Monstaville Book I. Chapter 20

20

"If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Unaffected

Don’t be affected by anything anyone does to you. Mainly, they are trying to intimidate you, but that can’t hurt you! It is child’s play. Don’t take that so seriously! Today, someone (must be Pigsy, or else the others) has thrown (probably threw it yesterday) a small plastic bag and the peel of one orange into the middle of my garden where I practice tai chi, the peel having come out of the bag upon impact with the ground. That will not hurt you. You can’t stop people being fools, or children. Let them. Don’t worry. Be mature. Pick it up and throw it out with the rubbish for them - they are evidently not civilised enough to clear up after themselves and probably resent having to use a waste disposal bin because their mother spoilt them so much that she created monsters!

"Wanna make a monster? Take the parts of yourself that make you uncomfortable - your weaknesses, bad thoughts, vanities, and hungers - and pretend they’re across the room. It’s too ugly to be human. It’s too ugly to be you. Children are afraid of the dark because they have nothing real to work with. Adults are afraid of themselves." - Richard Siken.

Now, try to imagine that the worst Pigsy is capable of is as meaningless and trivial as the bag with the orange peel in. It does not affect you. It is nothing. You let it happen and then, afterwards, you throw it in the bin. Finished. It is only rubbish! It has no bearing on the important aspects of life. It is just a savage being fierce, wanting a fight. If you show neither fear nor aggression, yet remain confident, nothing will happen. Whatever happens, receive it as if it is a gift, or something silly and insignificant like trash, like orange peel. Return it with kindness, even gratitude, with light, love, gentleness. And then throw it away and forget about it. Don’t let the garbage cling to you and poison you! Don’t swallow it! If you allow it to affect you, it will make you weak and fearful. That’s what they want - so they can finish you off and get rid of you for good.

If you say, ‘Give me all the bad things, the rubbish, the hatred and anger, you have got,’ while sending them light in return for it, perhaps their behaviour becomes worth something for them to invest in. But, they do not realise that the light you send will help civilise them. And, also, after a while, it will be clear that they have spent lots of time and energy sending negative vibes to you while you have not engages negatively yourself. They may then sense, or realise, that they are in danger of seeing their own stupidity and shameful behaviour for what they are. They want to deny this, so they may have to stop before it goes that far. This can take a very long time to happen, but it can be achieved. The intimidation simply stops and they keep themselves to themselves.

“It is a feeling that no matter what the ideas or conduct of others, there is a unique rightness and beauty to life which can be shared in openness, in wind and sunlight, with a fellow human being who believes in the same basic principles.” – Sylvia Plath.

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength." Marcus Aurelius.

"Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution." - Kahil Gibran.

“A truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave negatively or hurt you.” - The Dalai Lama.

Retrospective inserts.

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

There are actually people who claim to be offering help [for] depression by telling you to think about people worse off than you. Anyway, seriously, they’re not joking. They’re not thinking it’s funny. But…they’re telling you: ‘If you’re depressed, think about people worse off than you,’ not knowing that that’s only going to deepen your depression. I mean, if your life has just fallen out from under you and you are on the brink of destruction, thinking about people who are homeless…isn’t going to make you feel better. ‘Oh, I’m so happy now, yes’…It doesn’t work. It only makes you more depressed. Others will tell you, ‘Go out shopping. There’s nothing worse, when you’re depressed, than to go out and see all these people hustling and bustling, having a good time, as you are trundling along in your depression…You can barely walk as everybody’s buzzing by: ‘Excuse me.’ ‘Oh, excuse me.’ ‘Excuse me.’ ‘Excuse me’…

                Depression is caused by two things. Depression is caused by layer by layer by layer, by anger that you’re going to get in trouble for having. People who get depressed wake up one morning with it. It’s there. It’s like a grain of sand that tipped the scale. It’s like that straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. All of a sudden, one day I’m fine and the next I’m not. Because it’s been layer upon layer upon layer of an anger that was too small to deal with, or an anger that I was going to get in trouble if I said…finally built up to a point where I can’t move. Now, that’s one kind of depression. And it can be lifted layer by layer by layer as well. But the depression that is associated with sabotage is the other kind of depression which comes from any quick and sudden change. Any quick and sudden change will produce depression…The characteristic of sabotage is that kind of depression: quick and sudden change in your reality producing depression. And for some of you, even the slow build…of depression, rarely, but nonetheless, participates in a circumstance of sabotage…the characteristic of a self-sabotaging move is depression…

