Count Your Chickens Before They've Hatched.
It feels like a stupid advice, "Count your chickens before they've hatched." Nobody wants to count their chickens before they've hatched. Let's talk about something else. But, here we are. We're going to talk about counting your chickens before they've hatched. Here's how:
The expression comes from the idea that it's very difficult to change what happens after you lay eggs--after all, once the egg is laid and leaves an expectant mother's ovipositor, you don't have much control over it anymore. So, it's best to get in the habit of counting your chickens responsibly. If they're not with you, who will be there to see them hatch?
The expression is also used metaphorically in everyday life. It means to look at a situation and calmly consider how many good things can happen before disaster strikes. For example: "Sales really took off this week--I told you I had a good feeling about it."
The expression appeared in print as early as 1815 (A Dictionary of the English Language and British Speech, Oxford, UK: H.G. and F.R. Milford, 1815). The version used today seems to have been first used by Sir Walter Scott in the novel, St. Ronan's Well (1824): "Count your chickens before they are hatched, Mackaye."
The expression can be a bit confusing for listeners because of the very nature of "eggs"--we tend to think that eggs are laid and then laid again and again. But usually eggs are laid once and then hatched, making it difficult to count them before they've hatched.
In this case, we're talking about a metaphorical egg--a metaphor for an idea or plan that might happen in the future. Here's how Sir Walter Scott has it:
LET us count for a time on the hatching of this egg. We cannot tell how soon or when, but I have a 'hunch' that in five years, or so, we shall find these villains at least unhung and the egg unbroken. . . . There is no help for it but to face the issue. [St. Ronan's Well, Windham Publishing Company (London), 1824.]
The expression used in everyday life is sometimes similar to the use of "eggs" in this case--it suggests that something good could happen right away, and sometimes something good will happen soon. For example: "Sales really took off this week--I told you I had a good feeling about it."
The expression is sometimes used for something that takes a long time to happen, but the idea is the same--to focus on what can happen, instead of worrying about what might not.
Finally, here's an excerpt from the Pali canon showing that the expression was known in early Buddhism:
Spoken by the Blessed One, brethren: "He throws open the door of his senses to him who desires sensation and shuts it up to him who desires nothing and keeps it shut up so long as he lives. Similarly, he throws open the door of his senses to him who desires passion and keeps it shut up to him who desires nothing and keeps it shut up so long as he lives. He throws open the door of his senses to him who desires perception and keeps it shut up to him who desires nothing and keeps it shut up so long as he lives. He throws open the door of his senses to him who desires delusion and holds them (the doors) shut up so long as he lives.
(Anguttara Nikaya IV, 1. 17-19, trans. Maurice Walshe, The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995.)
ARTICLE END
This article was originally posted on my site here . Republished with permission. http://kennethwilliamweber.blogspot.com/2012/03/count-your-chickens-before-theyve.html
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By Kenneth Weber, Ph.D., fluent in English and Japanese, a teacher and author of the English-Japanese Dictionary for the Amazon Kindle. You can find out more about him on his website , or follow him on Twitter @KenWeber2 . Full disclosure: he is not a Buddhist nor has he ever been reincarnated as Buddha or any other religious figure. He's very into himself as a person and projects that onto others, but he is generally harmless. http://kennethwilliamweber.blogspot.com/2012/08/arrogant-apologetics-buddhist-circle.html
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Conclusion to "A Buddhist Approach to Dealing with Pain" I'm really looking forward to doing the follow-up post on how we can use some of the practices mentioned in this essay while we're actually in pain. I plan to do a post like this on my blog, but it won't be as good as what I was able to put together here with the help of Kevin and Richard. If you want to take part in the discussion and ask questions or give your own experiences, please share them by leaving a comment below!
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