Last night in Buddhism class we spoke about the Aesop fable about the Donkey carrying salt.  One of the points we discussed was about we make excuses not to do things or to do things while not understanding the long term effects or ramifications.  The donkey was carrying salt in  bags for his owner (a salt merchant).  He complained about how heavy they were.  While crossing a stream, the donkey accidentaly fell and got water on the salt.  As a result, the salt dissolved and disappeared which resulted in the load becoming lighter which the donkey liked.  When they got back to the merchants home, the salt was gone and the merchant couldn’t figure out why.  The merchant had to go back to the market and buy some more.  Without salt to sell he could not make money.  This time, while crossing the stream, the donkey intentionally fell over and the same thing happened again (salt dissolved).  In the end the merchant took at least three trips before he realized what was going on.

The lesson for me was about not doing something and putting it off until later (immediate gratification), and not understanding the long term physical and karmic effect of my actions.  The donkey by taking the easy way out (falling in the river so his load would be lighter, immediate gratification), didn’t understand that without the salt, his owner would have nothing to sell and without money, he couldn’t feed and take care of himself or the donkey.  For me I have been putting off dusting.  Rather than dusting the house, I would rather binge watch on Netflix.  My thought was that I have plenty of time and can do it later.  Well it’s been a long while since the house has been properly dusted and whenever I have time, rather than dust, I’d be searching on Netflix for the next movie or series to binge watch.  I see that I am merely justifying my laziness (I can do it later, I haven’t seen this movie or series yet) which the root cause of my behavior.  Now I’m seeing some of the results of my laziness.  When I watch movies, there are moths flying around the room, not one or two, but more.  I worry about them eating my clothes in the closet.  Sometimes they annoy me so I have to squish them which will cause me karmic problems in the future and many lives to come.  All this just because “I have plenty of time to dust so I can watch a little Netflix first.”

I like how LP Anan explained how we justify doing things or not doing things, but really it is just an excuse.  With exercise I have been making excuses.  It’s cold out so I’ll go tomorrow.  I’m tired so I’ll go next time.  Now I’m overweight and tired a lot.  It is time for change now that I understand how my “laziness” has hurt me now and in my future lives.