The Pumpkin Trick

That’s easier said than done! But how?

Do you know how they capture monkeys in Indonesia?

Actually they let the monkeys catch themselves. What they do is cut a small hole in a pumpkin, just large enough for a monkey to put its hand in. Next, they would fix the pumpkin to a tree, and fill it with an orange. The monkey would smell the orange, squeeze its hand into the pumpkin, grab the orange in its little monkey-paw and find that its fist would not fit through to exit the hole. The trick is, that the last thing the monkey will think of is to let go of the orange; and it holds itself prisoner.

I believe that most fall for the orange in the pumpkin trick. We become that little monkey, hanging on to “things” that have become our own trap. Attachment is a big theme in Buddhism—how our desire for or attachment to something is a delusion that adds to our suffering. It is a delusion because change is the constant in our life so what we are attached to is not even real-- the thing is not what it was yesterday or will be tomorrow, yet we treat it as if it is permanent. And we tend to idealize the object of attachment or desire.
We must let go of beliefs that hold us prisoners! Some of our negative beliefs are so strong that together they become a prison cell keeping us detained.

It’s so simple to remove those beliefs one by one as we would saw the bars of a prison window. Indeed, what prevents us from dropping the orange, cutting the bars, or unhooking the boat? It’s in our heads, in our belief that have been transmitted to us by our parents, our families, our teachers or our friends, to name a few. They have sent us messages that we believe and have allowed to grow stronger to a point that they became limiting believes. So limiting that we are ready to sacrifice our own happiness.

So what can you do to “escape” the prison of our mind?

Do the Pumpkin trick, grab the orange and relate to the monkey, let go and remove your hand, you will immediately feel what freedom really is.
Or write down on a piece of paper all your limiting believes, cross over them with a red marker and replace them with the following statement:

“This is false, I don’t believe it anymore!”

This article or post is not intended to provide individual advice, which should be obtained directly from your health care professional.