I will start with a famous Buddhist parable. The following story is one of the original teachings of the Buddha:
The sutta begins at Jetavana where the monk Malunkyaputta is troubled by Gautama Buddha’s silence on the fourteen unanswerable questions, which include queries about the nature of the cosmos and life after the death of a Buddha. Malunkyaputta then meets with Gautama Buddha and asks him for the answers to these questions, he says that if he fails to respond, Malunkya will renounce his teachings. Gautama responds by first stating that he never promised to reveal ultimate metaphysical truths such as those and then uses the story of a man who has been shot with a poisoned arrow to illustrate that those questions are irrelevant to his teachings.
It’s just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide him with a surgeon, and the man would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble warrior, a priest, a merchant, or a worker.’ He would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know the given name & clan name of the man who wounded me… until I know whether he was tall, medium, or short… until I know whether he was dark, ruddy-brown, or golden-colored… until I know his home village, town, or city… until I know whether the bow with which I was wounded was a long bow or a crossbow… until I know whether the bowstring with which I was wounded was fiber, bamboo threads, sinew, hemp, or bark… until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was wild or cultivated… until I know whether the feathers of the shaft with which I was wounded were those of a vulture, a stork, a hawk, a peacock, or another bird… until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was bound with the sinew of an ox, a water buffalo, a langur, or a monkey.’ He would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was that of a common arrow, a curved arrow, a barbed, a calf-toothed, or an oleander arrow.’ The man would die and those things would still remain unknown to him.
(Sourced from – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Poisoned_Arrow )
The Buddha’s lesson was that it is important to walk the path and reach the end of suffering instead of indulging in profitless speculation.
I was doing some introspection on my life yesterday and today and I was reminded of the above parable. My story is as follows:
In the year 2006 I had the chance to marry and go abroad. This opportunity followed some events that I have spoken of earlier in my blog when I was savagely harassed and persecuted. I decided then I would try to understand all the reasons why I was treated badly and made that my top priority. To the extent that I did not take the opportunities that presented themselves.
I can understand the reasons why I chose to do this. I had suffered from trauma and it was a case of once bitten, twice shy. I wanted to understand my relationship with the world and satisfy myself that it was safe for me to proceed. The facts that I understand now had to be uncovered and digested. I have done it now 16 years later.
But I should have – at the very least – had a conversation with the ladies who were interested in me. I refused to even speak to them. It is possible that the facts that took me 16 years to understand would have been revealed to me by those ladies. I know now what their motives were and that they meant well for me.
Remembering what was my mental state at that time it is difficult for me to judge myself harshly. But karma is still karma and I find now that I am 57 years old, a dependent and with no prospects to earn or have a family.
My life has passed by in this quest for answers. I have understood everything now but I find that it is just the booby prize. It can be said that I have missed out on life to some extent.
And it is in this context that I remembered the Buddhist parable that starts this article.
Understanding or insight is just a booby prize as I said earlier. We are here to live life and take steps to the Divine. Understanding the world can be left to scientists and philosophers.
A related blog article is linked to below. It may make more sense to you in this context.
I hope this article will guide some youngsters so that they don’t make the same mistakes that I did.
I’ll end here. Please share this article on WA, FB and Twitter and let me have your comments. Feedback from my readers keeps me going.
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