Yoga Story Time

For the past three summers, our four year grandson's parents have allowed us to bring him up north with my husband and myself for a weeklong vacation with my family. He is a great little guy and he even went SUPing like grandma did!

One of the best parts of the week was reading him a book or two at bedtime. I had forgotten how much fun that was.

We all like to hear stories and kid’s stories always have a positive message or "the moral of the story". Why is it that we seem to remember a topic if it is in story form as opposed if it is presented to us in lecture form? In Buddhism they are known for stories that have a positive message.

I recently came across this story that I thought was worth sharing;

The 84th Problem

One afternoon a farmer who had heard that the Buddha was a wonderful teacher came to the Buddha seeking relief from his suffering. “I’m a farmer,” he said to the Buddha, “And I love farming. But last summer we had a drought and nearly starved, while this summer, we had too much rain and some of my crops did not do as well as I would have liked.”

The Buddha sat and listened to the farmer. “I have a wife, too. She’s a great woman, a wonderful wife. But sometimes she can really nag me. And to tell you the truth, sometimes I get a little tired of her.” The Buddha continued to listen and smile, as the farmer continued. “I’ve got three kids. They’re all really great. I’m really proud of them. But sometimes they don’t listen to me and don’t pay me the respect I deserve”

It went on like this for awhile, and then when finished with his litany, the farmer waited for the Buddha to solve his problems.” I can’t help you,” said the Buddha.

“What!” responded the farmer, “I’ve heard that you are a great master? How can you not help me?”

“Well,” the Buddha replied, “First of all, everyone has problems. In fact, everyone’s got about 83 problems. Of course, you may fix one now and then, but another one will pop up in its place. If you think about it, everyone you know and all that you care for is subject to change — it’s all impermanent. And you yourself are going to die someday. Now there’s a problem.”

The farmer was red in the face. “What kind of teacher are you!? How is this supposed to help me?!” he retorted.

“Well….perhaps I can help you with the 84th problem,” answered the Buddha.

“What 84th problem?” asked the farmer?

“You don’t want to have any problems.”

That Buddha, he sure knows how to turn a tale. The moral of the story? Our problems are never really going to go away.  We may have 83 one day and only six the next, but in our perception they are still problems. So if we can't make them go away how do we get rid of them? By changing how we handle them, think of it as a shift in our way of thinking.  What we thought was a problem 6 days or 6 months ago amazingly no longer is, partly because another problem took its place (see how that works) but maybe because we realized "this too shall pass".

How do you start? By just closing your eyes.....and just breath.