                The most joyous and the most wonderful thing that can occur in your reality can and does produce depression when it happens fast, when it happens suddenly, when it happens overnight or so quickly that you can’t watch it…Admittedly, it doesn’t last long, but it happens. When something quick and sudden devastatingly happens, that produces depression also.

Above All Don't Wobble by Osho (Chapter 19, 3 February 1976, Chuang Tzu Auditorium, Rajneesh Foundation, Pune, India, 1976), p.300-304.

[A sannyasin said that since Osho had told her not to lead Encounter groups with Veeresh: ‘I've been feeling angry, and angry against people like you; people like you and Laxmi (the secretary) and the ashram and anybody who waves a thing at me. But there's been nobody to react to. I just feel really afraid...Just a few times, very rarely, a spontaneous thing happens which I don't really know how it happened; don't know why. And there's a melting, a physical feeling’].

You remain with the state that you are in - don't try to avoid it. If you feel angry, feel angry. Remain with it. Because if you try to do something, you will suppress it. Remain with it; it will go by itself. Nobody can remain in anger forever. It is hell, so how can one remain in it?

                By and by you will be able to see that it has nothing to do with anybody else - those are just excuses. You are angry with yourself. Deep down, whatsoever we are with others, we are with ourselves.

[She adds: ‘It isn't the anger that predominates, it's the fear’].

They are the same. Fear is the feminine form of anger, anger is the male form of fear; these are the two alternatives.

                For example, watch a dog when a bigger dog comes. He shows anger and at the same time he goes on wagging his tail - he is showing both anger and fear. He has not yet decided. He is not certain what the situation is - whether the other dog is really bigger than him. If he is bigger, then the dog will drop the anger and catch hold of the fear. If the other is just bogus, only looks bigger and is not really, he will stop wagging his tail and will become angry. He is catching hold of both alternatives; they are always there.

                If you can be angry, you will be. If you cannot be angry then you will be afraid. For example, if you are angry with me, what can you do You cannot do anything; fear will come. If you are angry against Veeresh you can fight and be nasty and things, but if you are angry with me you cannot do anything. So, impotent anger becomes fear - they are both the same.

                This time do one thing: remain with them. It will be a little arduous, but let it be this time. When they go, they go. If they don't go, you have to remain with them. If one can learn the knack of remaining with states, then sooner or later they will disappear on their own. That's why sometimes you feel a melting. That is bound to happen, because no one can remain in fear for long. It is such a negative state; it becomes too much, one needs a holiday from it. One cannot remain in anger for long; one needs a break, a tea-break.

                And that's how the spontaneous thing is happening. When it becomes too heavy, suddenly, automatically...It is an inner mechanism. When something becomes too much the mind automatically moves away; it looks in some other direction. Suddenly the gloomy clouds are there no more - just the open sky, the sunlight. But that is going to be momentary. Again you are fresh, the holiday has helped you. Again you are ready to be angry, to be sad. You will fall in the same trap again. But let it be so. By and by you will become aware of what is happening; why these moments come and go. Once you understand the mechanism you become master of it. Not that you start manipulating it. Just the very understanding is the mastery. Not that one starts mastering it; there is no need. One simply understands - and laughs.

                Then you will see that this anger has nothing to do with me, with Laxmi or with anybody else. You are really unsatisfied with yourself. You are not happy with yourself. You are missing something - and you go on throwing the responsibility on somebody else, as if someone is barring the path. You are missing - no one is hindering you. Nobody can hinder anyone; that's impossible. But this is very defeating and makes one very depressed and desperate - if you feel that it is you who alone is responsible for it. In the first place you are unhappy, but then to feel that only you are responsible becomes double heavy. At least share the weight; you are unhappy and somebody else is responsible.

