Summary
If we can let go rather than resisting and struggling; if we can accept the limitations of our own power and knowledge.
Medieval Europeans believed that God revealed valuable lessons in morality to humanity through nature itself. A very popular way of teaching those lessons — through a bit of church intervention — were books called Bestiaries, or “Books of Beasts.”
Now, I hasten to add that by “nature” and “lessons of morality” I mean the often imaginary nature created by priests and monks who didn’t get out much! In other words, many of the creatures related in the books of beasts were completely imaginary. Legends.
But the books of beasts often had elaborate illustrations, and in those pre-screen days when most Europeans could not read either their own vernacular language or church Latin, the illustrations were the most important part, admired and treasured.
Probably the most enduring story from those books is the legend of the phoenix, an immortal bird that cyclically flies into flames, is burned to ash, and then regenerates for a new lease on life. In Medieval Europe, the story was used to illustrate the sacrifice of Jesus. But it also had a subtext of personal change — hitting rock bottom and starting over again, and that’s why, I suspect, the story has endured.
Another story from the books of beasts was of weary seafarers who had been at sea too long and had run out of drinkable water. As the story goes, the sailors are in utter despair for their lives when they see an island. They land on the island, anchor their ship to it, and build a fire, planning to find fresh water and cook a hearty meal.
Alas for the sailors, they have anchored themselves to a sleeping whale. The fire scorches the whale, wakes it up, and, in pain, the beast dives to put out the fire. The unfortunate sailors are dragged to their doom in a watery grave.
It’s a cautionary tale. Not only for seafarers, but for all of us. As with the legend of the phoenix, there was a religious point to the tale: anchor yourself only to the true and real God, not the transitory illusions of safety and well-being in this world.
But also like the story of the phoenix, it has another, underlying story: Don’t let your expectations get ahead of a realistic assessment of the situation.
And aren’t there an awfully lot of those islands that turn out to be whales . . .
As contemporary Buddhist Pema Chödrön puts it,
When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment.
Embracing “groundlessness.” Just like those Medieval sailors.
However, as Chödrön points out, when our expectations are dashed, that’s an opportunity for enlightenment.
If we can let go rather than resisting and struggling; if we can accept the limitations of our own power and knowledge.
“When we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality . . . “
The Buddhists are here to tell us . . . it’s all whales.
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