Monstaville Book I. Chapter 42

42

“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. WE must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King.

“Ever work and ever pray, ‘For the road winds upwards all the way,’ as the Lord Buddha taught in ancient India.” (W. Wynn Westcott, Numbers: Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtue).

“Your own will is the only thing that will answer your prayers.” - Vivekananda.

Well, you need to be beautiful and smart and increase your ‘soul power.’ You don’t want to have anger and hatred and be ugly and disgusting like Pigsy, like Yosemede Sam - comically pathetic, raging maniacs. Leave them to it and focus instead on love and tenderness, peace and calm. View it as a test to find and keep these gems inside you. He wants to engage you in battle, to get your will to react. You must rise above it and take things to your level: express divine power.

“...allowing the luminous awareness dissolve the egotistic fire of the heart.” (From a book I once perused in Watkins bookshop, Leicester Square).

"A Sith knows when to unleash the fury of the dark side, and when to hold back. Patience can be a weapon if you know how to use it, and your anger can fuel the dark side if you learn how to control it." - Darth Bane. (www.starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_powers).

“Sure of his power, the Unicorn became unusually gentle and mild.”

“Turn your hearts to those paths which lead to happiness of fulfilment and forsake the paths to the confusion of those who seek to show those of the world the glory of their ways. It profits us not to oppose, but to walk in other ways.” - The Book of Matan (An amazing story through automatic writing by Nik Douglas, Neville Spearman, Suffolk, U.K., 1942, p.121).

The New Sun by Hilda Charlton.

p.96. The Masters tell me often, ‘Do not criticise a person of the Earth. They only have Earth disease. We would not criticise a cripple, we would not look down on a person who has a disease. Why look down on people who, over a period of incarnations, have gotten encrusted with Earth disease of hate, greed, jealousy and separating? Therefore be compassionate toward people. Within them they are seeking love because they are love. They are seeking beauty because they are beauty. They are seeking aspects of God because that is their innate nature. They are seeking themselves, in other words.

(Sai Baba tells us not to worry, says Hilda, ‘they just have the Earth disease’).

p.113. [Regarding a true teacher:] “Is a peace developing which permeates the being and which can withstand the impact of the outside world?

"The world is beautiful, but has a disease called man." - Friedrich Nietzsche.

“You are a piece of god/goddess/all that is.” – Lazaris (channelled through Jach Pursel).

When a spider is still it shows that it is happy: ‘A happy spider is a still spider.’

“There’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness.” - William Shakespeare.

Caine (David Carradine): Perhaps it would be better to remain still...and free the mind from fear.

                - Kung Fu (Season 1, Episode 12, ‘Superstition,’ 1973).

The Water Margin [the Seventies’ Japanese serial based on a classic Chinese novel].

From the introduction: “The ancient sages said, ‘Do not despise the snake for having no horns. Who is to say it will not become a dragon? So, can one just man become an army.”

- and, do not condemn the man who behaves destructively and inhabits the dark underworld because he may change and be transformed, awakened to the spirit, to peace and love, shedding his old skin. There is no time. Consequently, a man’s evil actions this year are no different from your evil actions in the past - in previous lifetimes. All is all.

“Disguise is useful when one meets,

A bully who will disdain reason;

The hair is cut; the eyebrows trimmed,

When death demands a quick conclusion.”

- Shih Nai-An (The Water Margin: Volume I, translated by J.H. Jackson, Commercial Press Ltd, Hong Kong, 1963, p.409).

Feel the Fear...and Beyond by Susan Jeffers (Rider Books, London, U.K., 1998).

p.10. Why Do We Grow Up Having So Little Confidence in our Ability to Handle Whatever Happens in our Lives? Well, it could be our conditioning. I love to point out that in all my years, I have never heard a parent calling out to a child going off to school: ‘Take some risks today, darling...’ On the contrary, the words we hear are usually: ‘Be careful...’ Ultimately, it’s a wonder we have the courage to walk out the door!’

p.12. FEAR TRUTH 1: THE FEAR WILL NEVER GO AWAY AS LONG AS YOU CONTINUE TO GROW! Every time you take a step into the unknown, you experience fear. There is no point in saying, ‘When I am no longer afraid, then I will do it.’ You’ll be waiting a long time! The fear is part of the package...FEAR TRUTH 2: THE ONLY WAY TO GET RID OF THE FEAR OF DOING SOMETHING IS TO GO OUT...AND DO IT! When you ‘do it’ often enough, you will no longer be afraid in that particular situation...FEAR TRUTH 5: PUSHING THROUGH FEAR IS LESS FRIGHTENING THAN LIVING WITH THE UNDERLYING FEAR THAT COMES FROM A FEELING OF HELPLESSNESS!

p.14. Obviously, our task is very clear. It is to move ourselves from a position of pain about fear to one of power.

p.17. There is nothing as satisfying as taking ACTION. Action in itself is very powerful. It helps us sculpt our experience of life, instead of feeling we have no choices.

p.35. My favourite spiritual tool is the affirmation. An affirmation is a strong, positive statement telling us that ‘All is well’ - despite what the Chatterbox, the voice of the Lower Self, may be telling us. It is a very powerful tool to help us push through even the worst of our fears...For example, one of my favourite affirmations is, ‘Everything’s happening perfectly.’

p.85-87. If you think about it, each of us lives in our own cocoon. This cocoon is what I call the Comfort Zone. When we take a risk and go beyond what is comfortable, discomfort, often in the form of fear, takes over...With each expansion of Your Comfort Zone, your confidence grows and grows. The more confidence you have, the more you are able to push yourself from pain to power - and the more you are able to push yourself from pain to power - and the more you are able to push yourself through the fear that is stopping you from moving forward with your life.

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

- Christian D. Larson (new thought pioneer), 1912.

Retrospective insert.

Traktung Rinpoche (www.traktungrinpoche.org).

Q. People act from selfish motives. They do not care about others as much as themselves and they act therefore from greed and in a desire to protect their territories, their pleasures they act from fear and anger.

Traktung Rinpoche: Yes, these are the symptoms of the disease but what is the disease?

Q. I don't know. Maybe the symptom is the disease as well. Do they have to separate? Maybe it is the actions themselves.

Traktung Rinpoche: But these actions have a cause.

Q. Maybe this is just the condition of human beings. Maybe this is just how we are.

Traktung Rinpoche: Well, we cannot argue it is how human beings are because it is in fact how they are. But this is like saying the jaundiced man sees things yellowish it is how he is, or that anorexic girls just see themselves as fat it is how they are - true but it is not the root but more description of the symptom. The symptom is in fact the world when the symptom is there. This sort of nihilistic fatalism is the inheritance of a culture bereft of authentic spirituality. It is the intervention of Buddhas in the world that makes plain this is not the sum total of what and who we are as humans. It would be less difficult if, in truth, you could simply accept this nightmare is the way things are and cannot change - then there would be no demand on you. But it is not true. Luckily for you, the demand is built into Beingness itself.

Q. And what is this demand?

Traktung Rinpoche: That you outgrow the condition you call 'being human.’ It is not so much a disease but simply an immaturity.

Q. And what will be the result if I do as you say and outgrow this?

Traktung Rinpoche: You will find yourself in a world of great beauty and balance.

“Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger may bring and to channel them into nonviolent outlets. It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief and our anger flow in tears when they need to. It takes strength to talk about our feelings and to reach out for help and comfort when we need it.” - Fred Rogers (The World According to Mr. Rogers; www.quotelady.com/subjects/strength.html).

“Anger and humour are like the left and right arm. They complement each other.” – James Cone. (www.saidwhat.co.uk/topicquote/humour).