The common perception of Karma as it is espoused today seems to be a misnomer. That common perception being - what goes around comes around. This definition implies that Karma is something external. Like it is some entity floating around in the ether like the angel of death during Passover.
I see Karma as more complex and profound than that, happening at a minute internal level.
I see Karma as an anti-magnet inside of each person. Where a magnet attracts things of the opposite polarity, Karma, or the anti-magnet, attracts things of a similar polarity. So, if you have a negative attitude, or your Karma is in a negative state, you feel that bad things are happening to you and so the opposite would also apply. If you feel you are in a positive state, your Karma is positive and you will feel like positive things will happen in your life.
This is why it is not always the case that people that do you wrong will have bad things happen to them. If they wrong another person, but feel their actions were correct, and they feel positive about what they have done, then it is possible that they won't see any negative effects to their actions.
People site Karma as justification for not taking action. It is really a rationalization to make themselves feel better about something that happened to them - perhaps because their Karma was negative. This is not representing Karma correctly.
Karma is a paradox. It is internal to each person, but is in everyone. If your Karma is negative, how do you make it positive? Each person has to answer that for themselves, but at the end of the day there really isn't a way to do it other than to forget self and decide now that from this point forward you will have a positive outlook on things.
There is nothing to it but to do it - for 21 days straight until the new habit of positive attitude and outlook has been created within you. It takes 21 days to create a new habit.
You may think Karma is upset about being misrepresented, but Karma isn't too worried about it and remains in a positive state and will be attracting positive things to itself going forward.
Is any of this true or accurate? Probably not, but I feel good about it.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Book Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Holden Caufield likes to use short sentences. It is like reading the Dick and Jane books. But with more adult content. I am not kidding. Holden Caufield likes to say he's not kidding a lot too.
Starting out, Caulfield seems quite normal. Six chapters in, you start to wonder. He seems flawed. And so does everyone one else around him. Are they flawed? Or, do they just seem that way through Holden's eyes?
Holden seems like a bit of a loner. He seems to not have any drive. He has no care about the consequences of his actions. He is an adolescent's adolescent.
Salinger captures the thought process and rythyms of an adolescent quite well. He makes the shallowness of Holden's thoughts entertaining if not repetitive.
As I have read other reviews and commentaries on the book, it is apparent that there are many subtle poltitical references in the pages from the times when it was written. McCarthyism and Communism are both posited because of the red hunting hat. The references are very subtle which lends the novel a certain brilliance. You don't pick up on them as you read the story, but they make sense after you read it and discuss it..
I had an expectation that something terrible was going to happen to Holden, and perhaps he senses it himself. The end of innocence is near.
Does he see adolesence as a good thing or a bad thing? I think he sees it as both, but he doesn't see that adulthood will be much different or better. Too many phonies. Too many people not understanding him or his thoughts.
The book is an interesting dichotomy because it doesn't have much to say, and at the same time it has a great deal to say. It just doesn't come right out and say it.
It kills me when English teachers assign this kind of stuff. It really does. To a student reading it, it really seems to be a total waste of time because it isn't saying anything right to your face. But the discussions that the class could have about the subtext could be quite interesting. That kills me. It really does. I'm serious.
I found several stories within the book quite funny. Like the boy stepping on the woman's toes and Caulfield saying he probably broke every toe in her body as if her skeleton were made of toes rather than bones. Or the graffiti he says will be on his grave stone. Or the tension breaker in the Hall during a serious speech given by a benefactor to Pencey.
Will you feel good after having read The Catcher in the Rye? You can be the judge of that, but I don't think you will feel it was a waste of your time.
By the way, I really hate it when someone says you can be the judge of that. I really do. It depresses me.
It doesn't really depress me. If you read the book, you'll get it.
Starting out, Caulfield seems quite normal. Six chapters in, you start to wonder. He seems flawed. And so does everyone one else around him. Are they flawed? Or, do they just seem that way through Holden's eyes?
Holden seems like a bit of a loner. He seems to not have any drive. He has no care about the consequences of his actions. He is an adolescent's adolescent.
Salinger captures the thought process and rythyms of an adolescent quite well. He makes the shallowness of Holden's thoughts entertaining if not repetitive.
