"Every thought you have ever had has disappeared. What a liberating discovery".

David Michie

"Picture a canyon, enclosed by high mountains on every aspect, where a lone wolf pauses at a shielded entrance and stares into the distance, to consider whether or not it should enter. With some trepidation and with slow and steady step, it proceeds... cautiously.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar sound causes the hairs on its back to bristle. Wolf is afraid. It howls - loudly. Just once. Within moments a potential assailant responds - howling louder and with more veracity than Wolf's somewhat hesitant attempt at intimidation. What's more, there were others. Wolf knew it because there was not only more than one sound, but each note carried with it a variation in tone.

Wolf was facing a pack! And, it had nowhere to turn. It couldn't run, it couldn't hide. It just had to stand firm and face it out. Wolf howled, then barked, again - louder and louder. In an escalating crescendo mix of barking and howling it sent a warning to those who threatened its territory not to come any closer. The pack returned its efforts in equal measure. Over and over again, Wolf sounded its note. Note after note the pack responded. And so it continued. For many, many days, followed by an equal number of whimpering nights, Wolf continued to fight with a pack that never put in an appearance, that never harmed a hair on its head and that had never, ever, really threatened its physical survival.

In the end, with one, long, whimpering sigh, Wolf gave up; it had no energy left for conflict and would fight no more. Every now and again it would hear the pack, but their cries seemed less threatening, more distant, and, even though Wolf had never come face to face with the adversaries, it had become wise to their ways. At the dawning of a new day, at some point in an undetermined future, Wolf turned about and left the canyon. It never heard the pack again".

With a little stretch of the imagination we might draw some parallels between Wolf's predicament and those who are stuck on the hamster wheel of endless thought, especially if those thoughts feed a mind prone to paranoia. But is an anxious mind more normal than we give it credit for? Are there far more of us hiding our inner demons beneath a superficial layer of positivity than society would have us believe? What about you, might you be one of them? "Every thought you have ever had has disappeared" - has it? has it really? It is clear, in this instance, that they haven't, so how can we learn from Wolf's experience and do something about this endless wheel that has an in-built capacity to drive us nuts?

At the outset Wolf, in spite his fear (we'll assume for now he's male), was comfortable in entering unfamiliar territory with curiosity (perhaps?) getting the better of his misgivings. Until, that is, something spooked him. Learnt programs, reactive behaviour and, above all, primal survival instinct, kicked in to address the resurgence of fear he felt inside; before you knew it he was spinning round and round on a hamster wheel of terror behaving only as a wolf knows how to behave in such circumstances - defensively, and with aggression. The pack, of course, mirrored his behaviour perfectly. They were, after all, the echoes of his own reactive behaviour returning to their point of origin; nothing more , nothing less. Don't forget the scene for our story is set in a canyon - and canyons create lots of echoes! The more Wolf bellowed, the more prolific the response, and the more prolific the response, the more threatening his aggressors appeared to be. In short, Wolf got back in equal measure what he gave out - and a bit more beside. That's the thing with echoes, they multiply with each resonance until they create a symphony!

Now, lets join a few dots. As you may have gathered the wolf, is you. What may not be so obvious is the parallel between your thoughts and a demented creature fighting with invisible adversaries in a fictional canyon. Stop for a moment and think about it. When your mind is wrapped up in thoughts that you have little or no control over are your responses so very different from those of the wolf? Are you even aware of your thought processes from one moment to the next? Its ok if you're not - that's what this blog is really all about! And so, without knowing anything about the behaviour of thought how may you draw parallels between echoes in an obvious amplifier of sound and 'something' that is so subtle it presents as a vanishing act the moment it is birthed?

Believe it or not, thought behaves in a manner not dissimilar to echoes, and always returns to its point of origin - in this case, you - albeit by a seemingly more circuitous and less detectable route. There are many levels to the plane of mind through which thought must pass before its original intention (whether its been set consciously or not) is worked out and the resultant effects are returned to its source; the laws governing their rite of passage are deep, profound, far-reaching in their effects and beyond the scope of this blog - for now it is enough that you are aware these laws exist and that they serve as a foundation to what follows. Now, back to Wolf!

Revisit our story and apply it to the parallels we have drawn to the behaviour of thought. Can you see how easy it is to be driven to distraction by something that might not even be real? Take anxiety, for example, how often have you gone round and round in your head trying to figure out or fix something that may or may not happen in the future? And what about the past, how many times do you get sucked into grievances or events that happened years ago, yet you find impossible to let go of? If my experience is anything to go by, far too many, I should imagine. So, what can we do about it? Even if you are not ready to step off the hamster wheel, how might you, at the very least, slow it down so you have space to see your thought-demons clearly?

Here's a few suggestions:-

• Be more Wolf and stop barking. Remember thoughts, just like echoes, keep the wheel in perpetual motion.
• Be aware of what you are thinking. Easier said than done as, for the most part, we aren't even aware that thoughts are being generated all the time.
• Be aware of what you are feeling.
• Notice when thoughts and feelings become entangled - a biggy! Thoughts wrapped up with feelings (and vice versa) give rise to stories and stories, in their turn, magnify the 'echoes' so a whole new reality emerges. Think of Wolf, consumed by fear, and believing a pack of wolves was after him.
• Let go. Arresting a train of thought is not an easy task and takes practice. Be kind to yourself and keep going.
• Observe the echoes. Remember, just because you are 'not barking' doesn't mean the end of the echoes. They are still 'out there' and will at some point in time, return. See them for what they are, let them go, and, importantly, don't bark again!
• Leave the canyon. In other words, if your life situation is such that you find it impossible to implement the changes you so desperately desire, be like Wolf - turn around and walk away.

Lastly, out of respect to Pagpa, who inspired my rather ebullient tale (in his version Wolf was a dog), I will conclude with a few words on karma. Generated in a like manner to mind, including its echoes, the effects of karma have their origin (and echoes) in multiple planes of existence; in the context of you and your daily life the source of its effects are your thoughts, your words and your deeds. The law of karma ensures that every cause will see its resultant effects enacted and returned to its originator whether its source is human or Divine; death is no barrier to the working out of this law, it continues from life to life. So, to address our opening questions, unless we abide in the realm of causes how can we possibly determine the origin thought, how can we know if it's effects are rooted in our own misdemeanours or if they are down to the will of some entity whose abode is in the realms of the gods? How, can we know?

But, 'to bark, or not to bark...?' Now there's a question we can answer... Can't we?

'Wolf' courtesy

www.livingwithwolves.org