Story Title : Dog mind, lion mind

This is a very beautiful analogy in Zen.

Picture there is a dog in front of you. And you are throwing bones for it to catch. For every bone you throw, the dog jumps with over-the-top enthusiasm and runs to catch it and get it back to you. Do this 1 time or a 100 times. The dog will treat every bone you throw with the same excitement level.

Now, (for some strange reason), picture a lion sitting in front of you. Throw a bone for the lion to catch. It will look completely disinterested in running behind the bone you throw. Why? Because forget the one or two bones you throw, the lion can see an entire bag of bones in front of it. That is YOU. It does not follow the bones you throw, because it can see the bigger picture in front of it. Its focus is to eat the entire you, not the tiny bones that you throw.

If something, (say, Donald Trump’s weird hairstyle or your friend’s WhatsApp status) catches your attention and distracts you, fair and good. It only proves you are human. It is but natural to get distracted. But it is at this point that you have a choice.

You can either follow and run behind everything that distracts you (e.g. texting and asking your friend why he/she came up with such a break-up type status), like the dog. Or you can choose not to chase trivial things keeping the bigger opportunity in mind, like the lion. Keep your focus on the bigger things. See the greater picture.

Being harsh with your mind and commanding it to focus will get you all the more distracted. Rather explain gently to your mind why finishing this particular chapter you are reading now is more important than browsing through weird selfies of your partying friends on Facebook (even though the latter seems amusing). Concentrate on the benefits of keeping yourself focused on the less interesting task at hand.

P.S : Everything is ultimately a choice.