Tag: horse

Letting Go of Those Reigns.

There’s a story in Zen circles about a man and a horse.

The horse is galloping quickly away, while a dear man clings to saddle with all of his might.

“Where are you going?” asks a young man from the road side.

“I don’t know!” he shouts. “You’ll have to ask the horse!”

Such is the nature of our ‘habit’ energy – that we might instinctively cling, without ever questioning our path.

“We are always running,” writes Thich Nhat Hanh. “We are riding a horse, we don’t know where we are going, and we can’t stop. The horse is our habit energy pulling us along, and we are powerless.”

Indeed, how easily we fall into the energy of habit. Someone says or does something unkind – and we are instantly pulled from our ‘resting’ space.

And, try as we might – it pulls, it pushes, it nudges, and it grinds. Until the energy of habit, outweighs our need to be free.

As a result, we may act in ways we might later regret – vowing never, ever, ever to fall into ‘that’ place again. But, just as soon as one habit ends – like a wild horse, another one quickly ushers in.

Until that moment, when we finally understand – in letting go of those ‘reigns’ we can take on this world.

Much love, my darlings ~ <3