Samsara of Perfectionism — Part 1.2: The Harvest Festival
(⚠️ please read this story between the lines, and notice the symbolic meaning of serpents, roosters, pigs, rice, starvation, humiliation, humbleness and the human. It is rarely explained, let’s see if you can unfold the meanings behind, feel free to leave your interpretation in comment just for fun 🫣)
In the midst of his 1,000,101,011th cycle of floating through the Samsara, Jackie found himself lost in a dream, held within which a crucial hint to breaking free from the endless cycles of rebirth. Yet, the true significance of this tale remained hidden from him, waiting to be unveiled in Part 2 of his story, Please subscribe to tag along with Jackie on his profound journey of self-discovery.
In Jackie’s dream …
Long long time ago, in a multi-verse, there were no humans, demons, or ghosts. Only pigs lived a simple life, from hand to mouth, eating chaff and playing with dirt. Mother Lucy, our ancestor, was one of these pigs.
One day, Mother Lucy began to feel dissatisfied with such a life. She dreamed of an abundance of hot, steamed rice all year round. She started cultivating the land around the middle of summer.
A season passed by, and it was time for the Harvest Festival. The rice grew, and she became prosperous with her bountiful crop. She became a goddess of rice and was so proud of it.
Spring arrived, and Mother Lucy lived a luxurious life, harvesting the rice. She looked at the lazy pigs and felt pity for them. The rice was a symbol of worthiness. She became arrogant like a serpent that always held its head high.
The seasons passed, and Fall arrived. The rice ran out. Mother Lucy was frozen in fear, not knowing what to do. No more rice, but she could not admit the reality. Her pride prevented her from returning to the pigs and asking for a share of their chaff.
She hid and avoided them as a coping mechanism to retain her pride, trying to endure the hunger secretly. Eventually, she starved and was nearly dead.
After bearing the agony of starvation, she gave up her pride and started eating dirty chaff like a hungry rooster. But while doing that, she felt humiliated due to her fixation on her pride.
To cope with the feeling of humiliation, she developed wrath as a coping mechanism to help retain her self-worth. She thought that someday she would return to the top, being the goddess of rice once more.
As she regained her health, she desperately acted high and mighty like a serpent again, but she had no rice anymore. Not long before she reborn as a starved pig. Repeating this cycle over and over, she drew closer and closer to true death. Finally, at door of death, she resolved to a state of utmost acceptance and detached from her pride completely, accepting reality and returning to her primal origin — a lazy pig.
Not long after regaining her health both physically and spiritually, she then regained her ambition, became a humble human and started cultivating, and the cycle repeated, on and on.
