Daily Meditation: Friday, September 13, 2024

Hooks - listen to the sages in order to recognize them and escape them

09/13/2024

A school of young fish were listening to their teacher explaining the pitfalls of life, particularly the danger of hooks. While all the other students were taking notes and drawing pictures of a hook so that they would recognize one when they saw it, at the back of the class was one little fish who, finding the lesson terribly boring, slipped out of school and wandered off on his own. As he was swimming about, he saw a worm wriggling in the water, and as he was starting to feel hungry, he dashed at it and swallowed it in one gulp. Oh, but what was that stabbing pain in his throat? He wriggled and fought so hard that he managed to free himself, but what a sorry state he was in! He went back to school and shamefacedly told the teacher what had happened. ‘Now I understand that you know more about life than I do. You wanted to warn me about certain dangers, but I didn’t want to listen to you, and I was hooked.’ Ah yes, this is a story for children, but there are a great many adults who are no wiser than that little fish. They want to be free to live in their own way, and they think they can get by without any lessons from the wise. With such a mentality they too are in danger of being hooked – but will they be as lucky as this little fish and manage to escape?*