The Frog and the Lame Goat

To a frog that’s never left his pond the ocean seems like a gamble. Look what he’s giving up: security, mastery of his world, recognition! The ocean frog just shakes his head. “I can’t really explain what it’s like where I live, but someday I’ll take you there.”

Rumi,The 13th century mystic, has a distinct way of describing change. Moving through the trials of a familiar life and arriving at the intersection of two worlds does take some adjustment. Old beliefs are altered and they become new thoughts. Those thoughts change experiences as well perceptions.

Rumi explains that change this way:

In a boat down a fast-running creek,
It feels like trees on the bank
Are rushing by. What seems
To be changing around us
Is rather the speed of our craft
Leaving this world.

Transformation is experienced at different times in physical life. It’s safe to say that this movement is an ongoing process even though we are unaware of what we are creating. When we realize we move into another reality every moment, the definition of change is dramatically altered. We are constantly moving through the fast-running creek of consciousness. The contrast we create are tools that implement change.


Rumi says this about contrast:

Be patient.
Respond to every call
That excites your spirit.

Ignore those that make you fearful
And sad, that degrade you
Back toward disease and death.

The ocean of consciousness has enormous waves as well as calming currents. In this ocean of awareness, the physical self continues to express the duality of change in order to know, as well as sense the complexity and the simplicity of consciousness.

Rumi tells this story about the self: The Lame Goat

You’ve seen a herd of goats
Going down to the water.
The lame and dreamy goat
Brings up the rear.

There are worried faces about that one,
But now they’re laughing,
Because look, as they return,
That goat is leading!

There are many different kinds of knowing.
The lame goat’s kind is a branch
That traces back to the roots of presence.

Learn from the lame goat,
And lead the herd home.

The frog and the lame goat are two aspects of the same self expressing consciousness using different imagery. They both find themselves experiencing conscious knowing. That knowing can't be fully explained, but it can be appreciated.