Elephant – Mouse Non-Duality Parable

Sunday, 6 July 2008

African Elephant. Afrikanischer Elefant.The elephant – mouse parable

Imagine an Elephant. A REALLY BIG Elephant.

And that Elephant is hanging out in the middle of nowhere by itself.
And, it is alone. There are no other Elephants – never were and never will be. Now, that’s fine.

One day, the Elephant says:“Gee, I’d like some company, I’d like to play” So, it create s a bunch of teeny-tiny mouse suits. And it, the REALLY BIG Elephant, tries to put on the mouse suit.

Now, obviously, this is a tight fit. To say the least. The Elephant has to leave certain parts of itself out, because they just won’t fit. And, it takes A LOT of mouse suits to hold even a little bit of the Elephant.

The Elephant imbues each mouse suit with the ability to “think” for itself – kinda like winding up a toy and letting it go. Has to give the mice an illusion of free will or what’s the fun? Plus emotions to make it all seem really real – danger is scary, love is dreamy, etc.

Then, the Elephant creates a HUGE playground for the mice. And sets them loose. Now, the Elephant (when in a mouse suit) can experience all the “reality” of being a mouse – hopes, fears, triumphs , pain, loss, gain, etc.

Mice all have to die eventually or the place gets REAL crowded real fast. And, the Elephant uses the death of a mouse as a way to end that particular “reality”/mouse-ness when it is done/bored/tired of it.

On to the next. So birth is a way to get a bit of the Elephant into a new mouse suit (and new associated mouse-life)

Now, imagine that one day one of the mice “realizes” that he is, in fact an Elephant in a mouse suit. Not just heard it from other mice, not just read about, not even “figured it out”. But KNEW this to be true. In effect, the mice voluntarily gave up the “illusion” of being a separate mouse.

Mouse. Maus. Hamster. Rodent.Now, this is very interesting. On the one hand, he’s still got a mouse suit – and all that goes along with it.

But, he also knows, and will for the rest of his life (in that mouse suit) KNOW he is really an Elephant in a mouse suit.

Imagine how odd that would be.

Remember – all the other mice still think they are “real” and separate mice.

Got it?

(From Joe at Wakethemup.org  – website not active anymore)

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