How to bag your monkey

Autumn is in the air.  Trees are getting ready to release their old leaves.  It makes perfect sense.  If you were a tree, would you want to be weighed down by leaves that have served their purpose, or would you thank them for their service and return them to the earth?  Trees naturally release that which no longer serves them.  There’s no sense in their hanging on to them.  The leaves are released to the ground to continue the next stage of their journey: whether it’s to compost slowly and nourish the ground or to provide shelter for hibernating creatures.

Just like the weather changes with the seasons, in Traditional Chinese Medicine our bodies change with the seasons as well.  Each season is linked to certain organs.  Tuning into the season and the associated organ is like fine-tuning your body so it can play more beautifully. 

Autumn is associated with the lungs.  Ebbing and flowing like the tide, your beautiful lungs fill you with necessary oxygen and, when we exhale, we let go of all the old air and make way for fresh breath.  It feels uncomfortable to hold your breath for longer than necessary, to resist the urge to let go and release. 

I wonder if one of the reasons why every year, there are many respiratory viruses that seem to flourish at this time of year, is because we can sometimes find it difficult to let go.  The lungs are associated with the emotion of grief.  When grief isn’t expressed or released, it finds other ways to make its presence felt.  It doesn’t necessarily refer to the physical loss of a loved one, but perhaps might indicate sadness at the end of one way of life and the start of a new phase, or an inability to let go.

There is a Buddhist parable that illustrates the harm of a reluctance to let go of something.

The Monkey and the Coconut

Long ago, in a lush green forest, a hunter devised a method to catch a monkey without resorting to force or cages.  The hunter had been carefully observing the clever, agile monkeys for a while and noticed that their one weakness was their inability to let go of something they desired.

The hunter devised a trap.  He hollowed out a coconut and carved a small hole in it, just large enough for the monkey’s hand to slip through.  Inside the coconut, he put a piece of sweet papaya. Then, he secured the coconut to a tree and left it out where the monkeys played.

A little later, a curious monkey came across the coconut. Its nose twitched as it smelled the fruit hidden inside. The monkey reached its hand into the hole and wrapped its fingers around the prize. But when it tried to pull its hand back out, it could not. The hole was too small for the monkey’s fist.

Frustrated, the monkey tugged and pulled with all its might, but the harder it tried, the more the trap held firm. It screeched in anger and yanked again and again. But the monkey was still trapped by its refusal to let go of the fruit inside.

Hours passed, and the monkey grew tired, yet it still clung to the fruit, unwilling to release its prize.

Meanwhile, the hunter, knowing the monkey would be too focused on the fruit to flee, slowly approached. The monkey could see him coming, but instead of running, it stayed stuck, hand clenched, unable to escape.

All it needed to do to be free was let go. The fruit was not worth its freedom.

By the time the monkey finally released its grasp, it was too late. The hunter had bagged his monkey.

What could you let go of and release this week?  What's weighing you down unnecessarily? 

Release it and breathe freely.