I just had to fish a cat out of a canal.
What, you might ask, is a cat doing IN a canal? Cats are not exactly
water-friendly, after all. Well, the answer to this question is the
instinct, or habit, or samskaras that the cat in question -- now a wet,
soggy cat -- simply couldn't overcome.
This cat has actually inspired other thoughts about the nature of
instinct, habit, and samskaras for me before. He lives on a houseboat on
the Herengracht near my house, and I walk the dogs past his floating
domicile often. Whenever I do, my dogs go a little crazy, start tugging
at their leashes, and attempt to catch him. Lord knows what they'd do if
they ever succeeded in catching him; their previous attempts to do so
with cats in the past have never really worked out well for them. But
the lessons of history don't ever seem to overshadow the pull of
instinct and habit and samskara. Their minds seem to be programmed with
the following code:
IF cat
THEN chase
So how did the cat end up in the canal? Similar samskaric coding. I was
sitting on a bench near his houseboat and the cat wandered over to check
me out. This coincided with three large swans swimming up to where I was
sitting, hoping for a handout. The cat -- moments before calm and
purring -- went into Full Monty instinct/habit/samskara mode. I could
almost feel the program running in his little cat mind:
IF bird
THEN chase
It didn't *matter* to this cat that these particular birds were five to
six times his size. It didn't *matter* to him that the issue of what
would happen if he actually caught one of these swans was far from
clear. It didn't even *matter* to him that the birds in question were
sitting on some of that icky WET stuff that he normally wouldn't have
anything to do with. All that his little cat brain perceived was the
pull of instinct, habit, and samskara. He leapt.
He missed the swan he was aiming at by several feet, and found himself
having to (embarrassingly) dog paddle around in that icky WET stuff. The
swans kinda laughed at him and sailed off, leaving him struggling in the
WET stuff, trying to figure out how to get out. This was not easy,
because the level of the water was low enough that he couldn't reach the
shore, even after he'd paddled over to it. So I reached down and lifted
him out.
The whole scene reminded me how we often get overshadowed by the
promptings of instinct, habit, and samskaras ourselves. Following their
urges may *seem* like a good idea at the time, but that's only because
our ability to discriminate has been overshadowed by the urge
to...uh...not discriminate, and just DO IT, whatever "IT" may be at the
time.
Today may be an interesting day for many on this forum. The rational
parts of our minds heard Marek's suggestion and thought, "No problem. I
can handle that." But then the samskaric counterpart of the cat to my
dogs or the swan to this cat comes into view, and the pull of the
samskaras kicks in. What will happen? Only time will tell...
