On Surrendering Your Beliefs

“The master surrenders his beliefs…” – the Buddha

When I read this passage, it made me think about how we often go through life based on assumptions about how things are or how they should be, and how little we question those beliefs, even when faced with evidence to the contrary.

It also made me think about an experience we had with our border collie puppy when we presented him with a new toy, a Kong Wobbler. The way it works is that you fill it with kibble and the dog is supposed to figure out that it needs to knock it until the kibble comes out of a small hole in the side.

This video, which is posted on my wife’s blog as well, is a prime example of what I’m talking about. Cadence has been taught the concept of indirect access…if he wants something, he can offer a behavior in order to get it instead of just running up and taking it directly. We encourage that behavior because it helps keep him safe and thinking. It is, however, only one way he can interact with the world. Another way is through the learning of actions and consequences. In this video, Cadence has to drop his belief that this is an indirect access exercise and figure out that instead that his task is actually to interact with the object in order to figure out what actions of his result in the consequence of kibble coming out. It was a joy to watch this process. I hope you think so too.