Zen Horse & The Farmer | Der Bauer und das Pferd

14 January 2018:    

Whenever I hear people complaining about what we should have done to achieve this, and that, and how now it’s too late, because we didn’t do the right thing at the right moment, and bla, bla, bla, bullshit, I remember the Zen story of the Horse and the Farmer:

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.
“May be,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses.
“How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.
“May be,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.
“May be,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.
“May be,” said the farmer.

See German version: Der Bauer, das Pferd und wer weiß…

Let’s keep practicing Taoist innocence, my dears. We are creating the world every day. Innocence doesn’t mean staring moronically at the clouds, with resignation, or overconfidence. We need to fight every day, as if our lives depend on it, because somehow they do.

Needless to say, this reflection also applies to the Catalonia revolution. Since I am a normal person, and not a spiritual leader, I also wistfully remember the beautiful Declaration of Independence of Catalonia on October 27th, 2017. I also was there, having made it on time with a last minute flight from Germany, and was happy, and sang the Segadors with the rest of the crowd in front of the Catalan Parliament, and then went for a late lunch with my husband at the restaurant Set Portes, where we also met the Catalan Mayors from the Associació de Municipis per la Independència, with their symbolic wooden walking canes, and was very aware of the Carpe Diem, and I lived the present, because it was clear to me that the next day the Spanish system would attack us. The final drop of the Damocles Sword of article 155 of the Spanish constitution (??) would fall on our heads a few hours later. And we should have done this, and that, in order to practically, and legally implement the independence directly, and bla, bla, bla, bullshit…

Now I say “May be”, and I keep practicing innocence.