Story Time

Neil Friedman’s Adaptation Of The Zen Story

(Captures the marvellous way Focusing bridges the subtle and ordinary levels of reality)

Once upon a time there was a gathering of healers, wizards, therapists, channels, mystics, sorcerers and disembodied spirits. Each had a time to get up and do his or her particular miracle.

Quite the pyrotechnics! One walked on fire. One hypnotised the entire audience without their knowing it. One foretold the future. One read past lives. One stood on one leg in a bizarre position until his whole body shook. One did medical diagnoses based only on each audience member’s name and age.

Then a short, plain-looking man got up. It was his turn. He said: “My miracle is that when I am hungry, I eat; when I am thirsty, I drink; and I know when I am hungry and when I am thirsty and what I am hungry for and what I am thirsty for…”

Then he sat down.

He was the Focuser… 

Focusing Attitude

Once upon a time, the sun and the wind argued about who has a stronger influence on mankind… They noticed a man passing by and decided to have a contest to show which one of them could separate the man from his coat.

The wind went first and it started blowing and blowing… but the harder it blew, the more tightly the man wrapped himself in his coat… Then the sun had its turn, simply shining and warming the air until the man happily took off his coat…

The Focusing attitude is of a friendly, gentle attending like the sun…