As I have read other reviews and commentaries on the book, it is apparent that there are many subtle poltitical references in the pages from the times when it was written. McCarthyism and Communism are both posited because of the red hunting hat. The references are very subtle which lends the novel a certain brilliance. You don't pick up on them as you read the story, but they make sense after you read it and discuss it..
I had an expectation that something terrible was going to happen to Holden, and perhaps he senses it himself. The end of innocence is near.
Does he see adolesence as a good thing or a bad thing? I think he sees it as both, but he doesn't see that adulthood will be much different or better. Too many phonies. Too many people not understanding him or his thoughts.
The book is an interesting dichotomy because it doesn't have much to say, and at the same time it has a great deal to say. It just doesn't come right out and say it.
It kills me when English teachers assign this kind of stuff. It really does. To a student reading it, it really seems to be a total waste of time because it isn't saying anything right to your face. But the discussions that the class could have about the subtext could be quite interesting. That kills me. It really does. I'm serious.
I found several stories within the book quite funny. Like the boy stepping on the woman's toes and Caulfield saying he probably broke every toe in her body as if her skeleton were made of toes rather than bones. Or the graffiti he says will be on his grave stone. Or the tension breaker in the Hall during a serious speech given by a benefactor to Pencey.
Will you feel good after having read The Catcher in the Rye? You can be the judge of that, but I don't think you will feel it was a waste of your time.
By the way, I really hate it when someone says you can be the judge of that. I really do. It depresses me.
It doesn't really depress me. If you read the book, you'll get it.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Book Review: On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Book Review: On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Part I
Chapters 1-5 (NY, NY to Denver, CO)
My initial impressions after having read the first five chapters are that the author seemed innocent but tried to put on airs of having a worldly sophistication. Perhaps I had this impression because I had a preconceived notion going into the book of what Kerouac would be like from reading on the web about the authors of the Beat Generation and their apparent willingness to experience drugs and sex and then write about it. Or, perhaps he did have a worldly sophistication when it came to matters that he was involved with on a day to day basis, but when he started traveling across the country it opened his eyes to the wider world, the Midwest, the Plains, the West that he became an innocent again; an innocent on the road if you will.
For anyone that has made a drive across the States, it is fun to relive their experience as they follow the map of Kerouac's words. Kerouac, of course, made the trip in a time before the Interstate Highway System existed, and the places he describes take one back to a time that was simpler and more innocent. Reading these initial chapters makes one want to be a part of that time, a participant in the adventure and Kerouac does his best to take the weary reader along as his companion. He is the attractive one with his thumb out enticing someone to stop and as he greets the driver we surreptitiously slither out from the weeds and into the back of the vehicle, unnoticed, to experience what little we can through Kerouac's eyes.
There is a certain romance to the initial chapters of the book. A romance congruent with the simplistic and naive urchins he encounters during his hitchhiking across the Midwest and the plains.
Chapters 6-11 (Denver, CO to San Francisco, CA)
As in so many other aspects of our lives, and similar to my initial impressions before starting this book, Kerouac's descriptions of his time in Denver through to San Francisco don't seem to jibe with his expectations of what he would experience going in. His group of friends from New York has split into two factions in Denver. While he walks the thin line between the two, everyone seems to be busy with their lives. Of course Sal (Kerouac) parties and tries to 'make it' with the girls like any other single young man, but eventually he gets the itch to move along and head further West.
In San Francisco, he joins up with a former buddy but quickly wears out his welcome. While he at least gets a job while he is there, you can sense the lack of desire to be tied down, to have any commitment. And so, inevitably he slinks out of the picture leaving the rest of the world to their troubles to seek out his next adventure on the road.
Chapters 12-14 (San Francisco, CA to NJ)
Love’s labor lost.
Sal finally makes his girl. A Mexican beauty on the run who has a son and an abusive husband. The relationship, which lasts for only 15 days, plays out like the relationship of a couple that has been married for 50 years; the blissful courtship, the bout with distrust, the acceptance of fate, the deep love, the day to day doldrums, the sorrow of good-bye. Along the way there is family and friends and love and good times shared among them.
More bus stations and buses and trips through Indiana at night.
And alas, there is always manana. Manana, calling like a siren from back East.
