Tigers + Mice : A Zen Parable

There is a parable that is fairly known in Zen Buddhism that I wanted to share with you.

It's been lodged in the back of my mind during this expanse of time that we might lovingly reflect on as :
"WTF COVID / Quarantine / Political Unrest / Environmental Emergencies / Social Justice Comeuppance"

*Maybe historians will just call this time period "WTF "for short.

This particular parable begins with a traveller walking across a field who encounters a hungry tiger.

The traveller fled the tiger and the tiger chased after him. Coming to the edge of a steep precipice, the traveller caught hold of the root of a wild vine and hurled his body over the edge of the precipice, hanging in mid-air. The tiger above sniffed around the edge, looking for where the traveller had gone.

Trembling, the traveller looked down and saw another hungry tiger, at the bottom of the precipice. Tiger above, tiger below, only the vine between them. Two mice began steadily gnawing at the root of the vine. And from the corner of his eye, the traveller saw a ripe strawberry just within arms reach. He reached out and plucked it, popping it into his mouth. Oh how sweet it tasted!

OH HOW SWEET IT TASTED!
That is the final punctuation on this otherwise dire story.

Maybe the strawberry tasted so sweet because of how grim the rest of the situation was (and really, it's joy that sustains us).

Maybe it was so sweet because the traveller was able to be fully involved and present with the taste, the texture, the divinity of of that one luscious moment -- tigers and mice, be damned.

Maybe the strawberry was so deliciously sweet because what we call "equanimity" in meditation practice is less of a cool, emotionless, distanced remove from the pains and pleasures of the world, but rather an ability to locate that space within us that is big enough to hold and participate in both. Everything. All.
The delicious and the dire.
Not in conflict. Two sides of the whole.
(A parable for our times, you could say.)

Or maybe it was just a really good strawberry.
And that in itself, was enough.