The Bamboo Grove

[Nazreen]

When the wind blows through the bamboo grove, the trunks clatter against one another. When it has passed, the grove is quiet once more. (by a 16th century Chinese sage)

Has anyone heard of this saying/poem before? When just reading through it, you might say that this is just common sense about the trunks clattering when there's wind and quieting down after the wind has passed. But, this saying actually has a deeper meaning which I'd like to share with the rest of the BAF community.

The bamboo grove represents us while the wind represents troubles, problems or misunderstandings. When there's wind, the trunks clatter against one another in the same way that we might find ourselves pressured, stressed and even angry when we have troubles, problems and misunderstandings. When the wind has passed, there's no more reason for us to be pressured, stressed and angry. That's the ideal but sadly, it's not often the case.

Now, how many of us have remained tensed and stressed even after solving our problems already? How many of us have remained angry and therefore ruining our day, after the thing, event or person that caused us to be angry has already passed?

[Fergal]

Children are masters of this. A young child can turn from having a major temper tantrum to the most placid, happy and loving person imaginable in about two seconds flat.

[scifi]

This reminds me of a poem that I don't remember now, but that had also contains the essence of same kind..It gives the message that, as wind flows all over the world so as problems in man's life. To deal with wind we just have to trained ourself to get accustomed to it, so is the case with problems...
Then they will not be able to make us feel disturbed, tense & angry..

[Kay]

I like that Nazreen, thanks for sharing.


Now, how many of us have remained tensed and stressed even after solving our problems already? How many of us have remained angry and therefore ruining our day, after the thing, event or person that caused us to be angry has already passed?

My husband and I are complete opposites in this respect. For me, once something's done, it's done and you move on. He tends to be more of the kind that keeps replaying things in his mind. It's just different upbringings, I think. In my family you say your piece but once you've got it off your chest and cleared the air, it's forgotten.


Children are masters of this. A young child can turn from having a major temper tantrum to the most placid, happy and loving person imaginable in about two seconds flat.

So true! And how many times do you see neighborhood parents get into arguments over their kids fighting where the kids make up and the parents don't ever talk again? We could learn a lot from the little ones.

[Nazreen]

I would have to agree that kids are the masters of this. We would see them playing happily one moment, fighting the next, and after that playing with each other again. I would have thought that as we grow older, we grow wiser but it seems that it's the other way around. There's wisdom to be learned from kids and even babies - like their innocence and curiosity.

I really like the poem of the bamboo grove. Whenever I get angry and still remain angry after that, I would often think of the bamboo grove. I also do this when I'm feeling tensed during the day. I consider this as a great tool for anger and stress management.