Daydreaming: Where do we go? (audio)

Terrence McNally, Dec. 2, 2012 (aWorldThatJustMightWork.com); Wisdom Quarterly

The power of story -- even in Japanese (English below) -- transports us. Where do we go when we go off in our heads full of wonder, or bored, in search of the next story to learn from?

Story taught to monkey, Java (Mararie/flickr)

This week’s show is about story and narrative with Jonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal. Although this is not about Obama or politics, Barry  reveals the overwhelming importance of story in our lives:

In a July 2012 interview with Charlie Rose, Obama said that “the mistake” of the early years of his presidency was his failure to be a better storyteller:

 

The Buddha, master storyteller of Jataka Tales

“The mistake of my first couple of years was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that’s important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times.” If given a second term he says he will “spend more time with the American people, listening to them, but also being in a conversation with them about where do we go as a country?”

The late evolutionary biologist Steven Jay Gould called humans “the primate who tells stories…” And it’s not just Gould. Anthropologists have found societies that have existed for millennia without the wheel, but they’ve never found one that doesn’t tell stories.

 

Siddhartha daydreaming about what it would be like to be free (Nitin_Paul/flickr.com)

 

A World That Just Might Work, the website, leads with: “On the radio, I tell stories of a world that just might work. As a consultant, I help you tell yours.” Building on time as a teacher, two decades in the entertainment industry, and 15 years of radio interviews, I help non-profits, foundations, public agencies, and businesses tell better stories and build better narratives.

 

What does Gottschall have to say about the latest science on the subject? Why is narrative so powerful? What is its evolutionary value? And can what we’re learning help us get even better at tapping its power?

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"The Monkey's Heart" (Rebirth Tale)

Stories of the Buddha's Former Births (The Jataka) edited by E.B. Cowell (Cambridge University Press, 1895), Book 2, No. 20; more at Pitt.edu; updated by Wisdom Quarterly

Mr. Monkey (John Downer/materialismisanaddiction/facebook.com)

   

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta [the "Buddha-to-be"] was reborn in the Himalayan foothills as a monkey. He grew strong and sturdy, with a healthy frame, living by a curve of the river Ganges in the forest.

  

Mr. Crocodile (Jon Sevcik/Naturephoto.cz)

Now at that time there was a crocodile dwelling in the Ganges. The crocodile's mate saw the great frame of the monkey, and she conceived a longing to eat his heart. So she said to her mate, "Sir, I desire to eat the heart of that great king of the monkeys!"

  

"Good wife," answered the crocodile, "I live in the water, and he lives on dry land. How can we catch him?"

  

"By hook or by crook," she replied, "he must be caught. If I don't get him, I shall die."

  

"All right," replied the crocodile, consoling her, "don't trouble yourself. I have a plan. I will give you his heart to eat."

  

Kind monkey kissing kitty (animalszooguru)

When the Bodhisatta was sitting on the bank of the Ganges, after taking a drink of water, the crocodile drew near and said to him, "Good monkey, why do you live on bad fruits in this old familiar place? On the other side of the Ganges there are many mango and labuja trees with fruit sweet as honey! Would it not be better to cross over and gain all kinds of wild fruit to eat?"

  

"Lord crocodile," the monkey answered, "the Ganges is deep and wide. How would I get across?"

  

"Well, if you want to go, I shall let you ride on my back, and I will carry you over."

   

The monkey trusted him and agreed. "Come here, then," beckoned the crocodile. "Up on my back with you!" Up the monkey climbed. But when the crocodile had swum a little way, he plunged the monkey under the water.

  

"Good friend, you are letting me sink!" cried the monkey. "What is that for?"

  

Nagas surround mammal in cage (wikipedia)

The crocodile roared, "You think I am carrying you out of pure good nature? Not a bit of it! My wife has a longing to eat your heart, and I intend to give it to her!"

   

"Friend," explained the monkey, "it is nice of you to tell me. But if our hearts were inside us, when we monkeys go swinging among the tree tops they would be all knocked to pieces!"

   

"Well, then, where do you keep it?" asked the crocodile.

  

The Bodhisatta pointed out a fig tree with clusters of ripe fruit standing close by. "See there," he said, "hanging on that fig tree? There are our hearts."

  

"If you will show me your heart," offered the crocodile, "then I won't kill you."

  

Monkey's kindness to pigeon (paleonym)

"Take me to the tree, and I will point it out to you."

  

The crocodile ferried him to the place. The monkey leaped off his back, and climbing up the fig tree sat high in it. "Oh, silly crocodile!" he yelled back. "You thought that there were creatures that kept their hearts in the treetops! You are silly, and now you are outwitted! You may keep your [karmic] fruit for yourself. Your body is great, but you have no sense!"

  

Then to explain this idea he uttered the following stanzas:
 

Roseapple, jackfruit, mangoes, too, across the water there I see;

Enough of them, I want them not; my fig is good enough for me!

Great your scaly body, verily, but how small your serpent wit!

Now go your own way, crocodile, for I have had the best of it.

   

The crocodile, feeling as silly and miserable as if he had lost a thousand pieces of money, went back sorrowing to the place where he lived. More

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• The Buddha's "twin miracle" as Vaudeville act?
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