various verbiage

a school i traversed, some years back
had a funny take on the Golden Rule, namely:
“Be nice to me, & I’ll be nice to you”.

Er, that’s approximately 180 degrees out of whack.
The real Golden Rule says:
“Be nice to everyone as you’d like them to be nice to you”.

iow, be nice first.

instead, this ‘new, improved’ version takes all the personal responsibility out of the equation, & seems to proffer a spiritual challenge, a psychic ‘prove-it’, if you will: “Be nice to me, or else.”

…funny enough, this very same school had a real issue with ego. Or rather, an incredible difficulty ever mentioning the word. Which is really ironic, b/c every single meditation school in the East (including this school’s spiritual ancestors, by way of Egyptian mystery schools, theosophy, & the like), puts primary focus on the ego.

It turns-out, there is an incredibly important reason to address the ego in spiritual practices. And it’s a very simple reason, b/c it cuts right to the heart of the matter: the more you meditate, the more your willpower increases.

That simple.
But that dangerous, if you will.

“Dangerous? Huh?!”
Sure.

Because if your ego isn’t refined, your “I want” and esp. “I want now” not put under leash, and then you gain a strong willpower, some rather not-great things can happen… to other ppl, if not your own spiritual growth.

We’ve all seen this happen to “overnight sensations”, eg. rock-stars, who become “too full of themselves”, charismatic politicians, or cult figures etc. etc…. all who are finally brought-down by an avalanche of excess. And all because they’ve lost their perspective & truly felt they “could do no wrong” or “it was all for the best”. And all that was fine when they were ‘nobodies’, b/c they could do little harm. But when they suddenly become focal points for cheering throngs of adherents, that can test the equanimity of a saint… & most ppl aren’t very saintlike.

So for the (traditional, Eastern) spiritual aspirant, there’s lots of ‘warnings’ built-into the training, alerting them to this pitfall. This is what Trungpa is talking about with his description of “the golden chain” … not only will your over-developed ego hamstring your own spiritual growth, but it will also lead you to ‘messing’ with other people.

There’s a fascinating description of this phenomena in “The Empty Mirror”, by Janwillem Van De Wetering. He’d been practicing in a traditional Japanese Zen monastary for several months, his mind had stilled quite a bit, & he had to ride a train to get his visa fixed. He saw a young cute Japanese girl on the train (the first girl he’d seen in months), & was immediately overwhelmed with lust. Casting about, he found that by focusing his intent on her, [he] got her to come over, sit by him, & even start to rub her leg against his… all w/o him saying a thing! And yet she “kept rubbing”, even though it was clear she was uncomfortable! Finally he came to his senses, relinquished his ‘mental focus’ on her, & she immediately got-up & hurried away.

Sounds crazy? I’ve seen much more dramatic displays, myself.

There’s a concept in martial arts, that the ‘yellow belt’ (couple of years intense training) has all the power of a black belt (four years plus of intense training)…. but none of the control. Bruce Lee liked to chide strong enemies in his films, pointing-out that no matter how strong they could punch, it didn’t mean much if they didn’t hit their target.

Or in other words, it doesn’t take too long for someone doing meditation to start building-up their willpower. But that doesn’t help their ego at all, esp. if their “Golden Rule” encourages a ‘me-first’ sensibility.

The fundamental pitfall of meditation (other than not doing it at all) is increased mental abilities, including willpower, visions, etc. etc. Many zen masters will say, “ignore the visions, they will go away”, & emphasize clearing the mind. Other practitioners, such as Raja Yogis (or western theosophists), instead work with those ‘visions’ to manipulate the esoteric energies in their bodies. But in the end, both [types] of practitioners focus on ego (or “attachment”, or “desire”, or “being stuck”), & how to unravel & release the ego’s effects, called “karma”.

