Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org

problems in order to solve the original ones.
There is an old story of an ascetic who once upon a time
lived under a tree with nothing but his robes. One day
someone invited him to live in a hut that they had built, so
that he could avoid the inclemencies of weather, bugs, etc.
Thinking this would help his spiritual life, he accepted. After
some time living in the hut, however, he began to be
troubled by rats who would bite holes in his robes when he
left them in the hut. In order to solve the problem, he
procured a cat to scare away the rats. This, however,
presented a new problem of how to feed the cat. To solve
this problem, he procured a milk cow. The problem with the
milk cow, of course, was it needed one to tend to and milk it.
To solve this problem, he found a milkmaid to stay with him,
and in the end found himself falling in love and breaking his
asceticism, taking on all of the problems of the household
life. This is a very good example of how we try to solve
simple problems by creating more complex ones.
In modern times, this problem is seen all the more acutely.
Through trying to avoid simple problems like how to procure
food and shelter, we find ourselves caught up in social,
economical, political, and even global problems that are all
far removed from the very simple problems they are
designed to solve.
If the goal is the proliferation of a species, approximation and
shortcut taking is a tried and tested means of advancement -
the species flourishes, adjusting behaviours only when they
hinder its proliferation. This is how the animal realm
functions, and many humans as well seem satisfied with this
sort of "development" as a positive thing. It is thought to be
a sign of advancement that the human species has
proliferated so rapidly in a relatively short time. Such
thinking is actually an example of the problem; rather than
taking the time to look at whether we are actually solving
anything, we see our ability to continue taking shortcuts as
proof that we are, and so are encouraged to spend even less
time studying our problems and more time finding ways to
take shortcuts around them.
As a result of all of this, our beliefs and views don't
necessarily have anything to do with reality; they only serve
134