                This is a trick of the mind - but it is not going to help. You will have to take one hundred percent responsibility, because that is how it is. And whenever you accept one hundred percent responsibility, you become free, and then there is no bondage in this world. In fact anger is a bondage. I am not angry with you because I am not in a bondage. I have not been angry with anybody for years because I don't make anybody responsible. I am free, so why should one be angry? If I want to be sad, it is my freedom. If I want to be happy, it is my freedom. Freedom cannot be afraid, freedom cannot be angry. Once you know that you are your world, you have penetrated into a different kind of understanding. Then nothing else matters - all else are games and excuses.

                This time remain with it and suffer it. This suffering will be very, very purifying...it will be a cleansing of the heart. Soon you will realise that you are playing a game of being unhappy. If you want to, that's perfectly okay; it's nobody else's business. If you are happy playing the game of being unhappy, be happy that way. Let it be your way. But if you decide that when one has to play, and the decision is one's own, then why not play the game of being happy? If one has to play a game, then better play a game of being happy. If one has to play the game, play the game of being enlightened rather than ignorant - that's what I'm doing. Mm? Why be a disciple? [Chuckle] When there is a choice, be a master. [She smiles].

Above All Don't Wobble by Osho (Chapter 5, 20 January 1976, Chuang Tzu Auditorium, Rajneesh Foundation, Pune, India, 1976, p.56-59).

Staying centred.

A sannyasin asks: ‘How is it possible always to remain centred? There is a tendency to go astray...’

Osho: Don't create any conflict about going astray and being centred. Float. If you create a conflict, if you become afraid of going astray, then there is more possibility that you will go astray - because whatsoever you try to suppress becomes very significant. Whatsoever you try to deny becomes very attractive. So don't create any condemnation of going astray. In fact go with it. If it is happening, allow it to happen; there is nothing wrong in it. There must be something in it, and that's why it is happening. Sometimes even going astray is good.

                A man who really wants to remain centred should not be worried about centring. If you worry about it, the very worry itself will never allow you to be centred, because worrying can never be centred - you need a non-worried mind, an unworried mind. So going astray is good, there is nothing wrong in it.

                Stop fighting with existence. Stop all conflict and the idea of conquering - surrender. And when one surrenders, what can one do? If the mind goes astray, you go; if it doesn't go, that too is okay. Sometimes you will be centred, and sometimes you will not. But deep down you will always remain centred because there is no worry. You follow me? Otherwise everything can become a worry.

                ...Simply relax, be in a let-go, and centring will be a consequence. One can never make it a result, it is a consequence. On a person who is relaxed, centring falls like a shadow. When I say relaxed, I am not saying make relaxation your goal, otherwise you will never be relaxed. If you try to relax you will become tense.

                Accept everything. All that happens to you, accept and welcome it. Nothing is wrong, nothing can be wrong - that should be the basic attitude. Everything is holy - going astray too. Just float, and centring will come by itself, on its own accord. Don't make any effort. No effort is needed, or only no-effort is needed... 

                And everything is going well. 

Be Free

“If you are quick to take offense, then you will be under the control of those who find you offensive.

If you are easily angered, then your actions will be dictated by those who anger you. 

If you are obsessed by what other people think, then you will be imprisoned by their thoughts.

If you yearn for easy answers and quick solutions, then you'll fall prey to people who offer you nothing but promises.

If you find the truth too difficult to bear, then you will be enslaved to those who tell you what you want to hear.

When you have the courage to think for yourself, the strength to accept what is, the commitment and discipline to make a difference...

Then you are free. You are free to live with purpose, joy, and fulfilment. Let your life be defined, not by reactions to what others do, say, or think but rather your own unique vision.

Raise your eyes above the pettiness and follow the path of the greatness that is within you. Be free.”

                - Ralph S. Marston.

 

“If you know yourself, then you’ll not be harmed by what is said about you.” – Arabian Proverb.

"Think about it: what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men...Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone." - Carlos Castaneda.

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." - Marcus Aurelius (alternative translation: "If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now").

Abraham.

