This episode is available to members of Living Myth Premium. Subscribe today and receive bonus episodes each month, access to the full Living Myth archives of over 600 episodes and a 30% discount on all online events, courses and audio/book titles.

On this episode of Living Myth, Michael Meade tells two ancient tales about what keeps our hearts captive and restricted rather than being open, loving and wise. Our hearts can be capable of great love and true courage; yet when opportunities come for us to change and grow, old fears awaken and the inner walls tend to tighten as the ego or little-self within us restricts our hearts from opening more fully. In the same way that something greater than ourselves once wounded us, something greater than ourselves seeks to awaken through us, but some practices for letting go may be required for true awakenings to occur.

In the old way of understanding, each person comes to the world with something golden inside intended to be shared with others and given to the world. Yet, when the inner golden sense of self is rejected or met with indifference or envy, the heart begins to close around itself. The inner gold is still there and the deep self within us remains capable of great love and true courage. However, when opportunities come for us to change and grow, the old fears awaken and the inner walls tend to tighten as the ego or little-self within us restricts our hearts from opening more fully.

For the greater self within to be revealed, some core issues must be faced and the grip of the little-self must be loosened. Because each soul born is unique, there's no telling what might open a particular heart and reveal the gold within it. Often a guide or a teacher must be found and the right practice must be applied in order to release the stubborn hold of the little-self.

In an old teaching story, a certain person felt stuck in life and after much suffering realized that he needed help. The seeker managed to find a teacher and asked for practice that would help open his heart and his life to wisdom. After observing the fellow, the teacher surprisingly advised him to begin giving money to anyone who insulted him for a period of three years. What could he do? Either he could surrender and pay the price for waking up or else he would remain stuck as he had been for so long.

The troubled fellow decided to submit to the strange practice. Although confused at first, he soon learned to return insults and mistreatment with a reward. Since he tended to be an arrogant and somewhat abrasive person, he had ample opportunities to attend to his new practice. At the end of the three year period, the student returned to the teacher and reported on his odd success. He had managed to give away a good deal of what he possessed, primarily to those who gave him insults. The teacher applauded him, announced that he was now ready to learn wisdom and told him that the next step involved a journey to a distant city.

The seeker enjoyed the trip, feeling at ease in the knowledge that he had already paid his dues. As he approached the gates of the great city, he saw a man sitting near the entrance as both the holy ones and beggars are inclined to do. Although the man had the appearance of a saint, he had the behavior of a lout. He loudly hurled insults at whoever came or went through the gates of the city. No one high or low was allowed to pass without suffering some humiliation. And the strangest thing of all was the uncanny accuracy that each insult delivered.

When it came the disciple’s turn to receive the rough greeting, the insult landed firmly. The difference was that the disciple burst out laughing and seemed to find great joy where others felt offended and abused. “Why are you laughing when I have so accurately insulted you," asked the gate guardian. "Most people feel wounded when their hidden weakness becomes revealed.” "I have to laugh,” said the disciple, “because for three years I have been paying for this kind of thing in hopes of finding wisdom. And now you give it to me for free." "Please enter the holy city, my friend," said the gatekeeper, “all within is yours for the taking.” The student of insults entered and enjoyed the place because he had found the place in himself that needed to open up and be healed and become clear.

It is not hard to imagine that the seeker originally had trouble dealing with criticism and took any suggestion that he must change as an insult. Of course, that is often the case with those who readily criticize and insult others. The man also had an unconscious way of berating and belittling himself. Isn't it true that what we do to others, we tend to do more so to ourselves? Insulting others was how his little-self kept him from feeling his own vulnerability as he made others pay for his lack of self-acceptance. Once he had to pay for insults, he became focused on his own weakness and inner entrapment.

By the time he reached the holy city, he was ready for a breakthrough and only needed one more insult to be released from his inner prison. Once he broke through the inner walls that kept his heart captive, he became able to enter the shining city of life and love and enter it with an open heart.

The lesson for us is that in order to truly change, we have to let go of who we think we are. Early in life we had to form the ego or little-self in order to protect our true self. Later in life, what originally protected us will cause us great harm if we don't learn how to let go of it. Unfortunately, letting go of the habitual patterns of the little-self turns out to be one of the greatest difficulties in life. Were that not so, many more would have escaped the traps that keep us self-restricted and self-involved and anything but free.

While it is understandable that we may try to blame others for what keeps us stuck in life; eventually it becomes clear that the practice of blaming others is another form of self-entrapment. This was well known in ancient India, where the old sages were careful observers of the nature of life. They noticed similarities between certain animal behaviors and human tendencies for self-entrapment. They describe how hunters developed a foolproof method of capturing monkeys who are quick and clever by nature. Although the monkeys could quickly dismantle many kinds of traps, they could be induced to entrap themselves. The kind of trap that they could not escape involved a trick that pinned them in the clutches of their own nature.

The hunters would take a large coconut, hollow it out and make a hole just big enough for a monkey's paw to pass through it. Some tempting fruit would be placed inside the hollow coconut, which was securely pinned to the ground. A monkey would approach and become full of desire for the fragrant food inside the shell. But, as soon as the paw of the monkey slipped through the hole and grabbed the fruit, the poor creature would be caught in the trap. The fist holding the fruit was now too large to pass back through the hole in the shell.

Of course, to become free of the trap, all the monkey had to do was release what it held so tightly. Liberation was right at hand and only required the act of letting go. Yet, most monkeys would cling to the desired object and lose the greater freedom that was also within their grasp.

People are seen to be close to monkeys in many ways and can be just as self-limiting and even self-destructive. It can be difficult for us to let go of a familiar way of being, even when it has become more of a trap than a meaningful way to live. Some people hold on to another person long after the once fruitful relationship has begun to feel like a trap. Others cling to a career that no longer pays off or hold onto some bitterness that keeps everything in a stuck place. When it comes to loving, we can become trapped by fearing to even reach for what we desire as well as failing to hold it once it appears.

Our souls want us to transform, but even after life begins to feel like a complete trap, the monkey-minded little-self will prefer clinging to a familiar pain rather than risking a true change of being. Once we do recognize that we are in the position of the monkey clinging to something that cannot even be enjoyed, the issue is not who set up the trap or why. The issue becomes how do we let go and stop abandoning ourselves to predictable forms of self-entrapment.

No matter what age or stage of life we might be in, the issue eventually becomes the captive heart and what risks we might take, what practices we might need in order to free ourselves from the trap that restrains our love and restricts our life. In the same way that something greater than ourselves once wounded us, something greater than ourselves seeks to awaken through us and through the specific wounds that we carry. When the heart within our heart opens, we become more capable of love and more able to be vessels through which creative and healing energies can enter the world.

SUPPORT MOSAIC

Please consider a donation to Mosaic to support the podcast and help us continue our creative efforts to use myth, story and imagination to find ways to heal, renew and restore both culture and nature.

LIVING MYTH PREMIUM

LISTENER COMMENTS

“I cannot recommend this podcast more highly. It is true art/poetry/story medicine and an antidote for the divisive messages surrounding us.” 

"I'm so grateful to have found this podcast.  The way Michael Meade weaves myth and applies it to the current times we live in really helps me to navigate the challenges I've faced."

"The wisdom and deep perspective that flows through Michael Meade is medicine for me in these times of radical change and uncertainty."