The Coyote and the Roadrunner

Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz
June 2, 1983

The parable of the Coyote and the Road Runner saves us at this point.

You all know the Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons, with the little Road Runner who runs around, beep-beeping, and the Coyote, old Wile Coyote, is always trying to catch him. It's one of these karmic relationships that they have. Clearly, they've been doing this for many lifetimes. Probably, they switch from lifetime to lifetime.

So, in this lifetime, they reincarnate in the cartoon world, which is quite a world to end up in. Many possibilities, many variables. In the cartoon world, of course, there are certain operable laws, as there are in any world. As long as it's a world, it has laws. Why, I don't know, it's just the way it is. In Nirvana, there are no laws.

In the cartoon world, the laws are very simple. Coyote does not catch Road Runner, or even if he grabs him, somehow that Road Runner's going to get away, because otherwise, there'll be no cartoon. Once the Coyote gets the Road Runner and eats him, that's it. Then we have the Coyote hour. So, the Road Runner can't be caught. Now, why can't the Coyote catch the Road Runner? Well, it's a Zen question, I suppose. It's because he's a Coyote, because under the definition of Coyote in that structured cartoon world, Coyote does not catch Road Runner. Can't do it. Road Runner is always going to outwit him.

Now, the Road Runner is basically a brainless critter. That's his strength. He doesn't know anything. He just runs around all the time. He's this happy little thing. This Coyote is an intellectual; he reads Hegel at lunch. This is a smart Coyote, see. I mean, that's what it says - if you've ever watched the cartoons, it says, "Wile E. Coyote, Genius" on his mailbox. This is one smart Coyote. He's a got a Ph.D.

So, what this Coyote is always trying to do is figure out how to catch the Road Runner, and impeccability for the Coyote is trying to catch the Road Runner as best as he can, and not being discouraged, knowing that he'll never catch him, because it doesn't matter, because in that world, it's always happening. Keats wrote a poem, and it's about some dancers on a Grecian urn. I think it was Keats, it might've been Shelly. But Ode on a Grecian Urn, and on the urn -- it's one of these long romantic poems where they're sitting around, languishing, which they liked to do in that period -- and there are the dancers that are on this urn, and he's saying well, it's so great because here they are, and on this urn, on this big pot, there are these painted figures, and the guy is chasing the girl, you see, and she's sort of dancing away, and he's saying, how great that he'll never catch her, because they'll always be happy this way.

Once he catches her, they'll move to the suburbs, you see. They'll get a Kenmore washing machine and probably get talked into the service contract. "It's a good deal, sir, you know, if we have to come out one time, it'll cost you a thousand dollars, whereas for $40 here." So he says -- you know, the romantics love that stuff, they love to sort of look at the life that way, their aesthetic modality -- and he's saying this is great, they're always going to be happy on this vase, not like us. That's always the understatement, you know, in all the romantic poems. So, that's the creation of the Coyote and the Road Runner. It's in a new form. Coyote is happy trying to get that Road Runner and he never gives up.

How could the Coyote catch the Road Runner if he wasn't a Coyote? He has to change. So, if he took a quick course in the Tibetan Rebirth Process, he could change forms and no longer be a Coyote, and then he could grab that Road Runner, but maybe in the process, he'd learn to be a nice guy and leave the Road Runner alone. Then, the Road Runner would chase him. That's karma.

Of course, I've always held that the Coyote is a siddhi master. You know, the siddhis, these are the powers, the ability to project your body to different locations, to manifest things, to walk on yogurt, to do different things like that. These are the siddhis, to reconstruct your body, things like that, and the Coyote is the siddhi master, because whenever anything bad happens to him, if he gets blown apart, in the next scene, he's back together. So, clearly, he's a master at many, many occult powers, but in spite of these occult powers, he doesn't have what the Road Runner has, which is enlightenment. The Road Runner's mindless -- idiot Road Runner running around, but then again what would the Road Runner do if the Coyote didn't exist? Be happy probably.

Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz