To me, this is the type of suffering the Buddha addressed.
"I keep wanting to go back to that analogy of fishing for facts. I can just see
somebody asking with great frustration, ``Yes, but which facts do you fish for?
There's got to be more to it than that.''
"But the answer is that if you know which facts you're fishing for you're no
longer fishing. You've caught them. I'm trying to think of a specific example.
-- All kinds of examples from cycle maintenance could be given, but the most
striking example of value rigidity I can think of is the old South Indian
Monkey Trap, which depends on value rigidity for its effectiveness. The trap
consists of a hollowed-out coconut chained to a stake. The coconut has some
rice inside which can be grabbed through a small hole. The hole is big enough
so that the monkey's hand can go in, but too small for his fist with rice in it
to come out. The monkey reaches in and is suddenly trapped...by nothing more
than his own value rigidity. He can't revalue the rice. He cannot see that
freedom without rice is more valuable than capture with it. The villagers are
coming to get him and take him away. They're coming closer -- closer! -- now!
What general advice...not specific advice...but what general adv
ice would you give the poor monkey in circumstances like this?
"Well, I think you might say exactly what I've been saying about value
rigidity, with perhaps a little extra urgency. There is a fact this monkey
should know: if he opens his hand he's free. But how is he going to discover
this fact? By removing the value rigidity that rates rice above freedom. How is
he going to do that? Well, he should somehow try to slow down deliberately and
go over ground that he has been over before and see if things he thought were
important really were important and, well, stop yanking and just stare at the
coconut for a while. Before long he should get a nibble from a little fact
wondering if he is interested in it. He should try to understand this fact not
so much in terms of his big problem as for its own sake. That problem may not
be as big as he thinks it is. That fact may not be as small as he thinks it is
either. That's about all the general information you can give him.
...
"On the road now and talking about traps again. The next one is important. It's
the internal gumption trap of ego.
"Ego isn't entirely separate from value rigidity but one of the many causes of
it. If you have a high evaluation of yourself then your ability to recognize
new facts is weakened. Your ego isolates you from the Quality reality. When the
facts show that you've just goofed, you're not as likely to admit it. When
false information makes you look good, you're likely to believe it. On any
mechanical repair job ego comes in for rough treatment. You're always being
fooled, you're always making mistakes, and a mechanic who has a big ego to
defend is at a terrific disadvantage. If you know enough mechanics to think of
them as a group, and your observations coincide with mine, I think you'll agree
that mechanics tend to be rather modest and quiet. There are exceptions, but
generally if they're not quiet and modest at first, the work seems to make them
that way. And skeptical. Attentive, but skeptical, But not egoistic. There's no
way to bullshit your way into looking good on a mechanica
l repair job, except with someone who doesn't know what you're doing.
"-- I was going to say that the machine doesn't respond to your personality,
but it does respond to your personality. It's just that the personality that it
responds to is your real personality, the one that genuinely feels and reasons
and acts, rather than any false, blown-up personality images your ego may
conjure up. These false images are deflated so rapidly and completely you're
bound to be very discouraged very soon if you've derived your gumption from ego
rather than Quality.
"If modesty doesn't come easily or naturally to you, one way out of this trap
is to fake the attitude of modesty anyway. If you just deliberately assume
you're not much good, then your gumption gets a boost when the facts prove this
assumption is correct. This way you can keep going until the time comes when
the facts prove this assumption is incorrect."
- ZAMM
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