I wasn’t able to find any frogs at Hammond Pond on Tuesday, but I did see several at Mount Auburn Cemetery last night, when Leslee and I met up for an impromptu after-work walk.
The best way to find frogs, I’ve found, is not to look for them. The various frogs I’ve found over the years don’t typically look like frogs: they’re either floating with only their heads above water, thereby hiding their frog-shaped form, or they’re covered with algae or duckweed, thereby masking their froggy coloring.
When you’re looking for frogs alongside a pond, you can look for movement…but then you’ll see only a splash that announces where a frog used to be. If you try to find frogs by looking for movement, you won’t find any frozen, well-camouflaged fellows watching you with one or both eyes poised right above water level: you won’t find, in other words, the frogs who have found you.
The trick to finding resting frogs is to forget how frogs are shaped, how frogs are colored, or how frogs move. Instead, when you’re looking for frogs, the eyes have it: their eyes, not yours. When you’re looking for frogs in or alongside a pond, what you’re looking for is any small glint or glimmer that isn’t water, isn’t shore, and isn’t either vegetable or mineral. Many of those unidentified glints and glimmers are frog-eyes, and they’re watching you, waiting to see whether you stop then step closer or walk by, unaware.
Jul 26, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Excellent! I’m afraid it gets even harder with aging/tired eyes. This reminds me of looking at the aurora borealis one time – I realized I couldn’t look directly at it because by the time I looked it’d be gone, but if I took in the whole sky and opened up my peripheral vision that was the only way to see it.
Jul 27, 2012 at 11:03 am
I’ve never seen the aurora borealis, but I’ve heard others say something similar about it. I seem to recall reading somewhere that after dark, one’s peripheral vision is more acute than a direct gaze: something to do with the rods and cones in one’s retina?
Jul 27, 2012 at 2:01 am
Isn’t there a passage in “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” in which Suzuki writes about sitting like a frog? I can’t remember whether he recommends being frog-like, being still and just taking in the world, or whether he recommends NOT being frog-like — i.e. not snapping at every passing bug. I guess I didn’t absorb the lesson very well. Guess I need to look it up again!
Jul 27, 2012 at 10:58 am
Steve, I’m even worse than you, since I’ve never finished ZM, BM. It’s one of those Zen “classics” I’ve started to read a half dozen times, then I get bored with reading “about” Zen rather than “doing” Zen. But yes, I think there’s something in there about a frog…and an accompanying illustration of a fly, perhaps? Like you, I can’t remember whether being frog-like is good or bad.
In the past, I’ve talked about frogs being master meditators (here and here), so I guess I’ve staked my own claim, regardless of what Zen classics say.
Jul 28, 2012 at 5:09 am
“A frog also sits like us, but he has no idea of zazen. Watch him. If something annoys him, he will make a face. If something comes along to eat, he will snap it up and eat, and he eats sitting. Actually that is our zazen — not any special thing…
“When you are you, you see things as they are, and you become one with your surroundings. There is your true self. There you have true practice; you have the practice of a frog. He is a good example of our practice — when a frog becomes a frog, Zen becomes Zen. When you understand a frog through and through, you attain enlightenment; you are Buddha.” — Suzuki, “Polishing a Tile,” ZMBM
Jul 31, 2012 at 10:58 am
“When a frog becomes a frog, Zen becomes Zen.” Clearly I need to read (i.e. finish!) ZMBM, since that line pretty much nails it, doesn’t it?
Jul 28, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Great top photo, Lorianne! I remember that passage from Suzuki, too, though I’ve never quite perfected having the zazen of a frog! I think having a very very small mind might help, along with a beginners mind!
Jul 31, 2012 at 10:58 am
Beth, I suspect you do very well at having the zazen of Beth, which is far preferable to having the zazen of a frog.
Jul 30, 2012 at 3:33 pm
I’ve found that it helps if you take a couple of kids younger than 6 along with you. Perhaps they’re just closer to the ground, or perhaps they just haven’t learned how not to see.
Jul 31, 2012 at 11:00 am
Kids are GREAT at spotting small, otherwise-overlooked things, especially ones that are close to the ground. It’s their natural curiosity…and being short helps, too.