When we’re mindful, we’re like a spider making its web. It stretches its web across the air and then it puts itself in the center. Quiet. Still. Unmoving. Mindful. If a fly or a bee comes flying along and touches the web, the spider knows. It gets up and runs out to catch that insect and turn it into food. Once the spider has caught its food, it hurries back to its original spot. It makes itself quiet and alert. Mindful. It knows when something is about to touch the web. As soon as something touches it, it’s already awake—because it lives with mindfulness.

If we’re careful, alert, and restrained, we’ll get to know ourselves.

The spider is like our mind. The mind lies in the middle of the sense spheres: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. That’s the way it is with a person who practices. If we’re careful, alert, and restrained, we’ll get to know ourselves. We’ll get to know the mind: what it’s doing and in what way. 

♦

From It’s Like This: 108 Dhamma Similes by Venerable Ajahn Chah. Translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Copyright © 2013 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.