The Hunter and The Hunted

James Opie The Chinese tell of a hunter who quietly approached a lake a spear in hand. He parted the reeds ever so quietly and there stood an egret, close to the waters edge, close enough, surely, for the hunter to spear. Silently, the man raised his weapon. He was poised, ready to throw it when he noticed that the egret was silently staring at something. The hunter followed followed the egret's line of vision and saw a frog, sitting on a lily pad. The egret's body twitched slightly. He was about to strike the frog and eat it. And then the hunter's eye went to the frog and he saw that he, too, was poised and alive with a hunters expectancy. The frog clearly was watching a large bug on the surface of the water, inches away. The hunter leaned a few inches farther and then saw that the bug, a large one, and watching a much smaller bug, also on the water's surface, was about to eat this small creature. And the hunter envisioned that the small bug was about to eat something even smaller, and that this small entity was also about to strike. Whereupon, the hunter looked up over his right shoulder, into the sky. His eyes filled with awe. He dropped his spear and ran!