The three little pigs story as analogous to daily meditation, acknowledging emotions, and questioning & dispelling beliefs…
The first little piggy built a house of straw. That is, the daily practice was adopted, but in truth was intermittent and based on thoughts & mood. When the big bad wolf came, his house was blown down like a house of cards built upon un-inspected beliefs, and the ensuing justifications & rationalizations for not inspecting, which were the aversion from feeling emotion.
His phone was functioning perfectly, ringing loudly with the guidance of insecurity, powerlessness, fear & guilt - but thoughts of separation & being a separate piggy remained un-inspected and therein believed, and so the call - the guidance, was ignored & suppressed.
The first little piggy lived all the days of his life believing he was separate, insecure, powerless, afraid and guilty. To him, the world was a fearful place where other piggies knew & understood things he didn’t and therein had power & courage which he just didn’t have. All of this piggy’s choices, decisions and opportunities were limited in that they were based first & foremost on avoiding the wolf so his house of straw wouldn’t be blown down.
The second little piggy adopted & adhered to the daily practice of meditation, getting on that little piggy cushion every morning, rain or shine, making his house of sticks. The sense of peacefulness he experienced was nice and he enjoyed relating to other spiritual piggies & talking about the traps of straw houses and the value of stick houses. His phone indeed rang as well, and he was content in his knowing of how voicemail works.
However, when the wolf came around, as the second little piggy hadn’t acknowledged emotions fully nor inspected beliefs, when the wolf would blow, the beliefs would be triggered and the second piggy would become overwhelmed by emotions as again & again his house of sticks would implode & collapse upon itself.
The second piggy lived a mediocre life. When his house of sticks was blown down, he and his little piggy friends would rebuild another house of sticks together. In time he learned to compromise and barter with the wolf with the help, understanding, wisdom & guidance of his little piggy friends.
The third little piggy adopted the practice & adhered, answered his phone whenever it rang, and inspected every arising thought, dispelling every belief, bringing the activity of thinking to rest as quickly as it arose. The third piggy built a house of brick.
All was revealed to this third piggy. The truth of himself, of all piggies and of the universe therein. This piggy wasn’t seeking anything from anyone, in any time, in any where. In answering his phone, he allowed self-respect, diligence, honesty & integrity. Whenever the wolf came around, this piggy would not avert, but would question & inspect the wolf as well, thus seeing the wolf for what it isn’t, and what it is.
In seeing the house the third piggy had built, the wolf was confronted with the futility of trying to blow it down. As the wolf was seen for what it is and what it isn’t, he had no choice in the matter and simply moved along.
The third piggy lived an atypical life, which in truth was more of a dream full of endless possibilities & inexplicable synchronicities. Indeed great & transient hurricanes, floods, tsunamis and earthquakes came upon him; ever-deepening the reality of his house, which no one nor no thing could blown down.