{"id":527,"date":"2022-09-18T05:04:45","date_gmt":"2022-09-18T05:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qsconsultants.in\/blog\/?p=527"},"modified":"2022-09-18T05:04:48","modified_gmt":"2022-09-18T05:04:48","slug":"how-to-catch-monkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qsconsultants.in\/blog\/how-to-catch-monkeys\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Catch Monkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today \u2018let us remember this about \u2018Attention\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This week I bring to your attention a story titled \u2018How to Catch Monkeys<\/em>\u2019 from the book titled \u2018Tales of Dervishes\u2019 which is a compilation of tales recorded during the past thousand years. Here the stories contain several levels of meaning and work like psychological mirrors in which the reader may see himself and reality reflected, and come to better understand both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Persian word dervish <\/strong>is generally considered to be derived from the verb der-vekhtan <\/strong>to wait at a door. The reference is to waiting before the door of enlightenment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Catch Monkeys<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ONCE upon a time there was a monkey who was very fond of cherries. One day he saw a delicious-looking cherry, and came down from his tree to get it. But the fruit turned out to be in a clear glass bottle. After some experimentation, the monkey found that he could get hold of the cherry by putting his hand into the bottle by way of the neck. As soon as he had done so, he closed his hand over the cherry; but then he found that he could not withdraw his fist holding the cherry, because it was larger than the internal dimension of the neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now all this was deliberate, because the cherry in the bottle was a trap laid by a monkey-hunter who knew how monkeys think. The hunter, hearing the monkey’s whimpering, came along and the monkey tried to run away. But, because his hand was, as he thought, stuck in the bottle, he could not move fast enough to escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, as he thought, he still had hold of the cherry. The hunter picked him up. A moment later he tapped the monkey sharply on the elbow, making him suddenly relax his hold on the fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monkey was free, but he was captured. The hunter had used the cherry and the bottle, but he still had them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story from \u2018Tales of Dervishes\u2019 by Idries Shah<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure that you will enjoy reading this book; you can buy your copy from the following link:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Tales of the Dervishes by Idries Shah<\/a><\/blockquote>