The Notebook 5: Baby Bee

Welcome to the Notebook series.  These are stories from my time abroad, each connected to one main take-away that I learned during those years.

Read the preceding Notebook posts here: INTRO // 1 // 2 // 3 // 4

This post contains the story for the insight: "Our minds create our lives," titled, "Baby Bee."

Reading time: 3 minutes

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BABY BEE

"Our minds create our lives"

My time in Kopan Monastery truly shaped so much of how I think now.  I had been exposed to many of the ideas before, but the repetition and reinforcement really cemented the views in my thought patterns.  One of these views is that everything we experience is actually a product of our mind rather than of our environment.  I'll give an example, which I experienced recently in the village:

I was bathing outside by the water pump when a baby bee climbed into my flip flop for a drink of water.  My foot slid to that side of the sandal and the baby bee stung my foot.  This is the raw account of what happened.  I began cursing in pain, the baby bee weakly took its last steps out of the sandal and then died there.  My boyfriend's aunt removed the stinger from my foot with her nail.  It was painful to walk for many days, and then so itchy.

Now, here it is from my perspective, broken into the range of emotions I was feeling at the time.

1) Ego, pain, anger.  "Rachess!" I screamed, Nepali for demon.  "Stupid bee!" "Ouch!" "I'm in pain!"

2) Compassion, sadness, love.  "Poor bee just wanted a drink and got scared.  Now it has died for that.  Poor baby."

One of these segments caused me suffering, and the other did not.  The catch: they are both created by the mind.  Notice the difference?  And this is the powerful part - you can train your mind to favor one response over another.  It's like watering plants.  The plant you water and nourish will grow while the other will not.  My practice has been to nourish the compassion plant and not the ego one.  Why?

Ego is the source of suffering.  With ego comes ignorance, attachment, aversion, and delusion.

Compassion is the bridge to freedom.  With compassion and wisdom, one can overcome ego, and thus overcome suffering.

Mind is the home of ego and of compassion.  How we utilize our minds and direct them alters our whole experience of our lives.

Do you want to hate the bee for being evil,

Or love it for being innocent and scared?

Whether it feels like it or not, you do have a choice.

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WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

✅ 1. J hunchha ramro ko lagi hunchha (All that will be, will be for good)

✅ 2. Nothing is in our control except for how we respond

✅ 3. Plans are illusory - and can cloud your vision

✅ 4. The present moment is the only reality

✅ 5. Our minds create our lives

6. Everything and everyone are connected in more ways than we can ever understand

7. Compassion is the key to happiness

8. If we were in other people's shoes, we would be doing exactly what they are, because then we would be them

9. Everyone and everything are impermanent

10. True joy comes from inner wisdom, not from following what you think others want you to do

11. Whatever we go through is not personal, not permanent, and has good in it

12. Enjoy the present.  It is all that we have.

Read all published posts from the Notebook Series here.

Stay tuned for the stories that accompany each of these in the coming weeks.

So much love, from home.

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