Monstaville Book I. Chapter 21

21

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a fierce battle."

- Philo of Alexandria.

“Be kinder than necessary, For everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle. Live simply, Love generously, Care deeply, Speak kindly...And the rest will fall into place.” - Charles Swindoll.

“Gary, I'm absorbing his blows like I'm made of some sort of spongy material.” - Spongebob Squarepants (Spongebob Squarepants, created by Stephen Hillenburg, Viacom International Inc.).

Tyson is using intimidation tactics. ’I’m standing my ground’ - by attacking first. Boxing is 10% fighting and 90% psychological. If you can make your opponent feel fear, you can beat him easily. Everything depends on your state of mind, your mental strength and clarity. (Notes from

Boxing programme in the run up to the Mike Tyson vs. Lennox Lewis fight).

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."
Steve Biko.

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” - Marie Curie.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
- Bene Gesserit (Litany against fear).

"Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is." - German Proverb.

Pigsy is playing psychological games. You must be strong and immune.

Wear the energy down - allow or make them exhaust themselves by focussing negatively on this conflict, tiring their emotions through their dependency on trying to feel secure and in control while you waste no thoughts on them and their stupidity. And you actually even generate energy by simply sending them love and light using their destructiveness to remind you to be awake to your spiritual potential.

Worrying about Pigsy. Angel Cards: Faith and Love.

“Don’t worry, be happy.” - Meher Baba.

“Don’t worry, past is past; forget the past.” - Sai Baba.

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair.
It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Tell yourself everything will be okay.

Everything’s cool baby. Feel peace. Relax.

Send and receive. Allow and accommodate the intimidation but don’t be affected by it and throw it away each time so it can’t poison you. Don’t swallow it! The poison can do nothing to you unless it penetrates into your bloodstream, your consciousness. And send light to him in return - like the water smoothing the jagged rocks in time. Be gentle. But not fearful or anxious. Eventually, the situation will calm down.

"Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?" - Rumi.

Money is a struggle at the moment but when you can do the cabbing okay you should make enough money to pay off the debts.

“The lack of money is the root of all evil.” - George Bernard Shaw.

Poverty is a tightrope walk: one slip-up and you’re in big trouble and all that matters is staying alive. It’s a discipline, a learning tool, I guess. I don’t care how many saints have recommended it, I don’t, not unless one lives in a warm part of the world and a natural, simple environment (or has ascended to identify with the Light body).

“I worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.” – Groucho Marx.

Retrospective inserts.

According to Abraham-Hicks, nothing should be more important to me than that I feel good today. Having made this decision, I will make sure I find things to appreciate. As a result of giving my attention to them, the feelings of appreciation that I experience means that I will see more to appreciate. In other words, I will attract more of the same.

Bullies have an inability to relate to others says Evelyn Field in her book Bully Busting. They lack pro-social skills. They are aggressive and disruptive and they mainly focus on other people’s fear. My tormentors (Pigsy and the next-door neighbours) viewed me as being alone, vulnerable and unprotected, in a situation that they themselves would not be able to cope with if they were on the receiving end.

The bully wants attention and reactions that showcase his power, says Field. He takes his strength from the other person’s weakness.

“I have just read this quote, 'Be kinder than necessary because everybody you meet is fighting some kind of battle.' I don’t know who said it, but how true that is; we sometimes forget how other people besides ourselves have problems, things that worry them, things that make it difficult for them to appear positive and happy. I believe we all still have a child inside and that child can get hurt very easily, even though it may be concealed behind a large adult frame. I always say not to criticise unless you have walked a mile in someone's shoes, because you never know what is going on beneath the surface.” (yowzer, www.uk.toluna.com/TopicPage.aspx?tid=38788&Sort=recent&Page=1, 25 April 2008).

No More Mr. Fat Guy by Jonathon Savill and Richard Smedley (Vermilion, London, U.K., 1998)

“...one of the truck drivers started picking on me...One night we were staying in a hotel in Warsaw and it got to the point where I really needed to smack him in the mouth. I went down to the gym and punched seven bells out of a punch-bag, swam 20 lengths and felt much better. I used the adrenalin that I had generated to hit the driver to bully the punch-bag instead. And, in so doing, I regained my perspective on the whole deal. What did I care? It wouldn’t affect my life in general, just the next four days. On the way up to my room, I heard that after I left the driver had picked on someone else, who punched him in the mouth. They were both fired. So I got one up on him, and I used the experience in a positive way.”

Master Kan: The mind, the body and the spirit are one. When the body expresses the desires of the mind and spirit, then the body is in tune with nature. The act is pure and there is no shame.

Young Caine: And what is love?

Master Kan: Love is harmony, even in discord.

                - Kung Fu (Season 1, Episode 5, ‘The Tide,’ 1973).

