A Tale of Two Realities
How a Buddhist parable about tigers and the strawberries offers clues to living a magical life. You have a Choice of which world you live in... and one of them is epically beautiful.
There are two worlds. There’s just are.
One is filled with politics, celebs, and constant battles between left and right.
The other is filled with trees, ancestors, and timeless Wisdom.
They’re both here all the time.
But they feel different… look different… smell different…
Honestly, I feel a tremendous lightness about 2025. I look around and I see hope, joy, magic everywhere.
And yes, I know the world is burning down.
Literally in some places. (Blessings and prayers for the people and communities affected by the LA fires.)
So many of us don’t want this world to be the way it is… but the hard truth is that the world as we know it has to crumble for anything new to be born.
Of course the old world is dying! Of course the systems and structures that aren’t working are falling apart. And of course, this is incredibly painful to watch.
But the presence of pain doesn’t diminish the experience of Beauty.
It only challenges our ability to attend to it.
There’s an ancient Zen parable—a koan—that speaks to the predicament we’re in right now:
A monk was traveling across the countryside when he came upon a tiger, lying in a field of tall grass. The tiger immediately sprang at him, and the monk began to flee.
Before long, the monk came to a sharp cliff. Without thinking, he grabbed a wild vine growing nearby and swung himself over the edge—beyond the reach of the tiger.
Yet no sooner had he escaped one danger, but he looked down to see that another hungry tiger was waiting a the bottom of the cliff! There was no escape. Only the vine held him safe.
Just then, two mice—one white and one black—crawled out of a hole in the cliff face and began to gnaw on the vine.
Suddenly, the monk noticed a luscious strawberry growing from the side of the cliff. He reached out and plucked the strawberry.
How sweet it tasted!
The world is full of insanity. Terrible things happen every day. We’re living in an age of destruction.
All of those things are true.
And at the same time…
The strawberries taste magical.
There’s a lot of pressure to occupy the world of destruction. So many are trapped there. Surely it’s unkind to abandon them.
But the truth is that many people would gladly enter a wider reality of Beauty… if only they knew how.
Far from being unkind, your willingness to move beyond present traumas into a timeless space of freedom, Love, Beauty, and joy offers possibilities for others as well.
Can you give yourself permission to go where your heart is calling?
Your footprints show the way for those who wish to follow.
It’s not giving up…
It’s giving in to a wider way of being.
Living magically doesn’t mean we pretend there are no tigers.
It simply means we eat the strawberry in spite of the tigers.
Oh—and in case you hadn’t heard yet…
Heretic simply means:
ONE WHO IS ABLE TO CHOOSE.
I am so nourished to read this. I have always had the view of looking on the bright side of things and finding beauty in the mess. It’s just my natural inclination. I see all the tough stuff that is happening in the world, but choose not to focus on it. It is so hard sometimes to be this way when so many people judge it and call me naive or tell me I’m just “sticking my head in the sand”. I just choose to live in the beauty of the world and let that be my focus, my driving force. Thank you so much for these words!
I love this, Allysha! I have heard this parable before, many times, it is one of my favorites. There are always two sides. They are the polarities, the opposites, and they are constantly tugging and pushing at each other. But there is this middle ground called the liminal, the vesica piscis, the sweet spot. In this case the strawberry!
I appreciate your words, “your footprints show the way for those who wish to follow.” I am at a point where I MUST go my own way. Painful at times, but that is where the fullness of life is for me. And there are times I pretend there are no tigers, I fall into the story of lack, compliance, etc. Yet the strawberry is there always waiting for my return.