While Kerouac enjoys many of the simple pleasures of his daily life and genuinely seems to take things in and experience them in a positive and genuine way, he always implies there is something better waiting around the corner or down the road. Surely he will get there and experience his dreams in reality if for once everything could come together as he envisions it in his minds eye. He doesn’t come out and say any of this, but it is there. It is like the somewhat bothersome hobo that he tolerates being by his side throughout the journey because he knows there is goodness within and at times he even acknowledges the goodness.
Part II
Chapters 1-11 (NJ to San Francisco, CA)
The second part of On the Road is a ’49 Hudson stream of consciousness trip back across the country with the Dean of extreme. Everything is dug – jazz, air, food, sex, booze, friends, the Mississippi, Old Bull, New Orleans, Oakies, bennies, pennies and a one handed man from Oregon.
Dean drives the machine. Mary Lou’s his muse. Sal is their pal. On and on they go with last stop, Frisco. Experiences are their goal along with stories from Old Bull. And everything is beat. Beat as in tired, used up, and run down.
Ultimately, Part II is like the Tilt a Whirl you rode at the carnival as a kid - you’ll have a great time going along for the ride, but before you know it the ride is over, and you and the rest of the gang aren’t feeling so great. You had best grab the food on a stick of your choice and try to avoid anymore sideshow freaks.
Part III
Chapters 1-11 (Denver, CO to San Francisco, CA to NY)
Like the cars they drive across the country, the antics of Sal and his friends are starting to break down. They try to maintain their exuberance but underneath, you get the sense of melancholy and resignation that the good times cannot carry on forever. Wives left behind and illegitimate children here and there seem to weigh heavily on the shoulders of the once ebullient cats of the beat generation. Their proud moniker of ‘beat’ seems now to have become all too real describing more the characters themselves than the generation around them.
Somehow in their desire to live life fast and full, they sped right through the times of their generation and have been left wanting on the other side and loneliness pervades. The consequences of Dean’s actions are attached to his ankle by a rubber band and when he finally arrives in NY, they are coming toward him at a speed that he cannot and does not want to comprehend.
Part IV
Chapters 1-6 (NJ to Mexico City)
Essentially Part IV is more of the same adventuring, but now in a new land that they have not yet explored – Mexico. This gives them a new energy and everything alights anew for them. Sal and Dean push ever onward smoking tea, smashing bugs in their headlights and getting delusions and dysentery.
Part V
The last goodbye. Through all the times they spent together, Sal and Dean’s last goodbye is sad and filled with melancholy. Dean is crazier than ever, and in the end can’t entice Sal along for one more trip.
------
Overall, the book is a worthy read for someone interested in exploring their own spiritual journey. For that is really what the book was about – finding something out there, on the road, that is better than what is available when you are stationary. Ultimately it doesn’t appear they really find IT, but they know IT is there and they catch the occasional glimpse of IT and regularly say they are experiencing IT. And at the end of the day, that is all anybody can really do.
The question remains, was it worth going on the road? I think they would say yes, that they somehow lived their lives more fully. In the end though that is really left to the opinion of the reader which is what makes the book beautiful.
Kerouac leaves the reader asking themselves whether they can find fulfillment where they are, or whether they should look for it themselves On the Road.
Part I
Chapters 1-5 (NY, NY to Denver, CO)
My initial impressions after having read the first five chapters are that the author seemed innocent but tried to put on airs of having a worldly sophistication. Perhaps I had this impression because I had a preconceived notion going into the book of what Kerouac would be like from reading on the web about the authors of the Beat Generation and their apparent willingness to experience drugs and sex and then write about it. Or, perhaps he did have a worldly sophistication when it came to matters that he was involved with on a day to day basis, but when he started traveling across the country it opened his eyes to the wider world, the Midwest, the Plains, the West that he became an innocent again; an innocent on the road if you will.
For anyone that has made a drive across the States, it is fun to relive their experience as they follow the map of Kerouac's words. Kerouac, of course, made the trip in a time before the Interstate Highway System existed, and the places he describes take one back to a time that was simpler and more innocent. Reading these initial chapters makes one want to be a part of that time, a participant in the adventure and Kerouac does his best to take the weary reader along as his companion. He is the attractive one with his thumb out enticing someone to stop and as he greets the driver we surreptitiously slither out from the weeds and into the back of the vehicle, unnoticed, to experience what little we can through Kerouac's eyes.
