PUTTING BREAD ON THE TABLE

PUTTING THE BREAD ON THE TABLE WITHOUT TENSION AND STRESS

In the seminary here at Lushan we have six temple dogs. 

No, they are not the stone type but true Sharpei, or rough-furred dogs. 

They are, to introduce them correctly, according to the higher social custom,

as dogs of Emperor standing, Nantou, (First Baron), born in Finland and Gloria 

who is Catalan-bred. Then there is Lucky Blue, Ghengis, Chocolate and Coco.

Now every day they wake at eight, more or less depending on their mood, and

go outside to see what is going on. Their task, if you can call it that, is to work and 

protect the area from intruders. It is not something that they have to attend 

Vocational Training for, they simply learned that several thousand years ago,

or at least their ancestors did, when they chose a symbiotic relationship with man.

They work, at least they do perform work, and they are rewarded with the best 

food available from Canada and the best grains from Spain and they sleep on

comfortable beds of their choosing in a home that may be considered a Pure 

Land Dog Palace. They work, of course all day, for that after all is their task,

but they seldom actually do very much except wait for something important to 

happen. When appropriate they walk and race, not with jaguar energy or velocity,

for they prefer to sniff at everything that they have not detected before and 

finally when they come back they rest, while still working of course.

               They are actually rewarded for doing what comes naturally.

Nantou is a Champion and his forefathers were in their day Champions of the 

U.S., Russia and Europe, yet he never thinks about that, for his normal reserved

nature  is "absolute modesty", and anyway what value is reputation to a Dog

mind that has all that nature can provide, while doing exactly what is natural.

His lineage is marked in his record back to the first great dog that came from 

China to the U.S. and I suppose Nantou, who now lives in Spain, can be considered 

as a legal immigrant, for he has all his papers in order.

But Nantou doesn't give a damn.

Buddha would say that he had correct and natural livelihood. He is never chained 

and his work is noble and natural. It stems from what is inside and he fits 

correctly into his extended tribe.

Now Nantou is a model to follow, as are Gloria and the rest and the question is,

how do you shape up when judged against their standard?

They follow natural Dharma perfectly. They never are concerned. They do not

look for promotion. When things go wrong there is no remorse or culpability. 

They do not have to generate ambition and there are no debtors, banks or bills 

that they have to worry about.

What is perhaps even better is that they are free to work or not for there is no 

one who owns them... there is no one who can fire them for there is no social

contract.

     Nantou

                                            Lucky Blue

Coco and Ghengis

 Chocolate (On guard) and Atila (resting,

 and now guarding the home of a student)

Gloria

So they are more intelligent than you and certainly more appealing.

Forgetting that, taking them as a model, how do you shape up?

Does the work that you do just "well up" naturally within you? If it does that 

then you must also remember as a human creature your Life force demands 

you do no harm to the mind or body of any living creature and that you must

protect the environment that supports us all. That puts another restriction

on the type of work which is valid.

Would you do your work even though there was no remuneration?

Ay ay ay.

If not, then there is no way that that work will make you happy, for you also have other demands in your stained mind that must be filled. You can call them Social responsibilities ... obligations or anything else you will, but if there is any element in your work that does not resonate positively within you then you are bound to suffer.

If there is any element, no matter how remote, that alienates the natural Life Force then stress will eventually build up until the system decides to call it a day... No more work... tubes and gadgets in a hospital bed with doctors attending, who know medicines, and medical association rules but doctors that care nothing about the natural human creature and what ails him.

So what is the Blind Dharma solution?

          First, you can clearly declare that Buddha said that life was suffering.

                       Then you can ignore everything else that he said.

           Next you can quote the declaration of Independence which

     declares everyone has an unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. 

So you suffer and have the right to pursue happiness. So what's the problem.

Something is wrong with the balance there... That happiness never seems to 

come and the suffering continues.

The first Blind Dharma new advice is to tell yourself that you are happy, well at

least relatively happy with respect to those that are less happy.

It matters not that that is a circular argument.

What matters is that you believe it is true. 

Since Dharma declares that suffering and happiness is all in the mind, then the

mind can invent what it will... When you suffer, tell yourself that the suffering 

will make you learn about life better.

The important thing however is to remember that Blind Dharma says that you

do not exist so NEVER - NEVER blame yourself... You must look for the thousands

of reasons that support your suffering that you can never be responsible for...

Now that is easy. You can even go back a long way for the Dharma agrees that there is "dependent origination" and no specific cause, and declare, 

          "if it wasn't for someone else I would not be in this position."

Another Blind Dharma solution however, is to load your life with so much happiness that you never notice the suffering.

If all seems to fail then there is THERAPY... You name any idea. It is out there for you to choose... there is Grave Therapy... where you get to sleep in a grave to attain some type of catharsis... There's even "sex therapy "... We know where that leads. Whatever it is that you try you are going to have to work more in the horrible job you have that brings no satisfaction to pay for it... and it is not going to work.

          Studies of Americans show them to be living in a rose-tinted bubble.

                                      They are unrealistically optimistic.

When asked to rate how sensitive they are to others, 90 per cent believe they 

are in the top 10 per cent of sensitivity - Well done - and the figures are similar for their

falsely bloated self-esteem. Yet they still suffer.

Psychology tells us that those who have accurate perceptions of themselves are deemed to suffer from 'depressive realism'.