And that’s kinda hard to do w/ the wrong “Golden Rule”.

in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The UnBeliever (Stephen R. Donaldson; terrific, a close second to LOTR imho), there is the concept of the “Test of Truth”.

basically, using knowledge/wisdom/experience (or “lore” for short), the Tester questions the Testee… to determine what is True. not if something specifically is ‘correct’ or not, objectively verifiable or whatever… but rather if the person is True.

there is a correlate in the ‘real world’:
What do you do if you don’t trust your shrink?

this is a fundamental question, which boils-down to–
– is it the shrink who is fucked-up, or
– is it you?

if you break it down into “information” and/or “technique”… then that is separate from personalities, & you can learn that from many different ppl. or in other words, it could be that shrink who’s fucked-up, so “go get a second opinion”.

but if it’s a question of something core… then it’s going to come up again & again.

so even then, you don’t have to ‘worry’ about it…
…unless you keep leaving & leaving.

the 12-Step programs (AA, NA, Al-Anon, OA, SA, etc) have a concept called “pulling a geographic”. iow, you leave, & (hope) that you ‘leave your troubles behind’.

unfortunately, that’s not how it works– the troubles were inside of you, you carry them with you, & thus you’re just gonna ‘find’ them again, in wherever new town you end-up in.

{…to be continued}

so, Buddhism has an incredibly-huge canon of texts, myriads of schools, & a gen-u-wine Enlightened dude wandering around singing its praises.
Despite all that, Buddha found it useful to refine his philosophy into a simple, easily-digested mouthful, a la “Four Noble Truths”:
1) Life is Suffering
2) Suffering is caused by Desire
3) Desire can be controlled
4) Desire can be controlled by the 8-Fold Path.

…but that’s hoary & Eastern & who knows what that ‘8-Fold Path’ is, anyway?

…so w/o further ado, here’s “The Four Practical Truths” for the Practical Mystic: {with apologies to Buddha}

1) Life is Great
2) if Life Sucks, there’s just shit in your Space
3) you can clear (energy/pictures/beings) from your Space, -and-
4) Growth can be managed via the 4-Quadrant Path

…is when you say “my school is better than your school”
or “i know more/better than you”

…but the best is
“i’m oh-so-cool b/c i meditate & stuff”

Chogyam Trungpa calls this the “golden chain”, & is the last (& hardest) egoic barrier to enlightenment.

i call it the “new age curse”, & i see it everywhere, here in the Bay Area.

or as this old drunk told me, as we narrowly missed being mowed-down by a volvo while jaywalking on Telegraph,
“see that bumper-sticker? ‘Visualize World Peace’.
“You gotta watch those new-age bastards, they’ll run you down soon as look at you.
“I’ve had rednecks, school buses, even Hell’s Angels stop & let me [jaywalk] in front of them… but not those volvo-driving bastards…
“they’re ‘me-first’ all the way…”

God Bless you, Mr. Drunk. In vino veritas, or whatever. (“in wine there is disk-management software”?!)

so, the meditation school i attend has this concept of a “growth period”.
it’s like when everything seems “just fine” but you nevertheless have this annoying tendency of walking into walls.

another way of putting it, is that your spirit (if you believe in such a thing) & your body (we’ve all got one of those) are just at different ‘times’ today. It’s as if one just woke up, while the other has already finished the daily chores & is off to bed.

when you feel kinda ‘psyched’ but sluggish, your “spirit is ahead of your body”. we’ve all felt this after finishing a tough climb, a long project, or [finally] getting off the phone w/ mom. it’s like we have the creative energy to go for ‘miles’, but yet can’t seem to make our body move.

when you feel energized but sorta brain-dead, that’s when your “body is ahead of your spirit”. This can happen to ppl who drink coffee at nite, experience a sudden shock, and/or are having ‘hot flashes’. we can’t seem to go to sleep, but can’t seem to do anything creative either… reading a book, watching a movie, ugh– everything ‘bores’ us pretty quickly.

{tune in later for some tips/tricks on dealing with growth periods}.

so all that sounds like fun, right?
er, why bother meditating, anyway?

all i can say is
- after a pretty depressing childhood
- years of attending shrinks
- a college-life which cemented a pattern of severe up’s ‘n down’s
- a series of post-college years spent bopping from admin (secretary, not system) to admin job, overqualified & underpaid
- the requisite series of bad relationships
- even a swing thru the Erhardtian consciousness movement & Tony Robbins

…nothing, & i mean nothing has got my head on straight like plain ‘ol meditation.

…& that’s just the ‘work’ part. ‘fixing’ yourself, if you will.
meditation is also fun– it can take you places wouldn’t've believed possible. i used to live at a veggie commune, so i’ve done my share of psychotropic experimentation, & i’ve never hit a state [back then] which i’ve not been able to get to w/ meditation…

…plus, there’s no hangover in the morning.