The Fox and the Crocodile

The Writer of Divine Dialogue at seventy-eight

The story begins

There was a fox who lived by a river. The fox wished to cross the river and, because it could not swim, it asked the help of a crocodile which lived close by. The crocodile said that he would be happy to help. All the fox would have to do was climb upon his back and the crocodile would swim him across.

He dearly wished to reach the other side

The fox was afraid of the crocodile. But he dearly wished to reach the other side of that river, and there appeared to be no other way that he could do so. He was too heavy to be carried by any of the birds. Besides, the birds were afraid of him. He’d been known to eat many a bird- and even to kill them just for his pleasure- so the bird-method of getting across was definitely not on.

So, the fox was stuck with the crocodile. Or he thought he was. So the fox said to the crocodile that he would let the crocodile to take him across the river- provided he be allowed to take a short, stout, stick with him.

The crocodile thought about that...

The crocodile was renowned for his cunning

‘Short, stout, stick- what on earth does he want with that?” Does he think that he can club me when we get out in the river and use me as a raft? Huh! What a fool. I have such a thick hide and tough skull. He won’t be able to hurt me. Still, that fox is no fool. He is renowned for his cunning. Still, in this instance I believe I have his measure.’

So the crocodile agreed to let the fox carry the short, stout, stick with him as he climbed upon his broad and scaly back.

The writer running a workshop

The crocodile made his move

Out from the bank the crocodile made his move. Quickly he rolled upon his back, throwing the fox into the water. Instantly he opened his jaws as wide as he could to swallow the fox. But the cunning fox had predicted this move and had that stout stick ready. The fox turned his head sideways - with that short, stout, stick protruding from each side of his own jaws. He pushed his head down inside that hungry croc’s mouth. Yes, past those ravenous jaws, that thick tongue, and those wicked, curling yellow teeth. The fox pushed down as far as he could and -yes, you guessed it- the stick became wedged in the crocodile’s jaws and he could neither open or close his mouth.

The fox now had the upper hand. He climbed back atop the crocodile and said:

“ If you swim me to the other side, as promised, I shall remove that stick.”

The crocodile and the fox had never made any friends

The crocodile had no choice. If it did not swim the sly old fox to the other side of the river, that short, stout, stick would remain wedged in its throat, keeping its jaws open and it would not be able to survive for long. So, naturally, it agreed. It had to, really. For it there was no other choice.

You see, the crocodile and the fox had never made any friends. They were fearful of making friends with one another, for there was no trust between them. They had never bothered to make friends with anyone. If they had done so, the problems they were both encountering would not have occurred.

A typical audience listening to Tom's stories

Both the fox and the crocodile had a problem now

And yes, both the fox and the crocodile had a problem now. The crocodile would swim to the river’s bank, but there was no guarantee that the fox would remove

that stick. The fox probably wouldn’t. For it realized that if it did so, the crocodile would be free to snap it up as soon as they reached the shore.

The fox, on the other hand had already made up its mind that the crocodile would snap it up. If it got the chance. The crocodile was also pretty sure that the fox would not remove that stick. So the crocodile thought to itself, ‘Maybe I can make a bargain here.’

The trickery continues

“I shall take you to the bank.” said the croc. “But I shall take you to the bank you just came from. I’ll take you back there. If I take you back there, and you take that stick out of my mouth, I shall then take you across to the side you wish to go to. What do you think of that?”

Well, the fox knew that it had to get off of that crocodile’s back with safety. It thought for a while. Then it said.

“No. I don’t think so. If I you take me back to that side of the river again, how do I know you won’t eat me as soon as I remove the stick?”

“I’ll allow you to get another stick first.” said the croc. “You get that other stick, and then you can take the first one out. You’ll have a second one with which to replace it.”

The fox thought. ‘No. That croc can still eat me at any time.’ Instead it answered thus:

“Take me to the far bank. Take me to the bank of the river I wish to go to and then I shall get another stick.”

Tom speaking at a luncheon

So who won and why?

“All right,” said the crocodile. It had been fooled by its own suggestion. It did not occur to the crocodile that the fox would have already have reached its destination, and would certainly have no need to return to it with another stick.

And so the crocodile swam the remaining distance to the far shore - where the fox left it to die.

The moral of the story

The moral of this story is that the animal with the most cunning always wins the day.

Now, to elaborate on that story as it relates to the practice of Automatic Typing. The fox is the Higher Self. The crocodile is the ego’s will. The river is the mind. And the stick is the method by which the Higher Self exerts itself upon the ego’s little wills once they have opened themselves up to the Higher Self.

The stick is something which, when inserted, can never be removed. The change occurs and it is an ongoing change. The mind is changed forever. The mind is opened and kept open. And what comes out of (is eradicated from ) the mind will keep coming out of it until either the practitioner of Automatic Writing becomes enlightened -in this world or the next, or the next after that- or instantly becomes enlightened, with the revelation that the ego is now ineffectual. Ego is like the crocodile’s teeth with the jaw open. Once the stick of Higher Self’s technique,

(Automatic Typing in this instance) is deliberately placed there by the little self, it begins to take its effect.

The crocodile is our ego, our self-image, our conditioned self

The crocodile is the ego. It has a cunning of sorts. Compared to the intelligence of the fox -the little self- it has quite a primitive one. The mind is filled with crocodiles. The mind is filled with jaws. But the stout, stick of the Higher Self can be inserted until the mind’s jaws are unable to close around the ‘awareness’ of the little self anymore. And, once the mind’s jaws are unable to close around the little self, those jaws are no longer able to instill any fear into the little self. It gradually learns that it, and the technique that it has used to keep those jaws away, are part of the same thing.

Another audience listening to one of Tom's stories

Some of the Higher Self's methods to eliminate the ego-self

The Higher Self’s technique- be it meditation, automatic writing, or anything which enables the ‘little self’ to know that there is within it something far more powerful than those ‘elements’ contained in the mind, is able to free itself from the mind’s contents. It knows that they are there. But it knows that its little stout, stick can always contend with them.

And so we have a simple story to tell about a simple method of overcoming one’s own inhibitions, fears, worries, and everything which interferes with the ‘peace of mind’ of the little self.

Tom speaking at a conference in Hong Kong in 2015

Once the stick is lodged it's just a matter of time

Of course. The short, stout stick, which the little-self uses to keep those jaws from itself, can’t be used to keep the fear away right from the start. There will be doubt as to whether the stick is strong enough. There will be concern as to whether it is ‘being inserted properly’ so that it can keep those jaws open. But the stick will work. It always does. In this, it is impossible to fail. Once the process of truly desiring self-knowledge is in the little-self, the stick will be provided. And it will be stout enough. I never fail those who earnestly seek to reach the other side of the river.