Play the Ball Where the Monkey Drops It

At a small gathering of women, a friend shared a story by Tara Brach. Tara is a gifted teacher and storyteller who leads the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C. She is the author of Radical Acceptance and teaches at the Omega Institute, Kripalu Center, and other such organizations.

The story takes place when India was ruled by the British. The British had decided to build a golf course in Calcutta. What they did not anticipate however, was a rather unique challenge–monkeys grabbing the balls, running with the balls, or throwing them. Nothing they tried kept the monkeys out of the game. Ultimately, the British added a new rule: play the ball where the monkey drops it.

And isn’t that a beautiful, more peaceful way to live with life? To play the ball where the monkey drops it… . Just the contemplation of it softens my soul.

You can access the entire podcast of Tara’s “Golfing with Monkeys” here. You can find a directory of her podcasts here.


U.S. Library of Congress ISSN 2164-7240

©2015 Leadership Hand LLC and Beth Hand  | (+1) 703.820.8018 Eastern Time USA | www.leadershiphand.com

You may reprint an article from Written by Hand™ on a non-exclusive basis provided the above copyright and link to www.LeadershipHand.com is included in the credits. Please send us a notice of the reprint along with a copy of the publication.

Comments are closed.