Joseph Goldstein, one of the pre-eminent dharma teachers in the US, once told this story: a group of Buddhist monks in the Thai forest tradition were asked to go for an extended meditation in the forest. One of the primary reasons they were asked to do this was to confront their fears; they had good reason to fear being out in the forest because in those days wild animals roamed the forest, always hungry for whatever was available, not hesitating to eat humans when the opportunity arose. One day the monks were walking meditatively through the forest when, sure enough, a tiger leapt out from behind a tree and began to maul one of them. Seeing there was nothing they could do to help their fellow monk, the other hid behind trees and yelled encouragement to him, telling him to remain mindful so that the present suffering might lead him to enlightenment. The story goes that he was indeed able to remain in the present moment, even as he was being eaten alive, and achieved Nirvana. Joseph ends the story by saying, "Now, of course, we shouldn't go searching for tigers...."
I respectfully disagree. At least for those of us in recovery, searching for tigers is precisely what we should be doing. Why? Because until we come face to face with our demons and recognize them for what they are, we will never recover, we will never move past that which stands between us and the sunlight of the spirit. The 4th, 5th, 8th, and 9th Steps deal specifically with these "tigers", and when we balk at doing so, we have the experience of remaining restless, irritable, and discontented.
I hope to expand more on this theme in the future.
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