Let go of the banana!

What’s your banana?

Here in Malaysia we see monkeys pretty much every day 😀. A family of shy Disney-eyed Dusky Leaf’s climb and munch and leap in the trees right outside our home. We also have troops of mischievous macaques – their bandit-like “smash 'n grab” tactics making me walk a little faster if I’m carrying bags of food home (I haven’t been robbed yet, but it’s a matter of time!).

Anyway, yesterday my husband and I watched a macaque stealthily steal a half-open coconut from a stall, just as the seller turned his back. Now, over the past six months we’ve learnt that macaques are stubborn creatures, they do not give up, no matter how much trouble they get themselves into. And seeing this reminded me of the story of the monkey, the coconut and the banana.

So it goes: farmers in India have a particular way of catching monkeys who steal their crops. Luckily for the monkeys, the farmers don’t want to shoot or kill them, so have invented a compassionate way of trapping them before returning them to the jungle.

Therefore, in case you ever have to compassionately catch a monkey, here’s how you do it (warning: you’ll find out a whole lot about your own mind if you do this):

1. Cut a small hole in a coconut, just big enough for a monkey to slide his hand through.
2. Pop a banana inside the coconut.
3. Tie the coconut to the side of a tree.
4. Wait for monkey.

This is what happens:

1. Monkey appears, checks out coconut and smells banana.
2. Sticks his hand inside the coconut and grabs the banana.
3. Tries to pull the banana out, but because his hand is clenched around the banana, his fist is now too big to get it back out of the small hole.

But here’s the “catch”:

The monkey refuses to let go of the banana.

He will not.

Even though all he has to do is let go of the banana and his hand will be free. So there sits the monkey with his hand around a banana inside a coconut, that he’s refusing to let go of, and the farmer arrives a while later and catches him.

And this is quite funny isn’t it? I mean what a stupid stubborn monkey! He just had to let go of the banana and he’d be free!

But are we really that much different when it come to our thoughts? Refusing to let go, regardless of whether they serve us?

Our juicy dramas, ruminating ‘what-ifs’, angers, emotional pains…

Like the monkey, all we have to do is let go to be free.

Mindfulness and meditation train our inner-monkey how to let go of thoughts that trap us and hold us back. Remind us that, instead, freedom is there for the taking 🍌 🙂

Macaque, finally enjoying his banana.

Dusky Leaf mummy & baby chilling in the trees.

Happy Tuesday 🙂

Love,
Jo x