TIGER TIGER STRAWBERRY

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"There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there, so she climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass. She looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly. Tigers above, tigers below. This is actually the predicament that we are always in, in terms of our birth and death. Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life; it might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life."

-Pema Chodron A A Race is real, it just isn’t genetic. It’s a culturally created phenomenon A Direct Experience We begin to understand this when we start to see how, for mystics, a deep religious understanding does not come through doctrine and rational thought, rather it comes only through direct experience. Rumi tried to obtain it through the normal route. He was suffused in theology and rationally grasped at the notion of God, but to no avail. Instead, we find him declaring, “Far-sighted reason – I have tested it. Henceforth I’ll make myself demented. A