Monstaville Book II. Chapter 4

4

“The Red Baron hates me.”

- Snoopy (in Charles M. Schulz’s Snoopy Stars As The Flying Ace, Ravette Books Ltd, West Sussex, U.K., 1990).

Monkey (Episode 27, ‘Pigsy’s Ten Thousand Ladies,’ 1981).

Sandy wants tranquillity, a peaceful life, rest, to be left alone. ‘I’m an odd sort of fish who just wants peace and tranquillity’ (he wants to relax and feel energy - chi - flow and circulate, to feel whole).

Pigsy wants food, wine and women to satisfy his desires and senses (he wants to increase and stimulate his jing, his sexual essence).

Monkey wants freedom to do what he wants, to have fun and express his will. He wants magic, adventure and power. Mischief. Yet, he can only enjoy himself when he can control his mind and restrain/concentrate his thoughts responsibly (he wants to become more, to express his will, power and potential - his shen, or spirit - and be a god but without concerning himself with the needs and feelings of others, universal harmony or the heavenly order of life).

Sandy wants peace and quiet to contemplate. But he ends up with a wife who wants lots of children. So, there won’t be peace and quiet. He has no time to himself owing to all the housework and the workload his demanding wife gives him. Even in Heaven “where will Sandy find time to philosophise? His needs are modest. Peace and quiet and an ordinary life. Can it be that they don’t belong together? Is there no tranquillity in domesticity? And, is time to think a rare privilege indeed?” (In Heaven where he does not have to struggle and do a job).

Pigsy wants lots of women but the price to pay is castration! He has to sacrifice his desire for them totally in order to share their company. So he prefers to continue on the Buddha’s mission - responsibility at least gives him a balance. Some restriction is better than total restriction, which would result from total indulgence in his desires; that is, perhaps, if he did have ten thousand ladies, he would exhaust his energy and be impotent and die (an early death).

Sandy: “If that is Heaven, I don’t think so very much of it. If that’s Heaven, it can wait.” Sandy begs the Jade Emperor to receive him back in Heaven, to escape from the horrible Earth he hates. His friend, the star Vega, helps him and his wish is granted but he loses the little time for reflection he had even on Earth! No privacy in the smothering totality of consciousness.

Monkey wants freedom to party and adventure but without the responsibility of Buddha’s mission, without the focus of that duty, his mind is too wayward and he gets bored with playing all the time. He needs a goal, a purpose, with the challenge and self-discipline that entails focussing his will and providing him with a balance. But then he resents having to exercise self-control. He is very quickly bored. Always the clown.

The golden headache band which Buddha gave to Tripitaka to help him control Monkey represents the mind’s bondage to the body on Earth. The body (Tripitaka) causes pain to the mind. When it is in trouble or the mind gets carried away and jeopardises the safety and needs of the body. The body provides discipline and limitation through pain. Certain ailments curtail attitudes and behaviour that the soul is working on.

One day while driving home from his fishing trip in the pouring rain, a man got a flat tire outside a monastery. A monk came out and invited him inside to have dinner and spend the night. The motorist accepted. That night he had a wonderful dinner of fish and chips. He decided to compliment the chef. Entering the kitchen, he asked the cook, ‘Are you the fish friar?’ ‘No,’ the man replied, ‘I'm the chip monk.’

The challenge of tests on Earth that lead to realising one’s Buddha nature are what we need. It is ignorance to complain about them, to reject them or seek to be rid of them. If they were removed, one would remain unfulfilled. One would not grow and realise one’s potential. We must therefore accept our lives on Earth. We have chosen the lessons we need. We should strive not to argue and fight like animals but to express the original Self, which is One.

Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy, the three jewels (san bao), are dependent on Tripitaka, the body. They resent the restrictions but find, in this episode, that they need them in order to focus on what they want. They need the body’s restraint to achieve a balance. For, if they get carried away and have everything they desire, things go too far. Other problems emerge so they end up with nothing. Thus, mortal life is a blessing in disguise.

Conclusion: “The blows of life transform us. Life will give us many forms. After Heaven and Earth exist, individual[ity] is developed to fill the space in between. The birth is always difficult. We all need help to change and grow. And what if there is no Heaven? No failure is forever. There is always change and a new beginning.”

 

“Happiness has no exchange value. Unhappiness is always in circulation. Life is continually minting new denominations of unhappiness. In the meeting places of the world, night and day, these change hands. The unhappy move through the streets with their pockets bulging. The happy are static, like gold in the ground.” - Peter Schjeldahl.

“When conditions change, some people become immobilised by worry. Other people complain. Still others make the changing conditions into an excuse for not taking action. What do successful people do when conditions change? Successful people adapt. That's what makes them consistently successful. When conditions change, suddenly there can be plenty of reasons to give up. Suddenly there can be plenty of perfectly understandable justifications for not moving forward. Suddenly there can be an abundance of excuses for failure. And yet, when conditions change there are also great opportunities. Some people will have the confidence to recognise those opportunities and act upon them. Someday everyone will say those people were lucky, that they were in the right place at the right time. The truth is, when you're willing and able to adapt, you're always in the right place at the right time. Those who recognise that fact and take advantage of it by adapting in a positive way to changing conditions will be very fortunate indeed.” - Ralph Marston.

“Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” ‑ Saint Francis of Assisi. 

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius.

“The secret of success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill. 

“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations. If you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility won’t exist because you’ll have already shut it out...You can hear other people’s wisdom, but you’ve got to re-evaluate the world for yourself.” - Mae Jemison, the first African female in space.

 

“We flying aces are very dramatic.” - Snoopy (in Charles M. Schulz’s Snoopy Stars As The Flying Ace, Ravette Books Ltd, West Sussex, U.K., 1990).

The Second Ring of Power by Carlos Castaneda (Pocket Books, New York, U.S., 1980).

    * Anything is possible if one wants it with unbending intent and you don't let your thoughts interfere.

    * Power comes only after we accept our fate without recriminations.

    * When one has nothing to lose, one becomes courageous. We are timid only when there is something we can still cling to.

    * A warrior doesn't seek anything for his solace, nor can he possibly leave anything to chance. A warrior actually affects the outcome of events by the force of his awareness and his unbending intent.

    * A warrior has no compassion for anyone. To have compassion means that you wish the other person to be like you, to be in your shoes, and you lend a hand just for that purpose. The hardest thing in the world is for a warrior to let others be. The impeccability of a warrior is to let them be and to support them in what they are. That means, of course, that you trust them to be impeccable warriors themselves. If they are not then it's your duty to be impeccable yourself and not say a word. Only a sorcerer who sees and is formless can afford to help anyone. Every effort to help on our part is an arbitrary act guided by our own self-interest alone.

                (Extracts taken from www.prismagems.com/castaneda).

Retrospective insert.

"Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual." - Alfred Hitchcock.

Excerpts from The Lazaris Material. Ending Self-sabotage. Tape 1 (audio cassette) by Lazaris (channelled through Jach Pursel, Concept: Synergy, CA., U.S., 1986).

Lazaris explains that we are viewed as selfish and self-centred if we want to spend an hour talking about how wonderful our lives are. If we are happy then the other person wants us to listen to their problems: “You only get that time if you’re miserable. If you’re happy, you don’t get any time at all. ‘Huh, your life’s working, you shut up.’” In other words, unless we give attention to that which we want and find fulfilling, unless we occupy the space in our minds with positive thought and energy, unless we fill it with Light and Reality, we are likely to project negative experiences - pain and illusion - onto the canvas of our lives. St. Germain explains that this is the Inner Child seeking attention. It is a subconscious projection and it appears in our lives because emotion is the most direct manifestation energy. It is the stuff of life and consciousness.

Lazaris recommends that we invest time and attention in finding out how we achieved success. If you don’t, or won’t, he says, then you might create an environment that is very inducive of self-sabotage because you want attention (both from yourself and others) and only allow it when you have problems. So you produce problems.

“Being irresponsible about your success: ‘I’m here and I don’t know how I got here and therefore I’m terrified that I won’t be here tomorrow. And I end the suspense, you see, I end the suspense by crumbling my reality.

                You see it in scary movies, yes? You know there’s a monster, right? That’s going to drip saliva or whatever, eh? And he’s got an axe or a chainsaw or something. And the young heroine, of course, has to go looking alone, right? Without a light or without anything, walking around in the dark, yes. And has to open every door, you know [Makes loud creaking sounds]. And the suspense builds – the suspense builds so you’re almost, ‘Oh hurry up and jump out and get her! I can’t stand it! And finally…the monster gets in there. ‘Oh, oh my gosh, at least it’s over!’

                It’s the same thing: ‘I’m succeeding and I don’t know how. I don’t know when. I don’t know which floorboard is going to fall through. So [I want to] hurry up and I jump on them all. So, if I’m going to crash, I hurry up and do it - because I won’t be responsible for my successes. And therefore I sabotage myself to end the suspense. ‘At least I know what failure is. I know what it feels like. I’ve treaded those steps and I’ve walked those treadmills many times before. This success I don’t understand. And, therefore, people who will not be responsible, will not figure out ‘how and why and where I created this success,’ are inducing a situation of sabotage. Again, it’s not guaranteed. It’s not like, ‘Well, if you’re doing it you will sabotage yourself. We’re suggesting you’re creating an environment that encourages self-sabotage.”

"What we need to learn from children isn't childish. Being with them connects us to the deeper wisdom of life which is ever-present and only asks to be lived. They know the way to solutions that lie waiting to be recognised within our own heart. Today, I would like to thank all the children of the world including the sick and deprived. I am so sensitive to your pain." - Michael Jackson (at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards, 24 February 1993, Los Angeles, California).

Life is a mighty joke: our illusions are so precious to us owing to familiarity but they are glass beads compared to the diamonds of Heaven. 

“Life is a mighty joke. He who knows this can hardly be understood by others. He who does not know it finds himself in a state of delusion. He may ponder over this problem day and night but will find himself incapable of knowing it. Why? People take life seriously, and God lightly; whereas we must take God seriously, and life lightly. Then we know that we always were the same and will ever remain the same - the originator of this joke. This Knowledge is not achieved by reasoning, but it is the Knowledge of experience.” - Meher Baba (How A Master Works by Ivy O. Duce, Sufism Reoriented, Inc., Walnut Creek, CA., U.S., 1975, p.537; from www.avatarmeherbaba.org/erics/joinfun.html).