There is a certain romance to the initial chapters of the book. A romance congruent with the simplistic and naive urchins he encounters during his hitchhiking across the Midwest and the plains.
Chapters 6-11 (Denver, CO to San Francisco, CA)
As in so many other aspects of our lives, and similar to my initial impressions before starting this book, Kerouac's descriptions of his time in Denver through to San Francisco don't seem to jibe with his expectations of what he would experience going in. His group of friends from New York has split into two factions in Denver. While he walks the thin line between the two, everyone seems to be busy with their lives. Of course Sal (Kerouac) parties and tries to 'make it' with the girls like any other single young man, but eventually he gets the itch to move along and head further West.
In San Francisco, he joins up with a former buddy but quickly wears out his welcome. While he at least gets a job while he is there, you can sense the lack of desire to be tied down, to have any commitment. And so, inevitably he slinks out of the picture leaving the rest of the world to their troubles to seek out his next adventure on the road.
Chapters 12-14 (San Francisco, CA to NJ)
Love’s labor lost.
Sal finally makes his girl. A Mexican beauty on the run who has a son and an abusive husband. The relationship, which lasts for only 15 days, plays out like the relationship of a couple that has been married for 50 years; the blissful courtship, the bout with distrust, the acceptance of fate, the deep love, the day to day doldrums, the sorrow of good-bye. Along the way there is family and friends and love and good times shared among them.
More bus stations and buses and trips through Indiana at night.
And alas, there is always manana. Manana, calling like a siren from back East.
While Kerouac enjoys many of the simple pleasures of his daily life and genuinely seems to take things in and experience them in a positive and genuine way, he always implies there is something better waiting around the corner or down the road. Surely he will get there and experience his dreams in reality if for once everything could come together as he envisions it in his minds eye. He doesn’t come out and say any of this, but it is there. It is like the somewhat bothersome hobo that he tolerates being by his side throughout the journey because he knows there is goodness within and at times he even acknowledges the goodness.
Part II
Chapters 1-11 (NJ to San Francisco, CA)
The second part of On the Road is a ’49 Hudson stream of consciousness trip back across the country with the Dean of extreme. Everything is dug – jazz, air, food, sex, booze, friends, the Mississippi, Old Bull, New Orleans, Oakies, bennies, pennies and a one handed man from Oregon.
Dean drives the machine. Mary Lou’s his muse. Sal is their pal. On and on they go with last stop, Frisco. Experiences are their goal along with stories from Old Bull. And everything is beat. Beat as in tired, used up, and run down.
Ultimately, Part II is like the Tilt a Whirl you rode at the carnival as a kid - you’ll have a great time going along for the ride, but before you know it the ride is over, and you and the rest of the gang aren’t feeling so great. You had best grab the food on a stick of your choice and try to avoid anymore sideshow freaks.
Part III
Chapters 1-11 (Denver, CO to San Francisco, CA to NY)
Like the cars they drive across the country, the antics of Sal and his friends are starting to break down. They try to maintain their exuberance but underneath, you get the sense of melancholy and resignation that the good times cannot carry on forever. Wives left behind and illegitimate children here and there seem to weigh heavily on the shoulders of the once ebullient cats of the beat generation. Their proud moniker of ‘beat’ seems now to have become all too real describing more the characters themselves than the generation around them.
Somehow in their desire to live life fast and full, they sped right through the times of their generation and have been left wanting on the other side and loneliness pervades. The consequences of Dean’s actions are attached to his ankle by a rubber band and when he finally arrives in NY, they are coming toward him at a speed that he cannot and does not want to comprehend.
Part IV
Chapters 1-6 (NJ to Mexico City)
Essentially Part IV is more of the same adventuring, but now in a new land that they have not yet explored – Mexico. This gives them a new energy and everything alights anew for them. Sal and Dean push ever onward smoking tea, smashing bugs in their headlights and getting delusions and dysentery.
Part V
The last goodbye. Through all the times they spent together, Sal and Dean’s last goodbye is sad and filled with melancholy. Dean is crazier than ever, and in the end can’t entice Sal along for one more trip.
