Friday Night Zen #23
It’s been a couple weeks. If you’ve missed them, I apologize. I’d like to think others get a kick out of this feature besides myself…
A timeless quote as offered by Lama Suryas Das at the Dzogchen Center:
The way to happiness:
Keep your heart free from hate, your mind free from worry.
Live simply, expect little, give much.
Scatter sunshine.
Forget self, think of others.
Try this for a week
and you will be surprised.~ Norman Vincent Peale
It sees that thinking of others unfortunately is rare in our society. Anyone with an open mind and heart who wishes to test these words will indeed be surprised that the very habit of putting others first raises one’s self esteem thereby increasing happiness. Any other methods of harmony are magnified by the simple act of caring for someone besides yourself. Too bad few people notice this…
February 16th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Norman Vincent Peale’s philosophy can be summed up by the last scene of “Monty Python’s The Life of Brian”, where Brian is hanging on the cross dying and the whole chorus of dying people is happily singing “Look on the bright side of life.”
It’s a nice philosophy if you’re living under a Confucian dictatorship with no hope of changing the conditions under which you live, or if you are a mouthpiece of men of wealth and power who want you to convince the rabble to not overthrow their oligarchy, or if you’re hanging on a cross dying with no hope and no future. It is not, however, the philosophy of a free man who is both ready and willing to stand up for what is right and oppose that which is wrong. A free man must be willing to be outraged by injustice, applaud courage, worry about those in need, and otherwise experience the full gamut of human emotion. Otherwise he is but a tool.
_Badtux the Philosophy Penguin
February 17th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Thank you, Mr. Tux. I’ts been a while since I last heard from you…
I take it that you disagree with this prescription for happiness on a fundamental level. This philosophy is very Zen, but it is not a “live and let live” mentality as it may seem. The Buddha counselled that rage is sometimes necessary to affect positive change, in certain instances. The main point is not to let oneself be taken over by the rage. To be taken by rage is to lose one’s freedom.
How free is a man who allows anger to drive him? Or fear? How much free will does a man have if he doesn’t know the deeper workings of his mind, is not able to diffuse anger or assuage fear?
While I agree in priciple with your Libertarian words, I ponder if any modern thinker is free or truly knows what freedom tastes like. The man you discribe would be suseptible to self bondage by the very acts of outrage or worry. A veritable tightrope…
If I dare venture, I’d say you have not actually opened your mind to the joy of selfless giving. I hope I’m wrong about that.
Namaste.