I felt enthused by the way the Bulbul behaved at the feeding table. It took small bites and fed with ease and pleasure.
We are given according to our need !
Does that make me consume in an attitude of wanting more!
Each small bite that the Bulbul took and received it gave me a message of receiving without being driven by an instinct to grab!
I read yesterday a short story from the book, The habit of winning by Prakash Iyer, titled, 'Who stole my cookies'.
A woman having got tired by the delayed flight and feeling disturbed by dislocation to her plan bought a packet of cookies and placed it in her bag. She settled down to work on her computer. Another man was seated next to her. She would pick up a cookie from the packet placed next to her in between her work in the computer. She noticed that the man next to her was also helping himself with the cookie. She got furious with him for stealing her cookies. When the last one was left, the gentleman broke it and gave her half of it. That was when the flight was announced for departure. She hurriedly boarded the flight and sat down to read a book. She opened her bag to get her reading glass. That is when she noticed that her packet of cookies was in her bag. It was a miserable discovery that she was all the while eating the cookies that was someone else's and thinking ill of the man for 'stealing her cookies'!
The Bulbul's behaviour of eating its meal leisurely and delightfully with a sense of presence was a contrast to the way the woman behaved, eating someone else's cookie without realising that she was stealing!
It is a paradox in life! We live blaming others about the very thing we do ourselves.
Prakash while narrating this story wrote, ' Often the cookies we think of as our own actually belong to others. We worry, we fume when we see someone else get credit for what we think of as 'our achievements'. And yet we happily bask in the glory of recognition for achievements that were clearly the result of other people's support' (p 72).
He concluded the story talking about his friend, Dr Devdutt Pattnaik, who suggested to him that 'cows are givers and dogs are takers' (p73). The cows give milk to its calf, strangers and to everyone. The dogs claim territorial rights and they growl when you go close to them unless the dog is familiar to you. 'The dogs fight for the bone and they fight to claim space that does not belong to them. They want those cookies, other's cookies' !
How refreshing to have such truths brought to our consciousness through the way a Bulbul eats its meal and a woman ate stealing someone else's cookies while thinking of the man as stealing her cookies!
We share all that we receive with others. We take from others what is theirs. Others take from us what is ours.
This is the experience of shared living! What a sobering thought about the common ground of our being as human beings!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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