seven. Ishi and the Elephant.

“Slowly, progressively, at your own time, come back to the group and when you are ready, open your eyes.”  This line is the line that I will always remember Ishi by. He is a smaller man always cloaked in white pants and a matching shirt that never fails   to catch the passing breeze. This phrase is how Ishi brings his students out of meditation without fail. Many times it was so faint it felt like a whispers seaping into my ears and pulling my conscious mind back to this world.

He studies the healing power of the yogas and Vipassana meditation and had for the 14 years before I met him during a retreat in the Thai islands. I know very little about his life before coming to the island but, I do know this: Ishi was born in Greece, but moved to South America when he is a boy.  He once was a successful businessman, an engineer, and a black belt in karate. A series of unfortunate events left him realizing that his wealth was just a temporary gift from the universe (as all things are)-ones that for him was quickly taken away.

Ishi was a man of stories and it’s how he taught us lessons. He learned many of these from his spiritual leaders, especially Osho.

The story below was one that has stuck with me.

“ When I was a boy I would go to the circus. I would admire how magnificently large the elephants were.  I would daydream about elephants, I would dream that one day I would be as strong and mysterious as they are. One day as I was leaving the circus I peeked my head around a curtain, and there I saw an elephant- but something else caught my eye. This huge creature was being held there by the chain around his ankle and a tiny stick wedged in the shallow ground. “Just by a stick?” I thought.  I couldn’t wrap my mind around why such a large animal wouldn’t just pull the stick out of the ground and run back to the freedom that was surely more conducive to a happy life of an elephant then the circus! I started to ask many people why this was so and no one seemed to have an answer.

Finally, one day after the Friday night show I snuck behind the curtain again and asked the trainer this question. “ Why doesn’t the elephant use it’s strength to pull the stick from the ground?” The trainer knelt down and explained that when the elephant was a baby, they started to wrap the chain around its leg. Back then, since it was much smaller- it did not have the strength to pull the stick from the ground. He explained that the elephant tried to get loose from the chains for days, but eventually it believed the idea that it wasn’t strong enough and stopped trying. Even as the elephant got older and grew in wisdom and weight, the small stick still keeps it from freedom, not because it cannot move the stick- but because it simply believes that it cannot, and that belief has created a new reality for the elephants life; one that has kept it in chains.”

It’s hard for me sometimes to see myself as the strong spirit I have become. I have most assuredly  grown from the many experiences the world has thrown at me- forcing me at times to learn more wisdom and gain more strength.

It’s also hard for me at times to remember that the chains I may have been too small to break away from as a child are only still tied around my spirit because I still choose to believe in my inability to overcome them. As soon as I stop believing it, my reality will transform, and I will be free.

It is also very clear to me how simple the solutions are to most “challenges” in my life. In my future, I am going to try to see my sticks, and pull them out of the ground. Much like those elephants, it would only take one moment of courage to create a new ending, no matter how many years some idea has kept you from growing.