“If we were standing in your physical shoes, we would not let the reality of something be our basis for attention; we would let the feeling-vibration of it be our basis. So we would start by saying, to anyone who was interested in knowing what we were about, ‘If it feels good, I give it my full attention; if it doesn’t, I don’t look at it at all.’ You can and will create the essence of anything that you are giving your attention to.” – Abraham (Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks, Hay House, Inc., Carlsbad, CA., U.S., 2008, p.281).

It certainly seems very difficult to find something that feels good yet which is not what I am experiencing in the outside world. What is required, it appears, is to respond to the Source instead of the patterns of thought that swarm within and the manifestations that surround us.

“If you are experiencing a physical condition that has your attention, you are, through your attention to your current condition, projecting it on into your future experience. But, by focusing on a different future experience, you are now activating that different experience; and as you project that changed experience into your future, you leave your current experience behind.” – Abraham (Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks, Hay House, Inc., Carlsbad, CA., U.S., 2008, p.290).

We pick up beliefs along our physical trail, says Abraham, and I can see how I have been caught in a vicious circle for the whole of my life. It’s like a spiral that commenced motion several lifetimes ago. In this lifetime, at least, I found life to be so depressing even as a small boy. Nothing that good has happened to dissuade me from perceiving life in an inherently negative way. It has never felt good really although I have felt good in the moments when I felt free from it, moments in which I have escaped from the world. And I have always had this source of warmth, joy, creative expression, optimism and love within me to tap into but mostly when I have managed to reclaim my attention from the wicked world that many people live in quite fully. Rarely has this shone forth when I have been out in the world of people (and their stupid interests and horrible survival techniques!). Discovering the concept of conscious creation at the end of this spiral, or cycle, does not appear to be particularly helpful! But we shall see.

"We rise to great heights by a winding staircase." - Francis Bacon.

“Sometimes you’re weak or you’re lazy in your focus. And, what we mean by that is you’ve been practising the activation of a vibration long enough that it has a substantial enough hold on you that Law of Attraction is now bringing you the evidence of it and then you’re calling it reality. In other words, follow the process here. You think the thought, you offer the vibration, Law of Attraction brings you the manifestation of it and then you call it fact or evidence or reality.” – Abraham (channelled through Esther Hicks, Caribbean Cruise, Match 2010, www.abraham-hicks.com).

Abraham says we need to focus on feeling good and on what we do want rather than on what we observe because the mistake we are making is to affirm that what appears to be reality IS. By giving our attention to what we are experiencing but do not want and defining it thus we perpetuate it and become trapped. By offering a vibration according to that which we observe, we relinquish creative control over our lives. Visualising what we want, on the other hand, has the opposite effect. For, when we direct our own thoughts, when we imagine things as we want them to be as opposed to how they are, then we are then deliberately offering a thought with the intention of manifesting our desires. Feeling good or bad about something is the key to how it will turn out, explains Abraham. Looking at ‘what is’ and feeling bad in response to our circumstances means we are offering thoughts that restrict the current of energy from Source – which is constantly flowing towards us. We are, in effect, disallowing well-being, abundance and so forth. Imagining and observing are equally powerful, says Abraham. It is but a choice, albeit also a contest between habit and practice. We are like magnets attracting everything into our lives through thought. Creating images that make us feel good can therefore be a powerful tool for changing our circumstances since feeling good is all-important. Seeing things as we would like them to be we attract what we want into our lives, whereas simply seeing things as they are we attract more of the same and nothing changes.

“Sometimes someone will say to us, ‘But Abraham, I cannot ignore this, for it’s true!’ And we say, It is only true because someone has made it true because someone has made it true by giving their attention to it. You see, what you are actually saying here is, ‘Because someone else has given attention to this and, therefore, by the Law of Attraction, invited it into their own experience, I think I’ll do the same. In other words, even though I don’t want it, I’m obliged to create it in my own reality because someone else did.” – Abraham (Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks, Hay House, Inc., Carlsbad, CA., U.S., 2008, p.325).

“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.” - Robert Tew.

“All you earnest young men out to save the world - please, have a laugh.” - Reinhold Niebuhr.