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jimsun

Guest
#1
#1
Has anyone ever stopped to consider how some folk may do certain things out of sheer instinct without regard?
The best I can illustrate what I mean is by using the allegory, used within Dojos of Shotokan Karate, of the frog & the scorpion; thus;

One day a frog was swimming in a river when a scorpion crawled up to the water's edge.
"Please", said the scorpion, "I wish to cross the river - Take me on your back".
The frog replied; "This I cannot do, for once you are on my back you will sting me & kill me".
"Kind frog", said the scorpion, "If you would but permit me on your back, I swear, on the graves of my ancestors, that I would never do you any harm let alone sting you. It is that I need your help as I cannot swim & will drown were I to enter the river. Again I promise you, by all that matters to me, I bear you no harm, seeking only safe passage across the water"
After much though, the frog decided he believed the scorpion & agreed to carry him across the river. So the frog swam to the river bank where the scorpion jumped jumped onto his back.
The frog set off for the opposite side of the river, with his passenger on his back. However, on reaching the opposite bank, the scorpion hopped off the frog's back &,quick as a flash, turned & stung him.
As the frog began to sink beneath the water, feeling the poison coarsing through his veins, he looked to the scorpion & pleaded; "You said you would not harm me. I believed & trusted you yet you stung me, despite you'r assurances that you would not harm me. - Why?

The scorpion turned to look at the frog, merely shrugged his shoulders, and said;
"I'm a scorpion"!
 
S

Steve4U

Guest
#2
#2
Ah, yes.

Is it more of God to be thinking and circumspect or pure and single-minded, like the animals?


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(But you're a 'funny' dear man with your animal stories my friend :):))

.
 
D

dmdave17

Guest
#3
#3
Unfortunately, Scripture tells us that we are all born into sin; therefore, our instincts should not be trusted (in my opinion). It would serve us all well to remember that "craze" that swept the nation a few years back, "What would Jesus do?".
 
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Steve4U

Guest
#4
#4
A good craze, I think, but I often refine it. In this way: when confronted with a "what shall I do?", I recognise: it's the wrong question. The right is: "What is God asking you to do?"

Then we are in the spiritual realm.

My early mistakes were to be instantly reactive (anti-intellectual and pure) trusting that was God's way.

That may be the best way to choose jewelry; but not God's will. I am a reformed character.

.
 
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jimsun

Guest
#5
#5
A couple of years ago, I was lucky to be sent to Tokyo for a month & got to train with a Dojo of the ISKF.
Their Sensei had a favourite adage:
"Even Monkeys Fall From Trees".
It sticks in my mind, even today, as a so true observation of all that we are & meet in life!
 
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Steve4U

Guest
#6
#6
Haha, sometimes it seems like it's raining monkeys!

...

There's tremendous wisdom in the little fable, is there not, and the greatest exponent is of course... (you know it), engaging the hearer instantly with the application to life.

(Aesop's of course were a little world-weary, and) the parables of Christ were on a whole new level. But a picture tells a thousand words, and the word picture is the same I find.

I love the wide-mouth frog, who speaks with big voice and bigger smile to everyone he meets, until he comes to the river and meets a big over-size young crocodile, who says "mum told me to eat wide-mouth frogs, have you seen any around here?", and the frog says (keep your lips together) "no, sorry, I don't know what they look like."
 
J

jimsun

Guest
#7
#7
Ha ha - Never heard that before.

Our son's high school human rights group is "twinned" with Buddhist temple & school. As such they often receive short essays from the students at the temple.
It's amazing how the same essay can be read by 3 students yet it's message interpreted 3 different ways.
 
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Steve4U

Guest
#8
#8
It's the same on here, isn't it. You can read a mild or funny message, then the next post comes over "I never said that" or similar 'tunnel vision'.

...I tell you what's disconcerting though:

When you go back and read your own posts after a few days... You can see how people get the wrong idea.
 
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