“In the extraordinary Yogic text called the ‘Yoga [Vasistha’], written several thousand years ago, the story is told of the crow and the coconut…
A crow alights on a coconut tree and at the very same moment, by chance, a ripe coconut falls. These two unrelated events seem to be related in time and space, though in fact there is no causal relation. A man sitting under the tree would think ‘it is because of the crow that I am now eating this wonderfully ripe coconut.’
The meaning of this parable is profound…In the story, there seems to be a cause-effect relationship between the crow and the falling of the coconut, but this is only how it appears and is due to our lack of understanding. If we could see the wider picture, we would see that there is no relationship between the crow and the falling coconut.” (1)
My life changed this morning when I heard this parable. What wonderful freedom this parable suggests.
My education included a lot of science; I studied physics and chemistry all through high school (the only girl in my physics class – that’s a topic for another blog)
What I learned was that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. I learned all the laws of “cause and effect”. Knowing that when we mix this chemical with that and you get a predictable outcome.
Now as I listened to the crow and the coconut parable it suggests that there are things that are not causal and some events/ reactions are not necessarily anything to do with any other event or action.
Hhhhmmm Food for thought
