Don’t Take the Feeling That You Are Being Rational as Proof That You Are

~ By Ajahn Jayasāro ~

There is a well-known story of a man sitting by the side of a sack of chilli peppers. He bites on a chilli, grimaces and spits it out. He picks out another chilli and does the same thing. He repeats the same process again and again, even though it is unpleasant for him to do so. When asked what he’s doing, he replies that he’s searching for a sweet one.

Clearly, this is a story teaching the foolishness of recreating the same causes again and again, while hoping for a different, better result. In the Buddhist version the story is taken to express the futility of looking for lasting happiness in impermanent experiences.

But how does the man in the story see the situation? Presumably, he does not perceive himself as a fool. My guess is that he has some logic on his side. Maybe he has heard that one in a thousand chillis has such a marvelous sweet taste that it is worth the discomfort of chewing hundreds of spicy ones in order to find it. Maybe he has read an article on the internet revealing that the existence of sweet chillis is a secret jealously guarded by an evil international organization. Maybe he believes that a god will create a miracle of sweetness for him if he prays hard enough.

The observation: people acting irrationally often believe themselves to be the truly rational ones.

The moral: don’t take the feeling that you are being rational as proof that you are.

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"Food for the Heart", a series of Dhamma teachings handwritten weekly is posted on the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives page with Ajahn's kind permission.

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For other teachings by Ven. Ajahn Jayasāro, please visit the Panyaprateep Foundation website.