The Jungle of Life — A Lesson about Yourself

The Story: The Cliffhanger

You are being chased through the jungle by a hungry tiger.
You grab your backpack and leap from a rock.
You catch yourself on a vine.
When you look down, you see another hungry tiger waiting below.
You can’t go up, and you can’t go down.
Meanwhile, two little mice one white, one black start gnawing at your vine.
And then you notice a beautiful flower growing from the rock wall.

Why this story?

This is a classic parable used by Eastern teachers to help students reflect on their lives.
It’s a kind of cliffhanger: you’re stuck in a tense situation, and the solution is not obvious.
It’s more valuable to come up with your own interpretation than to just hear someone else’s explanation. So take a moment to think: Who am I in this beautiful yet complex world? What do the tigers, the vine, the mice, and the flower mean to me? You don’t have to tell your own life story, but you can use the jungle as a mirror for your own experiences. A bullied child, a veteran with PTSD everyone has their own tiger to tame, and their own choices to make.

The Jungle

The “jungle” in this story symbolizes the hectic, complex world we live in today. In the past, people mainly focused on basic survival needs: food, water, warmth, shelter. They worked, hunted, or gathered to meet those needs.
Today, those basics are usually taken for granted but in return, we are overwhelmed by new challenges: a digital world full of information, war, disasters, endless choices, social media, expectations, and constant noise. You’re born into the jungle, and immediately you find yourself running  you don’t even know where you’re going. And then come the tigers that make you run even faster…

Food for Thought (Reflection Questions)

• The first tiger: Am I still being chased by my past? Have I made peace with it?
• My backpack: What do I carry with me? Do I carry too much? Do I carry other people’s burdens?
• The vine: How is my life? Long or short? Strong or fragile? How do I care for my health and spirit?
• The second tiger: Am I afraid of the future? Can I face it without fear?
• The two mice: Which mouse do I listen to when making decisions the white or the black?
• The flower: Do I truly notice the beauty of this moment? Am I here, now?

Closing thought

The more you focus on the past or fear the future, the more the tigers seem to grow. The more you listen to just one mouse, the more the other gnaws at you. But when you notice the flower even in the middle of the jungle you discover peace, here and now.