Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, January 24, 2008


Listen to the sound of water.
Listen to the water running through the chasms and rocks.
It is the minor streams that make a loud noise;
the great waters flow silently.

The hollow resounds and the full is still.
Foolishness is like a half-filled pot;
the wise person is a lake full of water.

- Sutta Nipata 720-721


“The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” We most all know that little proverb, yes? And of course, it might be true that the squeaky wheel needs the grease! I suspect that the “squeaky wheel” – the complainer, the whiner, the legalist, etc – is like the “minor stream” making a “loud noise”. They - or we, when we are squeaking - are a “resounding hollow”, empty in some or many ways like a “half-full pot”. Something important is missing.

I wonder if, when we are being a squeaky wheel making our way through the chasms and rocks of Life, we can ever hear ourselves the loud noise we are making, and know that there is a problem we have to deal with. Or, can we learn? Just a thought. I would think that if we are taking our Journey seriously, especially the inner one, we ought to be able to learn to listen to our inner streams. But, I guess we often need help!

A lake can either be “natural” or it can be created. Could it be that sometimes we need to build strategic dams in the right inner places? Dams of “spiritual” practice that allow the full still silent “lake” to be created at our centre, holding in wisdom? This makes for Unsqueaky Wheels. And when needed, the sluices can be opened and healing waters judiciously poured out on whatever needs renewing.

Resounding hollow, or still lake?

Brian+