A tadpole and a frog appear completely different creatures. Yet they are one and the same.
A tadpole can live only in water. Like a fish, it uses its tail to swim around. A frog can live both in water and on land. For the tadpole to become the frog, it must first develop legs.
A tail is indispensable to a tadpole. Without its tail it could not swim and would not survive. Yet once the tadpole grows legs and learns to hop about on land, its tail becomes an encumbrance, which eventually falls off of its own accord.
We are at once the tadpole and the frog.
As long as we live within our limited mind, we exist almost exclusively in the finite material, emotional and mental realms. We are tadpoles living in the water, unable to emerge. Just as the tadpole needs its tail to swim, to navigate and get along in its world, so we relate to our world and navigate our way through life with our thoughts and desires. As a tadpole is attached to its tail, so are we inextricably attached to our thoughts and desires.
As we meditate and aspire spiritually, like the frog we grow and develop new capacities and awareness. We acquire inner legs and the capacity to discover and roam around a much vaster, freer spiritual realm. We evolve into a new identity, which can live just as freely in water and on land, in the material and spiritual realms.
If you feel you are still a tadpole, aspire eagerly only to grow into your inner frog urgently. You will never look back!
If you are already a frog, lose your tail of thought-desire-attachment immediately, for this tail is now sheer dead weight dragging you down.