I recently spoke about an
experiment that was done where five monkeys were put in a cage with a banana
hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the cage and a ladder going up to it.
At first, the monkeys tried one by one to climb the ladder to get the banana.
But each time one started to climb, the researcher sprayed the climbing monkey
with water as well as the other four monkeys.
Soon enough the monkeys
learned that if one of them climbed the ladder, they all suffered, and
eventually, none of them tried to climb at all.
At this point, the
researcher replaced one of the monkeys with a “new monkey” that knew nothing of
the water. Not surprisingly, as soon as he saw the banana hanging from the
ceiling, he ran to climb the ladder. Before the researcher was even able to
spray him, the other four monkeys rushed that monkey and beat him to the ground.
The same thing happened when they replaced yet another one of the
original monkeys with a new one until eventually all the monkeys in the cage
were “new.” Even though none of them had experienced the cold water, whenever a
new monkey entered the cage and tried to climb the ladder, they beat him to the
ground without really knowing why. As far as they were concerned, they didn’t
climb the ladder because that was the way it was done.
Why do I share
this experiment? Well basically it is a powerful illustration of the thinking
that all of us can fall into in our spiritual work. For example, when we first
come to spirituality, we may say to ourselves: “Wow, this is amazing!!” Excited
and inspired, we learn, we ask questions, and we go and tell all our friends and
family about our new realizations. In the beginning we have this invigoration of
energy.
However, after we stay a while we lose a bit of this desire. We
no longer go for bananas. Because we don’t see the big picture, we blindly
accept what is right in front of us, and we don’t seek out more. We just sort of
accept that we don’t need to go for the bananas. We do things because “this is
how it is done,” or we just “go with the flow.”
Unfortunately or
fortunately, we need to understand that if we truly want something in this world
we first have to have the desire for it. If we want to be well, if we want to
quit an addiction, if we want to change anything in our lives, large or small,
we must have a desire for it. Everything starts with desire.
You know
within each and every one of us there are two forces. There is the little Light
inside of us that nudges us and says, “Don’t do that,” “help your friend,” or
“go out of your way to make that phone call.” And then there is another much
louder voice, the Desire to Receive for the Self Alone, which says: “It’s only
once. It won’t bother you. Take a little extra for yourself. Cheat your partner,
he won’t even know, or, who’s going to see you there?” The question is which
side are we listening to?
This time of year is the perfect opportunity to
ask ourselves again: What’s it all about? Is it about the few moments of
pleasure or is it about being victorious against that pleasure? What is our job
in this world? Are we doing the things that will bring Light to ourselves and
others? Are we going for the bananas or have we resigned ourselves to that loud
voice in our head that says, “It doesn’t matter anyway?”
Each one of us
has a little Light that is going to burn out in 20, 30, 50, or however many
years. In this holiday season, may we all develop a true desire that will result
in blessings for each of us and the world.
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