The Little Purple Notebook On How To Escape From This Universe
Copyleft � 1998 by Maximilian J. Sandor, Ph.D.
Subscription Information: Maria Loren
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Website:
http://transmillennium.net/pnohteftu/
The Fine Art of Successful Suffering
Very, very few people dare to ask themselves what they _really_ want.
Even fewer are so bold to observe _how_ they actually feel pleasant,
unpleasant, and neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant feelings.
Madly coping with the self-imposed command to comply with the standard ways
of living they see practiced around them, they are trying to satisfy
other-determined and wildly contradictionary goals.
The result is a fractioning of the Being into more aspects than there are
water drops in the Pacific Ocean:
what was whole (kha), now becomes un-whole (du-[k]-kha).
There is a considerable thrill in this, too, that's for sure!
The exciting choice whether to get a car loan for a Ford Explorer with 0
cash down or a Nissan Pathfinder with 1000 dollar cash-back;
Whether to settle down in 'Where is the sun?-Oregon', or share one's life
with the mosquitos in the heat of Florida; finding a cozy home along
tornado-alley in the midwest, or shaking it up in quaky but sunny
California.
And whether to get as a house loan an old-fashioned 30-year assumable
fixed-rate at 6.75% or this new 15-year adjustable, starting at only 6.25,
and only available from this brandnew, out-of-state mortgage company.
On the other side, there is this beautiful sadness; there is the exciting
challenge to start all over from scratch when 'everything' in life broke to
pieces; there is this deep love in one's heart that one realizes only
AFTER someone left.
Watch this one:
What is the difference between riding Magic Mountain's latest
super-roller-coaster ride and spinning down to the icy ground over the
Northpole in a Boeing 747?
[Answer: The roller-coaster pulls more G's (except for
the impact of the airplane on the ground, of course).]
Now, in this notebook, the author is wasting a lot of time, and cyberspace
with the effort of debunking the horribly destructive myth of 'all life is
suffering', falsely attributed to Gotamo Siddharto (the 'Buddha').
Alas, he DID talk about suffering!
Because 'suffering' is a consequence of a Being's loss of wholesomeness
(the literal translation of 'dukkha'), 'suffering' can serve as an
_indicator_ or _trigger_ that something is not quite right.
The problem, though, is not as easy as it seems: an 'indicator' or
'symptom' usually doesn't reveal the causes of the problem.
A running nose doesn't offer any clues that there may be a virus wrecking
havoc and even if so, what strain of cold-virus could be at work.
This is exactly where the 'Fine Art of Successful Suffering' kicks in!
It takes the pain to new and unexpected heights by finding its underlying
causes rather than losing time fiddling with symptoms.
This beautiful craft has many fascinating facets. For this chapter, they
shall be reduced, however, to the art of asking the right question at the
right time.
For example, the following subtle, yet time- and spaceless question, put
forward 2,500+ years ago by none else than Gotamo himself:
"How many times does a person have to experience death
before he starts suspecting that he may not be a body
after all?"
Now, there is a good chance that a reader of the 'Little Purple Notebook On
How To Escape From This Universe' doesn't have a problem understanding this
question. But we want to go further here and look for cues within the
dazzling
fireworks of emotions during the course of a lifetime:
Sometimes, when all else fails, a Being, confronted with
an extreme situation, may drop all its carefully assembled
assumptions and justifications.
It happens at such occasions that a tiny spark, reflecting the Being's true
state, may flicker for a short moment.
Miracles seem to happen then. But they are no miracles because there are no
miracles.
Prompted by an apparent lack of choices within the self-imposed limits of
the game of life, the Being is just revealing its _true_ power for a very
short
moment in order to get going again despite the odds.
Now, let's not go out to the desert immediately without water supply or
hang our bodies on a rope down a cliff in the Grand Canyon.
There have been moments in most everybody's life already that revealed the
state of 'untouched Beingness'. And there may be more opportunities on the
way.
Yes, you read correctly, opportunities!
Because, the ultimate skill in the 'Fine Art of Successful Suffering' is to
take this opportunity to recognize one's own existence beyond the random
rapid fire of events:
- in a moment when and where the 'hard facts of life'
smoothly dissolve in the waves of an ocean of processes;
- when and where the concepts of time and space lose their meanings;
- when and where one drops hate, lust, and greed like a hot potato;
- in a moment when 'love' becomes a one-syllable, four-letter word.
Because this Being, for a short moment that lasts forever, is now
encompassing the All and the Nothing - everywhere and everytime.
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Copyleft � 1998 by Maximilian J. Sandor, Ph.D
