Desire? Have you ever stopped in traffic and looked at the faces passing you. If you pay close attention, you can almost swear you can read their minds. Their guards are down, created by that false sense of isolation within their cars. Some you can tell are dreaming about that guy, others got into a disagreement at work, or the woman who just got a rose from someone. Then you get that guy who looks always miserable, you can just tell his whole life by that look. You ever notice he or she is driving some new Mercedes, BMW,Volvo, or Saab bought in the last three years. You have to be careful about making stereotypes and be exact, so you won't be making stereotypes ( If that makes any sense?). I drove for five years, ten hour days, four times a week assisting the elderly and handicap who could not drive. Nine out of ten times it was those new northern European cars that would be running me off the road with my passengers. When I ever got a chance to see their faces, they were miserable and it always seemed they were ten minutes late. And it was your fault. The sportier and more family models of these cars were fine, it was the ones who bought into the stereotype of the sedan look. Boy were they miserable.
Now the secret about those who follow their bliss and those harangued by desire is, one finds climbing Mount Everest a joy when the other trapped by desire finds climbing up the stairs to his office a challenge. Up here on the North Shore of Boston we have an old money elite with these American Castles on the water. This area was the summer homes for many of our Presidents and Money barons of old. If you go to some of these castles now, what kind of car would you think you would find? Mostly mini vans and Toyota Corrolas. In the new Yuppie town a bit farther south, where passive aggressive behavior is a religion, Mercedes and the like. All the same color. What is the difference, those in the castles took the chance and made a leap of faith at some point and followed their Bliss. The one in the Mercedes is the fish swimming up the water fall and is trying to hang on at the top afterwards.
"Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them."
Lilies of the field sermon
So what is all this about the removal of fear and Desire anyway's these oriental chaps go on and on about? Sh! Gather in close..let me whisper in your ear.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! (imagine loud decibel ear drum shattering noise.) It is no secret and it is quite simple. If you desire something, you fear you will not attain it. Desire is only the mere dreaming of something; or the mentality that after banging your head into the door a thousand times, the thousand and first time will remove your headache. Someone said that insanity is doing the same behavior over and over and expecting different results! Fear is the thinking that we are separate from each other and the world around us. It is believing there is not enough for all of us. Fear is the blinders that keeps us from realizing we have all we need now and later within us. Heaven is right here, now. So the trick is like the Nike ad says, "just do it!" and enjoy the ride. This is aspiration, which we will talk about a little later.
Before you enter a Buddhist temple you must pass by two fearsome statues at the door. One of fear and the other of desire. Once you leave them with the Tibetan hat check girl, you may enter. At this point you can become an industrial magnate selling belly button lint (yes there is a web site for this guy!). On Public radio their is this show called the Brain Gurus or something. Their advise is that the more eclectic the idea is the better, less competition in the area. Have you noticed the IT field is saturated? My friend makes over a hundred thousand a year by machining pieces for the injection mold guns he sells (what is an injection mold gun....). Bliss is Nirvana, Nirvana is where no wind assails you. If you do not mind the wind, every where is bliss. Bliss is following and working toward working. It is jumping in your river and going with the flow, not against. Tony Robinson concurs with Joseph Campbell when he says the money will follow. Take that leap of faith.
What is all this now? It is about, have you ever wondered what is more fun for a painter? Either the act of painting or starring at a picture on the wall. If it was the second, more artist would read comic books and call it a day. It is the doing. If you are in a career you hate and the only reward you get is some ugly pieces of green paper, what do you got? If you are homeless and found a free chamber music concert, a bagel to share with a friend, the sunlight on your skin, and fresh air; do you have more at the end of the day. In the end the one with the most inside wins. Wins the game against himself, that is. Or better said is the one who enjoyed the game, and that only mattered truly finds pleasure when the chips are in.
A Forty something lawyer left working for the state to work for himself turning pens on a lathe. He is doing well. Look the French can even sell us French water at exuberant prices. Michael Jackson sold Millions of records. A man who lost a senatorial race to a corpse became attorney General. A man who thought pasteurizing was something that the Christian right did became our president. Nothing is too ridiculous as George proves every day.
So how is this done. First, we must learn to aspire. Then you must access what are we missing in our emotional intelligence education we received from our parents. Can we do our multiplication tables before we attempt calculus? If you think your opinions are valueless, how are we going to decide what we want to do with our lives? Then once we know what our bliss is and value ourselves, we will learn to build constructs (huh, we will get to that later..). From these constructs we will enter the worlds we have created for ourselves (other worlds?...) and leave behind those that limit us. Out of that we will see it is us who had been bringing us into those worlds that only bring us harm. Time to make the doughnuts day in and day out, we hold the key to our circular arguments with ourselves. We choose to get out of bed and go into that relationship, job, or bottle. Provided there is some strong propaganda into believing we have no choice, but we do. In the old tales of Vampires, he is harmless until we invite him, ourselves, into our homes.
The next pages will deal with these things. So sit back, and enjoy, an evening with your self and your demons. They are quite cute once you get to know them. Some are quite humorous. Jon Laroquette of Night Court built a career of humor on them. There is not one of them he is ashamed of making their acquaintance.
Watch your life go by like a train going by...............................
............................................................May it be a long one,
and one of those old black steam ones with red and green trim ..................................................................................
..................................................................and fancy hardwood cabs
with allot of brass ................................
................................................................................and by the way,
do not forget about the caboose!
................................................Choo, Choo..........
