I love this book. It’s an indispensable tool for all who love language and all who want to live more mindfully, happily, humorously, and poetically.
Drowning in thought. Her ship has sailed. We’ll all float on ok. I’m in the flow today. We literally can’t speak without metaphors. It’s the way we’re wired. You may think you already know this, but reading Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants illuminates in a clear, simple way, how the story-telling, metaphorical mind actually works, and how we can use it skillfully to promote contentment rather than letting the stories crash down on us from all directions (to use one of my favorite metaphors).
Kozak’s 108 metaphors are often humorous, but they also go surprisingly deep. A longtime psychologist and meditation practitioner, Kozak manages to touch on the heart of mindfulness practice by noting how the mind can only be described in reference to other things – noting that “mindfulness” is itself a metaphor that views the mind as container – which, to me, is a lovely description of the Buddhist notion of dependent origination, interdependence.
I’m enjoying leaping around the book as I please, reading a few each day. One of my favorites Kozac blesses us with in the first pages. Citing psychologist Julian Jaynes, Kozak notes that the verb to be is derived from the Sanskrit bhu, which means “to grow” or “ to make grow”. “Thus,” he continues, “ to be has the same etymological root as another Sanskrit verb asmi, which means ‘to breathe’. And here, encapsulated in the language of an ancient metaphor, we see that living and breathing are one. And, in poignant connection to the themes in the rest of the book, we can also reflect on the fact that the process of breathing is the foundation of mindfulness meditation, and by extension mindfulness is itself a practice of being.”
I would especially recommend this book to meditation and yoga teachers. It’s an incredible source for stories and material. Buy a copy here
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