That should make you feel better.

Well done, psychology. I am proud of my profession.

We have found another non-problem to convert into a problem. 

The money wheel grinds on.

Use Blind Dharma. So why go back to work with a false smile...? Just tell yourself

what the aunts of long ago learned from their religion...

"We weren't put on this Earth to be happy." 

But if we were put here (which genders really a more than reasonable doubt),

 "why the hell were we put here?"

        Governments think we were put here to be happy so they are doing

                         what they can to fake it... So just get in line...

Britain is about to pay 600 million pounds for happiness centers, which is less

expensive than the government losses by work stoppage. How wonderful,

you can go to a happiness centre and be brainwashed into believing that you

are happy and you will not carry the stigma of having entered a sect.

The solution generated since I was a child was to follow the path of

"Positive Thinking" (no matter where it leads). 

      So following positive thinking may be the best Blind Dharma answer. 

           But what are you supposed to think positively about?

Positive thinking is a mental attitude that introduces into memory thoughts,

words and images that are conductive to growth, expansion and of course 

success (whatever that means). It is a mental attitude that demands that 

you derive expectations of good and favorable results.

A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome

of every situation and action. Whatever the mind expects, it finds.

Now, if we follow that to its logical conclusion, believing in a rabbit's foot, a 

four-leafed clover, or benevolent waves from benevolent extraterrestrials 

in outer space must also work.

But does it?

We know that placebos work, so maybe positive thought is a mental placebo...

if it does work, that means that you can make your boss admire your work, give 

you a raise and much more. You can make fellow workers admire you and 

every client you have will pour his riches upon you. Ever glamourous guy or 

chick, depending on your preference, will be running after you.

The only problem is your boss will also have to be thinking positively and be

happy with your work no matter how lousy it actually is... and so on and so on.

So perhaps the faster and better solution is to really think deeply about your

way of life and really see if being a human creature entails being happy or

whether a state of Dharma-induced continual well-being and a change of work

will accomplish the task of allowing you to live as a human creature and not a 

social robot.  

Of course your life objectives would have to change. Buddha said that the

Dharma was difficult and that most people who are attracted just run up and 

down the shore of the Dharma Stream without the courage to cross.

So although it is clear what the best solution is, perhaps you had better, since it really takes a special person to want to be truly human, just try all the Blind Dharma ideas. When none succeed and all the self-deceptions fail, you will probably be too old to work and ready to take a long eternal rest. 

So what is the solution?

You haven't the stamina to prepare yourself, cut down expenses, introspect and no matter how old you are and what benefits you now receive generate a new working style that really reflects your true state of being.

You also know even though you have not tried every Blind Dharma solution that nothing there is going to work.

Well, fortunately Buddha saw that people had the same problem so he took the middle way and then went down to the lower end to get a solution for those who wanted to be half pregnant.

The first thing he came up with, stated in modern terms, is:

                               "Cut away all cognitive dissonance."

                                In plain old street terms, that means:

"Take a good, long and serious look at yourself and see where your mind is 

covering up for you."

We all know that smokers who really know that they are doing great harm to themselves  give themselves what they think are rational reasons to continue...

"I know lots of people who smoke and live to a hundred."

"I've tried it all and I really can't stop."

"It keeps me from being nervous."

"All the crap they say really isn't true."

"I have the right to smoke if I want."

They believe what their mind tells them... Well, that is cognitive dissonance and it gets them out of a dilemma... stop or die.

So with regards to your work you have to examine your cognitive dissonance.

Buddha called it "Free critical inquiry".  

It is not easy to detect where the internal believable lies are that you invent about work that keep your chains in place.

                                              Next you have to "Reality Test". 

That means that you must introspect and see if you have your priorities right. If you have built your "work" so that it takes first place in your life then look at that and ask "why?" Somehow you have cast a blind eye to the important things in life and are chasing a delusion.

You know that you cannot naturally live "to work", you must naturally only work "to live". If you know that, then it is time to reconsider what you call living.

Your problem could well be that you have no idea what life really is all about and work is the only place where you seem important, at least a little, and for some reason now it's not working. The old happiness is seen as a passing "Tinker bell" and was all in your mind.

Everybody has learned in error that they have to be something. Why?

Isn't it better to be fully integrated into a natural and magical world than to be chasing "work that makes you somebody who has written his graffiti on the wall for all to see, but has never taken off the inner dark glasses  discovering what life really is all about."

                         So you then may ask me what life is all about?

It is about being alive without any expectations whatsoever.

It is about letting the natural and beautiful passion which you have well-hidden, 

that is covered up by desire, clinging, emotions, petty aversions, excuses 

emerge and accept what comes out with joy.

You don't have to put anything in there... it has always been there inside waiting to emerge in a way that that your passion, which may be like a torrent in the mountain or like an alighting butterfly, becomes your work.

It may not buy the wonderful things that others suffer to get, but you will live working with constant well-being while enjoying the true fruits of life, just as Apollo does who is the gentle master of all he surveys.

Of course there is a great deal of introspection to be done and questions that arise and that is why I am available as a psychologist and also a Dharma and Dao Identity Assassin.

You can contact me at my contact e-mail if you have sincere questions and are prepared to listen with a clear, calm, open and patient mind to the Dharma of the Lower End of the Middle way... without falling into the net of words or wasting valuable important energy on the Blind Dharma way.