A metaphor carries a message in a picture or simile.
The Greek word ‘metaphor’ has a similar origina to the word ‘amphore’. Amphores were containers that contained and carried valuable goods and food in Ancient Greece.
In the same way the metaphor of the Path carries a message that is easy to understand and accept, but not so easy to grasp and live.
Below there is a Path metaphor from a Buddhist tradition:
Vigorously cutting a path through the brambles,
you search for wisdom;
Wide rivers, eternal mountains, the path seems endless.
With strength depleted, and mind exhausted, you cannot find it.
There is only the gentle rustle of maple leaves,
and the cicadas’ evening song.
This metaphor shows us a place or a point in time, where we have to take a decision in our life.
In this picture we are entrapped and entangled, entangled by the painful thorns of the brambles.
The more we struggle to set us free the more we become entangled. If we would like to move forward without pain, we need to stop and stand still where we are.
We have to look at the thorns and need to look closely.
We have to look deeply at things in order to see.
When a swimmer enjoys the clear water of the river,
he/she should also be able to be the river.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Meditation is stopping up, finding calm and stability. Mindfulness helps me to stop and to turn towards that which keeps me trapped and entangled.
Many wisdom traditions guide us towards more freedom, towards a path through and out of the thicket. The more I keep on struggling forwards in the brambles, the more I get entangled and the more the only thing I see and are able to see are brambles and thorns.
The more I struggle, the more tired and exhausted I will get.
Mindfulness helps us to wake up to our entanglement earlier and earlier and to untangle bit by bit.
Wisdom helps us to see where we struggle and stay entangled. And at the same time opens up to new perspectives:
The Path in front of us, even though it seems long and far away, still allows us to breathe more easily and get a glimpse of the freedom that lies ahead.
And suddenly we can wake up to the song of the cicadas and the rustling of the leaves in the trees.
There might be more brambles ahead, but the perspectives, which open again and again stay with us.
Once seen it is difficult, almost impossible, to make them unseen and to forget that which we understood and saw.
This seeing and understanding, this is Vipassana.
Compassion helps us to see that there are others besides, behind and in front of us, who also are stuck in the brambles.
We are all walking a path.
All of us together.
In his teaching – the Dharma or Dhamma – the Buddha points to 3 characteristics of life that cause us again and again to become entangled:
To us the world to a certain degree seems constant and reliable and we put an enormous amount of energy into creating stability in our lives.
But nothing is constant and nothing is stable.
Another tradition points to this: ‘You make plans and God laughs.’
We can see in the small things in our everyday lives how little we live and accept instability. What is our reaction when the train is late or our bike is punctured?
How much and where we are stuck is very personal and individual.
But for most of us the realisation that we or our loved ones are aging, sick and will die does not leave us untouched.
How can we deal with this?
LIfe is unpredictable and phenomena are impermanent. People, other living beings, nature – even our planet Earth and the universe – are impermanent.
And because of this also very unique.
Everything is here for a short moment, only to disappear forever.
Vipassana – deep seeing – helps us to accept the unpredictable, the impossible with serenity and understanding.
This understanding has nothing to do with an intellectual or cognitive knowing, but is a deep-rooted understanding with the heart.
The heart that understands is a heart that stays open and is filled with empathy and compassion.
It is a heart that is alive and lives and feels with others.
This is why we walk a path.
To experience the beauty and fragility of each moment and to understand that this moment will never return. That I never owned anything – not this moment or anything else.
That everything is in flow and in process and that we are part of this flow and its fleeting nature. That we do not stand alone in this flow but are connected to everything fleeting in and around us.
We are part of this flow and try as much as possible to live it with as much wisdom, compassion and serenity as we can muster in our lives.
The longer we come on the path, the more we can let go and allow things to be.
We are all walking each other home.
We can see the rivers, the mountains. We can hear the leaves in the wind and the cicadas sing.
We encounter new perspectives, we never considered possible that give us confidence and a sense of ease on the path.
We can get a sense of the freedom ahead.
And most of all, we understand that we are all walking the path and at the same time also shaping and creating it.
We are in this together!
Nisargadatta Maharaj
