ML,
I’ll try to interpret it for you, filling in the blanks. Let us know if it helps.
I abbreviated the story, so that’s why it’s hard to understand, and I’m not good at explaining, because I skip steps, and take things for granted.
Monks usually live a mundane life, making shortbread or cheese or rewriting biblical texts, cloistered somewhere away from society, to give the story some context. One of the monks felt that it was inappropriate for his brother monk to aid a woman, particularly a beautiful woman, so the casual interaction for that monk, was almost like a sexual overture, since monks don’t interact with society at all, let alone beautiful women. Being actually in physical contact emphasized the taboo relationship.
The upset monk kept that negative feeling, for the rest of the day, stewing and ruminating, and finally disclosed his feelings to the monk who helped the woman.
When the helpful monk stated to his angry brother that he had only picked up and dropped off the woman, I think he was making an analogy to how much control we have over focusing our thoughts. We have so much control, suggests the sports psychologist, that it’s like having a television converter, with different channels corresponding to channels or streams of thoughts. I think the theory is that we are our own worst enemies, choosing to focus on what is negative, and that negativity can spiral into a panic cycle leaving us debilitated and drained of energy.
The angry monk might have been fantaszing about the woman, and continued to be preoccupied about the woman, while the helpful monk just gave the woman some help, and forgot about it. The disturbed monk kept the tv converter, to use that analogy, on an unproductive thought process. The tranquil monk forgot about the interaction and continued his serenity for the day. The happier monk changed the channel from interacting to a woman to walking, being aware of his surroundings,communing with nature.
To me, this reminds me of how obsessive I can be, and how I have the choice in focusing on the present or obsessing about something for hours, days or longer.
If you’re not obsessive, it might not be easy to understand.
