Javier's Fables: The Mouse in the Pavilion


The Botanical Gardens is a fabulous place to visit. Quiet, serene and beautiful, your sight is spoilt for choice of delight with the diversity of plants and flowers. Such a colourful scenery and velvety greens are for all visitors to behold and appreciate. In the heart of the Botanical Gardens, there is a old pavilion known as the Bandstand. It has been used as a platform for British orchestra band to perform on while the gentlemen and ladies waltz to the music. Music has ceased to resonate from the bandstand. It is now used as a resting place for visitors of the park. Also, it is the home to a family of mouse, papa mouse, mama mouse and little mouse. Visitors who are busy with thoughts in their mind will fail to notice the family of mouse living in the bandstand. If only they could focus more on the external, less on the internal! All things, big and small, are beautiful when you just pay a little more attention. A keen observer always sees things differently as they spot details which common people fail to notice.

The last time, the two Great Thinkers, Nelson and Javier met to talk about issues and share their insight was in the Arts Canteen. How can we ever forget about the interesting discussion about the mynahs between the two of them? Now, Nelson and Javier were meditating in the bandstand to focus their thoughts and gain inner calmness. Javier stopped his meditation before Nelson. And he was there to play the role of an passive observer. At the four corners of the squarish pavilion were holes for the draining of the water that leads to the underground sewage pipes. Shortly after, a tiny head that belongs to a mouse pops out of the hole and disappears quickly. Javier had managed to catch a glimpse of it. He focus his attention on that hole. The mouse did the same thing a few times. It leaped out of the hole, only to jump back into the hole within a split second. Javier was thinking to himself, "How cute and adorable the mouse is! All things big and small is beautiful, when we are appreciative of its natural state. " Javier was fascinated by what he was seeing, that he wore a smile on his face now and watch on to see what the mouse is up to next. The mouse was agile, alert and cautious. It dared not make any advance too quickly unless its is sure that its safe. But the mouse had no idea that Javier was aware of its presence....or perhaps the mouse feels the Javier was of no threat to it, but better to be safe than sorry, it's primitive instinctive behaviour is still very much in control. The experiences from its ancestors and the changes over the years through evolution had taught it to be always on lookout and not to be complacent. Whatever it is, Javier has no intention of malice, he is merely interesting in watching. The mouse is heading towards the wooden chair. The chair is not its destination, merely a hiding place for it. Javier concludes that the mouse is scouting for food but fail to spot any. Another mouse then emerge from the same hole with a small mouse following closely behind. "Ah... So its a family of mouse. How nice and wonderful!" Javier thought to himself.

Nelson had finished his meditation. He was very curious when he saw Javier smiling and asked him why. Javier told him about the mouse. Nelson replied," How can you find the mouse adorable and cute? They are vermin! Pests! Carrier of disease! Creatures of the foul! Surely, you cannot associate with something like that, can you? " "That may be true but when i was watching them, I did not think of it that way. I do not see them as pest, vermin or creatures of the foul. All I see is an animal that is part of the whole nature that we are in. I see it as what it is, a mouse, merely a mouse with no attachment of labels to it. A mouse as a mouse, that's all. I'm appreciating the mouse at this very moment, because I did not think too much, just observe and be here in this instant. " Nelson said," i do not understand. Please care to explain." Javier replied, "Perhaps this story will make you understand, I call it the 'The man and the raspberries' "

There was a traveller. He was walking in the forest when he spotted a tiger. The tiger gave chase and the man accidentally fell off a cliff while he was running away from the tiger. He manage to hang on to some branches and roots at the side of the cliff. With the tiger, waiting to prance onto him if he climbs up to the cliff, things just got worse when he notice that there were two rats gnawing on the roots that he was holding onto. He was in a dire state, he panic and was at lost what to do. Suddenly, he saw some raspberry within sight. He was so happy that he reach out for it and pop a few into his mouth. "Hmmm...nice and delicious"

Javier finished telling his tale and asked Nelson, "Do you understand what the story means?" Nelson replied"How delightful I am that one story made me understand the universal truth! The man knew that he was in danger. But he seize the moment he was in when he ate the raspberry and felt happy about it when he knew that the next moment he might fall of the cliff and die. We should not dwell on the past, neither should we worry about the future. Appreciate what we have now and respond to the situation we are in. Likewise, when you were watching the mouse, you enjoy what you were seeing at that instant with no attachments of the past and future. Our knowledge tells us that a mouse is a pest but when u were watching it, it was merely being itself, not a pest. So it is not a pest. It is as it is, a mouse as a mouse. I understand what you mean now. " Javier nod and both satisfied with the time spent in the bandstand, the two of them left the pavilion for the lake shortly after.