Splat!

There was a very popular video game in the early 80's called Frogger. The object of the game was to get frogs to their homes one by one. The frogs had to cross a busy road and then navigate a river filled with an assortment of hazards.

Life, it seems, can be much like an arcade game. I recently managed to get caught up in what might be described as a mental Frogger marathon! Ajahn Pasanno calls this being trapped in the moving mind. Just like the game of Frogger, no matter how good you think you are, eventually...Splat!!

A couple of weeks ago I was awakened in the middle of the night with chest pain and eventually wound up in the hospital. After a dizzying array of tests, it was determined that the pain I had experienced was the result of stress. Stress? What stress?? I'm not stressed! As the doctor was telling me that my diet sucked, I drink too much coffee, I am, after all, not 25 anymore, I had just gone through a hectic summer ending with the loss of my mother...my mind was busy ticking off a long list of all the things I should be doing instead of lying in a hospital bed feeling foolish.

We are taught as young children not to run out into traffic. The danger is pretty easy to explain and to understand. The traffic found in the mind is another story! Without mindfulness we suddenly dart out, blind to the danger. It's really quite amazing. Even as we study and practice the teachings of the Buddha, there are those times when it's as if we've not learned a thing. Trapped in the moving mind. How easy it is to step right back into it.

I'm Lost, But I'm Really Movin'
a Dhamma Teaching by Ajahn Pasanno