Above All Don't Wobble by Osho. Chapter 5 (20 January 1976, Chuang Tzu Auditorium, Rajneesh Foundation, Pune, India, 1976), p.59-62.

Insecurity.

Life is insecure, and there is no ground to it - it is groundless.

                In the very asking, you create the problem: when you ask for security, you become insecure. The more you ask, the more insecure you will be, because insecurity is the very nature of life. If you don't ask for security then you will never be worried by the insecurity. As trees are green, life is insecure. If you start asking that trees should be white then there are problems. The problem is created by you, not by the trees; they are green. And you ask them to be white They cannot do it, they cannot perform in that way.

                Life is insecure, love is insecure. We are in emptiness, in tremendous nothingness. And it is good that it is so, otherwise we would be dead. Life can be a security only if you are dead; then everything can be certain.

                Underneath a rock there is ground. Underneath a flower there is none; the flower is insecure. A small breeze and the flower may disperse, the petals may fall and disappear. It is a miracle that the flower is there. Life is a miracle - because there is no reason for it to be. It is simply a miracle that you are, otherwise there is every reason for you not to be.

                Maturity comes to you only when you accept this. And not only accept; you start rejoicing in it. Life is insecure - that means life is free! If there is security then there will be bondage; if everything is certain then there will be no freedom. If tomorrow is fixed then there can be security, but you have no freedom. Then you are just like a robot. You have to fulfil certain things that are already predestined.

                But tomorrow is beautiful because tomorrow is total freedom. Nobody knows what is going to happen; whether you will be breathing, whether you will be alive at all - nobody knows. Hence there is beauty, because everything is in a chaos, a challenge, and everything is existing as a possibility.

                Don't ask for consolations. If you go on asking, you will remain insecure. Accept insecurity. Then insecurity disappears and you are no longer insecure.

                ...A chaos at ease - that's how a man should be. When you carry a revolution within you, every moment brings a new world, a new life...every moment becomes a new birth.

                You are unnecessarily creating trouble for yourself. You can go on creating it if you like, but one day or other you will have to realise the fact that it is you who is creating the trouble, not life.

                Just try not to ask for security. For three weeks live in total insecurity - and enjoy it. Your worries and your demands about security and certainty are creating barriers so that you cannot have contact, you cannot flow. So drop all that, and for three weeks try a life of insecurity.

"Worry gives small things a big shadow." - Swedish Proverb.

“Any evil likes to live in exact, brittle plans, so 99% of life has to have contingencies in place,” according to Martin Prechtel. That is, they discuss all the details at great length, for the ritual, then promise not to do it that way, but just do it how it happens. So, negative forces cannot interfere, cannot follow the plan and organise themselves accordingly. (Kindred Spirit, Issue 62, p.24). 

A Warrior’s Creed

I have no parents:

I make the heavens and Earth my parents.

I have no home:

I make awareness my home.

I have no life or death:

I make the tides of breathing my life and death.

I have no divine power:

I make honesty my divine power.

I have no means:

I make understanding my means.

I have no magic secrets:

I make character my magic secret.

I have no body:

I make endurance my body.

I have no eyes:

I make the flash of lightning my eyes.

I have no ears:

I make sensibility my ears.

I have no limbs:

I make promptness my limbs.

I have no strategy:

I make ‘unshadowed by thought’ my strategy.

I have no design:

I make ‘seizing opportunity by the forelock’ my design.

I have no miracles:

I make right action my miracles.

I have no principles:

I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles.

I have no tactics:

I make emptiness and fullness my tactics.

I have no talents:

I make ready wit my talent.

I have no friends:

I make my mind my friend.

I have no enemy:

I make carelessness my enemy.

I have no armour:

I make benevolence and righteousness my armour.

I have no castle:

I make immovable mind my castle.

I have no sword:

I make absence of mind my sword.

‑ Anonymous Samurai (14th century).

"Our life is shaped by our mind, for we become what we think. That is the essence of the Buddha's universe...If we can get a hold of the thinking process, we can actually redo our personality, remake ourselves. Destructive ways of thinking can be rechannelled, constructive channels can be deepened, all though right effort and right meditation. As irrigators lad water to their fields, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters care wood, the wise shape their lives." - Eknath Easwaran.

During a screen test in Frederico Fellini’s surreal masterpiece 8 ½ (1963), a film critic by the name of Carini Daumier (Jean Rougeul) reads a quote from the French writer Stendhal (1783-1842) in a newspaper: “The solitary ego that revolves around itself and feeds upon itself ends up strangled by a great cry or a great laugh.” Daumier comments: “If we sometimes read those sayings on chocolate wrappers instead of throwing them away, we would be spared many an illusion.” Guido, the director, played by Marcello Mastrioanni, motions to have him hung but he is daydreaming or indulging in wishful thinking even though this event is acted it out before his eyes in the film. 

 Vaguely Nautical