RUNNING BEHIND THE CARROT
yáobùkějí
No matter how long or how fast you trot behind lasting happiness it seems to be always beyond reach, but somehow, something in your head always seems to drive you to get hold of that tempting carrot.
It is not that you are not able to see the difficulty and you are not unintelligent, so the first question is:
WHY DO WE TROT AFTER THE CARROT?
We trot after the Carrot of Happiness, because the State and the Religions want the donkey (that is you and all people) to trot where it is beneficial for them. The State provides you with Reasons and Law, and the Religions with Commandments.
You are conditioned to work hard, for that undefinable "good" of society.
But that "good" of society is questionable. It is determined in great part by the political and economic criteria of the State on one hand and the survival of religious ideas on the other.
Both want you to have perfect and steady relationships of exactly the type they recommend, because that promotes their "law and order," and your seeking of Happiness keeps the coffers filled.
But you must cause no problems...
They prevent your discontent if "working is not all it's cracked up to be" and if their invented "style of relationships" ends up with conflict, by telling you that if you work hard and love your partner and your neighbor as yourself then you will definitely have the carrot.
Sometimes you appear to get a carrot as a reward; at least they tell you that it is a carrot.
Actually, it is not a carrot at all.
It is really Gentiana lutea, sometimes called Bitter Root. With their Carrot you can't avoid the bitter part. They call it Suffering. The idea is that you have to seek the best roots with the greatest Happiness and the least Suffering. They tell you where to find the best roots, how to suceed and what you have to pay to get it. They even provide EDUCATION that is in no way "a quaint meandering stream" but a straight-cut ditch filled with globalized slime.
The thing that they don't dare own up to is the fact that the Carrot/Bitter Root is addictive. Once you taste that happiness, even though the bitterness is eventually experienced, you want more. They even declare in no uncertain terms that the "Pursuit of Happiness is an inalienable right."
The other thing they don't tell you is that there is available a real carrot that does not have effects of happiness or suffering, and that its taste and other experiences are superior to the false carrot.
While their Bitter root does not blind you exactly, it takes your attention away from natural living. The True Dharma Carrot does not heal anything, for the body is capable of doing that.
What it does is support the body and purify and revitalize the blood and perform an important function: it generates improved Transcendental Vision that allows you to see that you can be free and that your existence cannot be defined by the criteria that they impose upon their "lesser" beasts that determines their existence on the basis of how useful they are.
Instead of Happiness, the true carrot produces the experiences of Natural Awe in the presence of Nature, Rapture and Bliss in correct relations and a constant Well-being... and these are without suffering and not addictive.
There are few who, when really cognizant of the availability of the Transcendental Carrot, do not refuse to acknowledge it. But the problem is that to be taken purely on trust, not faith, they have to reject all possibility of Happiness in order to get rid of the Suffering. This is very difficult.
It takes energy, dedication and time and most are completely addicted to the "work ethic," which keeps the globalized wheels of commerce turning and are addicted to the "need to be loved." In exchange, of course, they must "love" or at least assume that pose, aided and abetted by natural courting urges.
Most actually eventually turn down the real Carrot of Natural Dharma and want their drug compensation, the transient happiness of Wealth and Love, accepting the Suffering as a God-given part of Life.
Why do they not accept the True Dharma carrot?
It is because preparing to understand and receive True Dharma joy is difficult and Dharma Teachings are highly critical and even considered as pessimistic, in that all that one considers as desirable has to be rejected.
The question now most frequently asked is to be considered positive:
CAN HAPPINESS BE MAXIMIZED AND SUFFERING MINIMIZED
WITHOUT GIVING UP THE GOOD LIFE, WEALTH AND LOVE?
The answer is clearly, "Yes!"
Happiness can be maximized and Suffering minimized.