“Catching the Lizard by the Tail” by Nissim Amon

This morning, after meditating, I perused a magazine called Watkins Mind Body Spirit and read an inspiring article on Buddhist meditation. The article tells the story of a monk named Potila who lived at the time of the Buddha. The Buddha encouraged the well-respected monk to seek guidance on meditating from a younger monk, who provided the following sage advice on how to be attentive to one’s thoughts:

The young monk then gave the following example: “Suppose you want to catch a lizard hiding in an anthill that has six entrances. The lizard can escape through any of them. The best way to catch the lizard is to block off five holes and wait patiently outside the sixth. The five blocked holes are the five senses. When we sit motionless in meditation with our back straight, we are not engrossed in sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch. Generally consciousness escapes through these openings.

“When the five openings are blocked, silence diffuses inside and it’s possible to hear the lizard running around. Then, when it tries to escape, we can catch it immediately.”

I love this analogy, and I can completely relate to the image of consciousness escaping through my senses. One of my biggest challenges when meditating is turning off the mind chatter, but during those rare moments when I do, and my senses are silenced, the experiences are profound.

Doctor Strange: Issue 06 – The Last Days of Magic

And just like that… it’s gone. No more auras. No more eyes in the shadows. No more voices in the ether. No more Sorcerer Supreme. No more… no more magic.

This is a great issue that begins the spin-off arc, “The Last Days of Magic.” The saga begins with the systematic purging of all magic from the world.

For me, this tale is highly symbolic. Magic in this story represents creativity, spirituality, artistic expression, fantasy, and childhood innocence. These are the manifestations of magic in our world, and they are too often eradicated by industrialization and conformity, which in this graphic tale is symbolized by the Empirikul.

I feel it’s important to keep the magic alive in our modern world. When I read the news and hear about ancient art being destroyed, or cultures decimated because they are different, or individuals abused and rejected because they don’t conform to someone else’s idea of what is “moral,” I am reminded of why we need creative and unique people to keep the magic alive in our world.

Doctor Strange: Issue 04

This issue is very deep, and for a short installment in a comic arc, it addresses some profound concepts related to mysticism and the occult. There are two sections I want to discuss. The first relates to the physical toll of practicing the magical arts.

You threw the punch successfully, but you hurt your own hand. So what have you learned here today? …

The harder you punch, the more it hurts you. This is the most important lesson of being a sorcerer…

If a normal punch takes a physical toll on the one who throws it, what do you imagine the price of casting a spell to be?

The mental, spiritual, and physical are all connected. Whatever happens to one aspect of your being impacts the others. When we become physically sick or injured, it affects our mental and spiritual wellbeing also. When we engage in rejuvenating meditation, our mental and physical health benefits as a result. If we become mentally stressed through work, then we will experience a spiritual and physical exhaustion directly associated with the mental stress. Essentially, every thought or action affects every part of our being, sometimes in ways we can discern, and other times in ways that we do not immediately sense. It can be summed up in the laws of karma.

The second passage addresses the conflict between magic and technology.

This place has been drained of magic. What kind of sorcery could possibly… No. Not sorcery at all. Machinery. A machine that disrupts magic? That’s… That’s impossible.

I would like to think that science and technology can work with mystical practices to help move humans toward the next stage of evolution, but I am so naïve that I fail to recognize that technological advancement caused the rift between science and the magical arts. The Industrial Revolution did much to drain the spiritual from society, disrupting the flow of magic in the world. I think this will change soon. The latest ideas in theoretical physics are certainly supportive of the mystical arts.

I have to say that the more I read this latest incarnation of Doctor Strange, the more I enjoy it. The creative team is doing an amazing job of putting forth thought-provoking topics, but doing so in a whimsical way that is fun and engaging.

Cheers!