attention to the tigers. Jesus compares us to flowers. He points to lilies of the field which are more well clothed than the richest king. There are a variety of ideas about what kind of flower Jesus may have meant. Ideas include red poppies, daisies, gladiolas and marigolds.[iv] The key detail seems to be that they were wild and untended by any gardener.
The beauty of these flowers comes despite the transient nature of plants which bloom and then live for a day before facing destruction. Jesus mentions lilies being tossed in the fire which makes more sense when you think of the daisy-like chamomile from the time of hay gathering.[v] There is a serious resonance there to the philosophy of the cherry blossom. Jesus reminds us that the lilies do not work for their beauty. They do not even make clothes (Matthew 6:28-30). Jesus is not warning us about futility from our inability to surpass God. Jesus cautions us, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink,[k] or about your body, what you will wear” (6:25a). He’s not even really telling us not to plan. What he is seeking to release us from is stress and anxiety.
The lessons are all around you if you know how to look. They’re in strawberries, and cherry blossoms and lilies.
Queries:
- When have you taken time to taste the strawberry in the midst of chaos?
- What are your tigers?
[i] What Is Hanami? A Complete Guide To The Japanese Cultural Experience – Just About Japan
[ii] Mono no aware – Wikipedia
[iii] For Hundreds of Years, Cherry Blossoms Are Matter of Life and Death | PBS News
[iv] matthew – What species of flower might Jesus have been referring to when he said, “Consider the lilies”? – Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange
[v] Ibid
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