Let Go of Your Banana

In India there are a lot of monkeys. When the locals want to catch one, they anchor a bottle to the ground. The neck of the bottle is just large enough for a monkey's hand to fit through. Then, they put a small banana in the bottle, sit back and wait.

The Monkey Trap.

Before long a monkey comes by, sees the banana, reaches his hand into the bottle, and grabs it. But then, the monkey discovers that he can't get his hand out of the bottle while holding onto the banana. There is loud chattering and squealing as the person who set the trap walks up to the monkey and places a burlap sack over him. In the darkness the monkey releases the banana and is captured.

The monkey could, of course, let go of the banana and run before getting caught. Some do. But most of the monkeys hang on to the banana until the sack goes over their head. Why? Because the banana has value to the monkey and the monkey is unwilling to let go of that value. So unwilling that he gives up his life for it. People do the same thing.

The People Trap.

People get trapped by their thoughts in the same way monkeys get trapped by bananas.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "I get through many a bad night with the thought of suicide." Suicidal thoughts had value for him; comforting him when he felt down and depressed, easing the pain of his sadness. Unfortunately, these thoughts that seemed to help, also trapped him in the depression, like the monkey was trapped by the banana. He, and the monkey, could have let go and gained their personal freedom.

The religious person has thoughts of "heaven" to get through troubled times. The business man has thoughts of "making more money" to keep him going. The gambler has thoughts of "hitting the jackpot" to comfort him; the drug addict thinks about the "next fix;" the alcoholic, the "next bottle," etc, etc. We are all, to some extent, trapped by our own thoughts.

Thoughts color all our decisions. A suicidal person seldom makes good life choices because they dislike themselves and feel they have no future. The religious person may endure much abuse and discrimination because they feel resolved in the future, and the business man may actually cheat, lie and hurt others in his pursuit of money because he is trapped by intense thoughts of wealth. etc, etc.

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I found this to be a nice metaphor to life, some people just can't let go of what hurts them the most.

Let go of your banana

Easy for you to say.....i refuse to let go of my banana.....no more like its impossible. Like it or not we are governed by instincts....common sense and rational thought take a back seat.

As its always been.

reply to post by tauempire


Yeah but the rational person can rise above their instincts.

My instinct is to have sex with as many women as I could. Every day, especially being in college, I see numerous women I want to put my penis in.

Yet I've never raped a girl in my entire life. It's not so hard rising above your instinct.


Take a step back, let go of your thoughts. They're usually fleeting anyway.

reply to post by Alaskan Man


Oh....I thought this thread was going to be about masturbation. Moving on.

Awesome story OP...

To the rest of you...

I was doing my typical Al Bundy (hands down pants) after work and I saw the title to this thread. Thought I had been caught. Anyways very interesting.

What are your bananas? Why haven't you let them go?

The two major bananas I struggle with, are physical exercise & Internet "research".

I love running and weightlifting, but I also love exploring the Internet.

Mine might be described as an information addiction. Nearly everyday I read about news, technologies, conspiracies, nutrition, sub-cultures, etc... The list is endless and random.

Why I haven't let go of this particular banana? I am studying computer science and I work for several websites so I spend much of my day on the Internet out of professional necessity...

It is much easier to get my information fix than to find the time between work, school, cooking, & house keeping than to get my exercise fix. There have been times that I have skipped out on class and homework to go on a stress relieving run, so both of these have interfered with my responsibilities.

In the end though, my long term health is the only banana I will never let go of.

reply to post by ventian


Okay- Now that's just too much info!!! Gross...

Hope you sterilize your keyboard regularly.

reply to post by Alaskan Man


Woah.

Pretty good find, Alaskan Man.
Interesting concept, letting the banana go.
I find it hard to believe a monkey would give up its life for a banana.
But it will. Amazing.

Now if people would just listen...

reply to post by bommer09


lol yes but instinct dosnt tell u to rape them.... instinct just tells you that you need to spread your seed. so by telling you that it means show your dominance and get the girl. Out of every man u see there a very small percent that would actually rape a girl, the other percent will take a shot at courting them.

reply to post by Alaskan Man


I will never let go of my banana, as it saved me. Ignorance is not bliss, if i was ignorant the ptb namely police and government would have me in a worse position, than i am and thats saying something.

I will keep my banana until i die. Once i would of played the game, but finding out about people and what they really are, you cannot go back, and i was glad i found out, even though it destroyed my life.

reply to post by andy1033


exactly it wont be yours if you let go, they are such absurd people thinking about most intimate things like if they are to someone or something else and willing to invent what they could be from whatever would made them, they cant understand that you are meaning a point because you are that point

reply to post by andy1033


Intriguing to say the least.....

I think this issue goes a lot deeper than just letting go of your banana. It's not really instinct. It's how an individual has been shaped, or shaped themselves. There were choices that they had to make as young'uns, that shaped them to be the person that they are.
A junkie whos 'banana' is the 'next fix' is not going to just say 'well, if i get my next fix, i just might die, so i should stop.' it's just not that easy, trust me. If it were, there would be a lot less casualties due to drugs. With businessmen, it's much the same. Money is like a high to them.
People choose, I think, when they're young, what kind of things will feel rewarding to them. Suicidal people have very few things that reward them, succesfull people, or at least, people with the illusion of success, have lots of things that are rewarding to them.
In the end, I think, it all comes down to neuro-chemistry, and it is a very complex thing, and most certainly not something that is fixable just by 'letting go' of your mental processes.

the idea is to let go the tool and hold on with stronger grasp to its source so you would do that tool more truly when you have the source according to your own means and free wills

reply to post by Alaskan Man


Just to make sure I follow you correctly are you saying a religious person who believes is trapped and to let go of religion entirely they would become free? Is this what I am picking up from this OP, just asking?

This is what we call protecting your investment, the first rule of business.
Psychological game theory looks at this phenomenon as an error in reasoning. Almost all people after investing time or money in a venture will, despite new evidence proving the venture to be unprofitable, continue investing.

No matter what the scenario, this was proven to be the case. Unfortunately, modern psychology doesn't take into consideration the amount of irrational behavior people exhibit and therefore fails to account for the rationality of irrationality in their models. In the end, people would rather maintain that their conceptual selves exist without belemish than most efficiently invest their capital or time.

So, the real game is actually in the heads of the participants. To propogate their false sense of identity.


[edit on 18-5-2010 by AProphet1233]

I might have my hand in the bottle, but my other hand is carrying a Gun.



[edit on 18-5-2010 by Visitor2012]