------
Overall, the book is a worthy read for someone interested in exploring their own spiritual journey. For that is really what the book was about – finding something out there, on the road, that is better than what is available when you are stationary. Ultimately it doesn’t appear they really find IT, but they know IT is there and they catch the occasional glimpse of IT and regularly say they are experiencing IT. And at the end of the day, that is all anybody can really do.
The question remains, was it worth going on the road? I think they would say yes, that they somehow lived their lives more fully. In the end though that is really left to the opinion of the reader which is what makes the book beautiful.
Kerouac leaves the reader asking themselves whether they can find fulfillment where they are, or whether they should look for it themselves On the Road.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
What the World Needs
You know what the world needs?
Less agressive toilet paper in its public restrooms. I am thinking something 120 grit or above is manageable and not too much to ask.
And why so thin? Are you TRYING to sabotage my brief moment of rest? How can somthing so thin be so abrasive?
I'd raise my middle finger in defiance, but it is somewhat soiled right now.
Less agressive toilet paper in its public restrooms. I am thinking something 120 grit or above is manageable and not too much to ask.
And why so thin? Are you TRYING to sabotage my brief moment of rest? How can somthing so thin be so abrasive?
I'd raise my middle finger in defiance, but it is somewhat soiled right now.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Ego, Smeagol
I know, it's supposed to be ego, schmego but I do things my way. You got a problem with that?
Actually, I have a problem with it.
How can something so big and cumbersome be called something so small. It shouldn't be called ego, it should be called Supercalifragilisticexpiladociousgo. Wait, wouldn't that be what we would call the Superego? Freudian slip I guess.
My ego is 'my Precious' and I am Smeagol. My Precious tortures me but I must have it. It owns me and I can't set it aside, although I am trying. Life would be so much easier without it.
I had a dream last night that I walked through a spider's web. I have these dreams occasionally, and typically, they are no big deal. But this one was a little different. In this dream I spent the next few minutes looking for spiders crawling on me and found nothing - no big deal. Then all of a sudden, a few minutes later I see this huge juicy black widow shaped spider attached to my left arm. Except it wasn't black. It was a bright fluorescent blue and about 3 times the size of a black widow. I couldn't bare to touch it so I asked my friend to flick it off. As he tried to flick it off, it doesn't even budge, it just squishes a little, like it is fat off of my blood. Then, he tries to peel it off from the back and as he starts to do so, I see this long barbed fang protruding into my skin and I am freaking out, screaming at him to get it off my arm. "Get it off!, Get it off!"
And that is why I am posting this blog at 4:00 AM. The ego topic popped in my head after the cold sweat dried from my body.
These are the thoughts that crawl around in this mind of mine. And you wonder why I don't want my ego in charge?
By the way, if you judged me, or labeled me while reading any of this, say hello to your little friend. I like to call him Precious.
Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite.
Actually, I have a problem with it.
How can something so big and cumbersome be called something so small. It shouldn't be called ego, it should be called Supercalifragilisticexpiladociousgo. Wait, wouldn't that be what we would call the Superego? Freudian slip I guess.
My ego is 'my Precious' and I am Smeagol. My Precious tortures me but I must have it. It owns me and I can't set it aside, although I am trying. Life would be so much easier without it.
I had a dream last night that I walked through a spider's web. I have these dreams occasionally, and typically, they are no big deal. But this one was a little different. In this dream I spent the next few minutes looking for spiders crawling on me and found nothing - no big deal. Then all of a sudden, a few minutes later I see this huge juicy black widow shaped spider attached to my left arm. Except it wasn't black. It was a bright fluorescent blue and about 3 times the size of a black widow. I couldn't bare to touch it so I asked my friend to flick it off. As he tried to flick it off, it doesn't even budge, it just squishes a little, like it is fat off of my blood. Then, he tries to peel it off from the back and as he starts to do so, I see this long barbed fang protruding into my skin and I am freaking out, screaming at him to get it off my arm. "Get it off!, Get it off!"
And that is why I am posting this blog at 4:00 AM. The ego topic popped in my head after the cold sweat dried from my body.
These are the thoughts that crawl around in this mind of mine. And you wonder why I don't want my ego in charge?
By the way, if you judged me, or labeled me while reading any of this, say hello to your little friend. I like to call him Precious.
Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Red Dragon Rising: China Consumes the World
The Russians used the scorch and burn technique against Germany in World War II. I think we are having a similar effect based on the need to fuel our economic growth and consumerism.
