Know Thyself

A Tibetan student was practicing

meditation in his cell when a spider

descended from the ceiling and hung

suspended in front of him.

It slowly spun around, attached to

the end of its web, until the novice

tried to catch it, at which point it

raced back up to the ceiling in a

second.

Every day for a week the student's

meditation was disturbed by the spider.

It even seemed that it was getting

bigger, that it was becoming more

adventurous, and sometimes tried to

swing back and forth in front of him,

with all its legs spread wide.

"This spider is bothering me,"

thought the novice, "and making fun of

me. I'll catch it one day, I know will!"

He became so upset that he went to

ask the advice of his Spiritual Master.

"I hid a knife in my sleeve while I

was meditating," he said. "I wanted to

kill the spider when it came down, but

I didn't succeed. It disappeared the

moment I thought about catching it."

"Replace your knife with a piece of

chalk," the Master replied, "and make a

cross on the spider's back each time it

disturbs your meditation. Come back and

see me in a week."

A week later the novice returned to

his Master's cell and knelt down before

him, his head lowered.

"Lift your robe and look at

yourself," the Master instructed.

To his great surprise, the novice saw

a big X drawn on his own chest.

_________________

This short parable may seem absurd,

and yet it contains a profound truth.

The spider that disturbed the novice

during his meditation was his own bad

conscience, which always surfaces when

we are most relaxed. And what do we do?

We accuse it of trying to harm us, we

say that it is someone else, we seek a

threatening monster to fight with. But

the monster, the spider, is our own

self.

We have to be able to look at

ourselves objectively in order to

overcome our worries, before they

assume a form that we have not chosen.

"Know thyself!"

This phrase is attributed to

Socrates, but it also appears on the

facade of the Temple of Delphi. 2500

years later it is still relevant, and

will always remain so!

Author unknown

Posted by Priya Deelchand