{"id":189,"date":"2010-12-06T11:32:29","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T11:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html"},"modified":"2010-12-06T11:32:29","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T11:32:29","slug":"metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html","title":{"rendered":"Metaphor Monday :: The Buzzing Fly"},"content":{"rendered":"<form mt:asset-id=\"20047\" class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\" style=\"display: inline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/BS16007.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"BS16007.JPG\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/BS16007-thumb-350x350-20047.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" \/><\/a><\/form>\n<p>Metaphor 66 in <i>Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness<\/i> is, &#8220;The Buzzing Fly.&#8221; The fly is a metaphor for all things bothersome, especially thoughts that keep buzzing around seeking attention; moving out of what appears to be kinetic randomness. How can we deal with the fly?<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"webkit-indent-blockquote\" style=\"margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;\">\n<div>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">One option is to continue sitting and being annoyed, or tocontinue whooshing the fly away. Another is to expand the concept of your selfin that moment to include your experience of the fly. After all, the reason thefly is annoying is because you&#8217;ve got some embedded rule or belief that says,&#8221;This fly should not be present; it is disturbing my meditation. My meditationshould feel differently than it does now. It should be flyless.&#8221; If that beliefcan be revised to include the fly, there is no longer opposition and no longera problem. The revision eliminates the resistance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;The Fly&#8221; is a wonderful animation by Hanjin Song that likewise turns to the fly as metaphor. It&#8217;s also a metaphor for resistance &#8212; what we resists, persists &#8212; and multiplies! It&#8217;s metaphor for reactivity and invites us to consider the question: &#8220;How do I want to spend my time and energy?&#8221;<\/p>\n<div><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><object width=\"640\" height=\"385\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/SXxIBJ6MP-c?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/SXxIBJ6MP-c?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"640\" height=\"385\"><\/object><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The video also presents the dharma. There is no distinction between the cherry blossom and the fly and when our minds can appreciate this, we experience nirvana (OK, that part is a little schmaltzy, but, hey, how do you portray that which is beyond all concepts?).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Our goal in meditation is not to get rid of the flies. Our goal is to accept them as part of the landscape of now. When we can do this, we experience a little taste of nirvana.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Metaphor 66 in Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness is, &#8220;The Buzzing Fly.&#8221; The fly is a metaphor for all things bothersome, especially thoughts that keep buzzing around seeking attention; moving out of what appears to be kinetic randomness. How can we deal with the fly? One option is to continue sitting&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7,9,14,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-metaphors-for-mindfulness","category-mindfulnesss","category-recommended","category-wild-chickens-and-petty-tyrants-108-metaphors-for-mindfulness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Metaphor Monday :: The Buzzing Fly - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Metaphor Monday :: The Buzzing Fly - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Metaphor 66 in Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness is, &#8220;The Buzzing Fly.&#8221; The fly is a metaphor for all things bothersome, especially thoughts that keep buzzing around seeking attention; moving out of what appears to be kinetic randomness. How can we deal with the fly? One option is to continue sitting&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-06T11:32:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/BS16007-thumb-350x350-20047.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Metaphor Monday :: The Buzzing Fly - Mindfulness Matters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Metaphor Monday :: The Buzzing Fly - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"Metaphor 66 in Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness is, &#8220;The Buzzing Fly.&#8221; The fly is a metaphor for all things bothersome, especially thoughts that keep buzzing around seeking attention; moving out of what appears to be kinetic randomness. How can we deal with the fly? One option is to continue sitting&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html","og_site_name":"Mindfulness Matters","article_published_time":"2010-12-06T11:32:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/BS16007-thumb-350x350-20047.jpg"}],"author":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html","name":"Metaphor Monday :: The Buzzing Fly - Mindfulness Matters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/BS16007-thumb-350x350-20047.jpg","datePublished":"2010-12-06T11:32:29+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-06T11:32:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/BS16007-thumb-350x350-20047.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/assets_c\/2010\/12\/BS16007-thumb-350x350-20047.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2010\/12\/metaphor-monday-the-buzzing-fly.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Metaphor Monday :: The Buzzing Fly"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/","name":"Mindfulness Matters","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Arnie Kozak","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8","name":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","caption":"Dr. Arnie Kozak"},"description":"Recognized as an innovator in the field of mindfulness-based psychology, Dr. Arnie Kozak is northern New England's leading expert in the field. Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}