A soldier is shot with an arrow in the battlefield.
The field surgeon comes out to inspect and do the needful.
As he is about to pull out the arrow, the soldier says, “No! Don’t pull the arrow out until you find the name of the person who shot me. “
The perplexed surgeon looks at the soldier as he continues, “And I also need to know the name of the village that he came from; and not only that, I need to know the name of his parents and his grandparents on both sides.”
The surgeon, looking at the wound, the bleeding and the formation of redness and growing swelling around the man’s abdomen begins to get impatient.
He attempts to pull out the arrow once again.
The soldier, squirming in pain continues, “Wait. I also need to know the kind of wood the arrow is made from, I need to know the kind of tip the arrow is fitted with, the binding used on the tip, the shaft of the wood.. I want to know the kind of bird the feather came from; is it a goose feather, or is it a duck feather ……….”
By the time the surgeon has answered the questions, the soldier will surely be dead.
The point here is to pull out the arrow; dress the wound; allow the healing to happen; rest and recuperate.
The chance of our encountering pain and suffering is as high as the chances of a soldier being wounded by an arrow in a battlefield.
Instead of dealing with the original wound, we fling more arrows at ourselves. We not only add to the original suffering/dissatisfaction but also do not deal with the central cause of it.
Try and address the central element of dissatisfaction.
A story from the teachings of the Buddha – Heard the analogy from Ajahn Amaro (http://abhayagiri.com)
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