Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), today we will share this tale from the book Kalila Wa Dimna by Ramsay Wood, where he brings some of the ancient and timeless tales to life once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also as we begin today \u2018let us remember this about \u2018Attention\u2019.<\/strong> <\/em>Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n CHICKPEA MONKEY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOnce upon a time, down in a valley, a man named Issam walked home from a street market carrying a heavy sack of chickpeas on his head. Issam lived in a mountain village, high on the other side of the nearest pass. He trudged up half the distance, but grew tired and so lay down on the chickpea sack in a glade of trees. Issam sipped some water from his flask and stretched out for a nap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon an inquisitive monkey scampered down to the ground from one of the trees, and began rummaging around Issam\u2019s sack until he managed to steal a handful of chickpeas. He zipped back up into the branches, but as he did so, a single chickpea slipped from his hand, bouncing away. He rushed down to grab it but, as he did so, he opened his fist and all the other chickpeas escaped.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Excerpt from Doctor\u2019s orders:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I must emphasize this last point: my stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, wretched imaginings, or vapid guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing away the effective substance. Thus the urge to tag tidy little rationalizations, persuasive formulas, intellectual summaries, symbolical labels, or any other convenient pigeon-holing device, must be steadfastly resisted. Mental encapsulation perverts the medicine, rendering it impotent. It amounts to a bypass around the story\u2019s true destination; to explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.2 \u2013 Ramsay Wood<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n