Were you ever curious about seeing some tangible evidence of what we are doing to the environment?
Check out this short video presentation of beautiful but troubling pictures captured by Edward Burtynsky of Canada at www.ted.com - http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/edward_burtynsky_on_manufactured_landscapes.html.
As China starts to join the ranks of high consumers, similar to ourselves, they unwittingly provide clear examples of what is being done to the environment in order to support their ever expanding economy.
Many of Burtynsky's photos show what is happening in China, but they can easily be extrapolated to what we have done and what we continue to do to our own environment right here at home. Of course what we did happened over a much longer period of time which made it potentially less noticeable. Or perhaps people just cared less or no one thought to capture it in photographs. Of course technology has accelerated the speed at which we can defile things as well.
Whatever the reason, if we don't make changes soon we may pay some high costs to recover what we took for granted. That is assuming we even can.
For additional information, check out the documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, which followed Burtynsky along on many of his shoots in China.
Were you ever curious about seeing some tangible evidence of what we are doing to the environment?
Check out this short video presentation of beautiful but troubling pictures captured by Edward Burtynsky of Canada at www.ted.com - http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/edward_burtynsky_on_manufactured_landscapes.html.
As China starts to join the ranks of high consumers, similar to ourselves, they unwittingly provide clear examples of what is being done to the environment in order to support their ever expanding economy.
Many of Burtynsky's photos show what is happening in China, but they can easily be extrapolated to what we have done and what we continue to do to our own environment right here at home. Of course what we did happened over a much longer period of time which made it potentially less noticeable. Or perhaps people just cared less or no one thought to capture it in photographs. Of course technology has accelerated the speed at which we can defile things as well.
Whatever the reason, if we don't make changes soon we may pay some high costs to recover what we took for granted. That is assuming we even can.
For additional information, check out the documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, which followed Burtynsky along on many of his shoots in China.
Friday, January 9, 2009
"Gunga Galunga" - Dalai Lama
As the great Carl Spackler once said, "It's in the hole!"
Okay, okay, that quote doesn't have much to do with this entry, but it does highlight three important things you should know.
1. Golf is a great sport.
2. Caddyshack is a great golf movie.
3. Historically, in great literature, the fool (our friend Carl Spackler in this case) can always be counted on to say some very intelligent things.
Carl also says the following in Caddyshack:
"So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, how about a little something, you know, for the effort." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."
See it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkLH56VlKT0
I guess I could say I was on my deathbed and received total consciouness last Sunday morning while watching Eckhart Tolle's DVD - Finding Your Life's Purpose.
Let me try to explain.
I used to be such a worrier, always deferring happiness into the future using Now as a means to an end. 'The end' being some point in the future where happiness would exist for me. Except, when would that point be? How long would that happiness last? Would I be happy forever after having gotten to that point? Or, would I only be happy temporarily and thus start looking for the next thing to make me happy again? Why not just be happy now?
I learned something watching and listening to Mr. Tolle. The future only exists in the mind, just as the past exists only in the mind as your memories of Now. When we experience the future it will be experienced as Now.
I will leave it at that for Now?
If you are intrigued check out Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.
Okay, okay, that quote doesn't have much to do with this entry, but it does highlight three important things you should know.
1. Golf is a great sport.
2. Caddyshack is a great golf movie.
3. Historically, in great literature, the fool (our friend Carl Spackler in this case) can always be counted on to say some very intelligent things.
Carl also says the following in Caddyshack:
"So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, how about a little something, you know, for the effort." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."
See it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkLH56VlKT0
I guess I could say I was on my deathbed and received total consciouness last Sunday morning while watching Eckhart Tolle's DVD - Finding Your Life's Purpose.
Let me try to explain.
I used to be such a worrier, always deferring happiness into the future using Now as a means to an end. 'The end' being some point in the future where happiness would exist for me. Except, when would that point be? How long would that happiness last? Would I be happy forever after having gotten to that point? Or, would I only be happy temporarily and thus start looking for the next thing to make me happy again? Why not just be happy now?
I learned something watching and listening to Mr. Tolle. The future only exists in the mind, just as the past exists only in the mind as your memories of Now. When we experience the future it will be experienced as Now.
I will leave it at that for Now?
If you are intrigued check out Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)