Although this may seem like a homage to a very good friend of mine, considering he is known as Seed Planter, this is really about two lessons he tried to teach me. The thing about Seed Planter is that, for a while, he never understood why he was the seed planter. He always thought of himself as a really good story teller. While I won't deny him that, because he is an awesome story teller, but I realize why he is the seed planter. He was able to explain things about the Universe, the Great Beyond, and life in general through story, much like how are "Native American" ancestors taught their young. He is indeed the Seed Planter by instilling wisdom of the ages through what he does best; telling a great story.
I was recently thinking about this after a conversation with one of my best friends who stated that we, in this day and age have no real philosophers, much like those of Ancient Greece. We only have people who talk about philosophers. I pointed out someone who is very influential in a lot of people's lives; the Dali Lama.
Yet, I also remembered a story that Seed Planter once told me about how a young eagle was hunting for his food and spots a running jack rabbit out in a open field. Now this eagle is thinking "there is my dinner. I must catch him before I starve." And off into the sky he rises and quickly goes into a dive after the rabbit. The rabbit sees his fate and runs as quickly as he can into the nearest form of shelter. The young eagle misses his prey and flies back to his perch to find another source of food. He accepts the fact that this rabbit was too fast for him and moves on to find something else, hopefully easier, to catch.
Quite a simple a story, if you think about it. Not much to it, but it is easy to understand the moral of this story. Something else that Seed Planter gave to me was an anecdote from Carlos Castaneda. This one is a bit more down to earth, in a manner of speaking.
You see, Carlos and Don Juan were walking through the desert on one of their journeys. This was a lifeless desert where water, much less vegetation of any kind, was no where to be seen. They have been walking for days with no shade from the sun, just walking and walking. They walked past a mountain ridge where out of nowhere, a giant tree stood, with bright green leaves and branches that seemed to stretch out for miles. Carlos stood in shock. He couldn't believe nor understand how this tree was able to survive out in a lifeless desert. He went on and on about how they have been traveling for days and seen no sign of life, no water, not even a dry arroyo, and yet, here stood this magnificent tree.
"How could this be?" asks Carlos.
"Pues pendejo, it's for shade!" replied Don Juan, as he sat under the tree and fell asleep.
We often find ourselves rationalizing and questioning things that doesn't come easily explained, and more often than not, things that are, that we often overlook the obvious. We fail to accept that things happen, despite how or why we believe they should happen. To put into more modern terms, this is a prime example of Occam's Razor: the simplest solution is often the right one. Although, this is not exactly what William of Ockham quite meant by this, it is the best way to explain this in modern terms. Once you see past the glitz and glamour of the outer reality, inner perception kicks in and we understand that once we accept what we see, understanding it is inevitable. Like the eagle who failed to catch his meal, he didn't cry and moan about not catching that rabbit. He accepted it as his reality and moved on to something else that he could catch.
These were lessons that were taught to me many years ago, though unfortunately, it took me quite some time to fully understand. I thank Seed Planter for telling me these stories, for now, they helped to put me on the path that I am not walking on.
