ZEN: DRAGGING THE BOAT

Two young men left their village to attend a talk by the Buddha.   It was to be a three day journey so the men left a day early to insure they would arrive in plenty of time to enjoy the preceding. 

 After two days they arrived at a river only to find the bridge had been destroyed.  Knowing they had an extra day they set about constructing a boat from bamboo and reeds.   The next morning they made the crossing and were feeling confident as they still had a day for travel.

 

The oldest man said that it was such a fine boat it would be a shame to leave it, so they each grabbed a gunnel and started down the road.

   

The men arrived in village just as the Buddha finished talking.   They approached the Buddha and told him how disappointed they were to have missed his talk.   The Buddha look at the men and the boat and asked why they dragging a boat.  The men said they had built it to cross the river and that it was such a fine boat they could not leave it.  

The Buddha smiled and walked away.

I sit here in my den/office/man-cave or whatever you want to call this room that all the artifacts of decades of my life are jumbled into and look around at the boat that I have been dragging: books on sky diving (not going to happen,) books on white water canoeing ( I no longer own a canoe,) survival gear, hunting and fishing gear, pictures and artifacts hanging on the walls, three boxes of cassette tapes ( I no longer own a cassette player,) Sherlock Holmes collections and the list could go on.

I have been dragging most of this stuff around with me for decades – some for over fifty years.  

I tend to think of this stuff as defining me; but in truth I was a different person at each time this stuff represents.   However, they bring back pleasant memories.

You can’t stand in the same river twice.

I guess we all drag our boats, and perhaps that is only a bad thing when it prevents us from living in the present or obstructs our future goals.

Hell I don’t know

Just rambling

the Ol’Buzzard

I HAVE SEEN IT ALL BEFORE

Last week on Real Time with Bill Maher Bill did a monologue about age; he said America is one of the few countries that does not venerate the aged.   He went on to say that old people are smarter than young people because they have seen it all before. 

PETER JOHN
Traditional Chief of Koyukon Athabaskans
RIP

 

Having lived for twelve years in Indian, Yup’ik and Inuit villages of Alaska I can relate first hand to cultures that venerate elders.

I can also agree that every individual is smarter as an elder than he or she was in their younger years; but, if you were an ignorant young person, and ignorant middle age person, you are probably going to be an ignorant old person.   It’s all relative.  

I am an elder - and I am one hell of a lot smarter in my old age than I was as a young person; but, that is not saying much – again it is all relative.  

I have never claimed to be a sage old owl, but just an Ol’Buzzard that has soared in the air currents and sat on tree limbs and rocky crags and watched – and now I remember.  

Any opinions I have are naturally biased as they have been filtered through my personal experiences, likes and dislikes, prejudices and intellect (or lack thereof) during my seventy years+++ of chaos.

  

As an elder I look at the current state of affairs and am not particularly concerned.  I have seen this all before: war, social ills, prejudice, bigotry, confusion, dysfunctional government, politicians motivated by selfish avarice, ignorance and religious fervor.  

The one thing I can say for sure is that we never learn and we will do it all over again: we are destine to perform the same play, slightly modified to time and place, and with different actors – but with the same outcome.

ADVICE FROM AN ELDER

Don’t despair - there are things you can do: get a nice bottle of wine, enjoy a good meal, have sex with your significant other and chill out.

A ZEN STORY

A man came to the Buddha seeking contentment.    He said, “I want happiness.” 

The Buddha replied, “First remove the ‘I’ that is ego.   Then remove the ‘want’ that is desire.   Now you are left only with happiness.”

 

Enjoy the Now.

the Ol’Buzzard  

SNAFU

SITUATION NORMAL ALL FUCKED UP

When you read the blogs across the internet probably seventy percent of them are doom and gloom.   They expound about things going wrong in their state, their town or the world – and they are right.  Humanity is fucked up.  But there is nothing new. 

The human social condition is like war: there have always been wars and there will always be wars; the weapons change; the venue changes; the participants change but the results is always the same: people die.

The point I am making is: I am 70+ years old and I have seen it all before.  There has never been a time in my lifetime when everything was not fucked up.  My first memories are of the Second World War – then the McCarthy era, Southern states rights and segregation, the Korean War, the Cuban crisis, the Presidents assassination, Vietnam War, integration struggles, race wars, Nixon, Clinton’s blowjob, Russia, the Cold war, Bush years, Iraq…  Then each state, city and town had its own issues: corrupt police forces, corrupt politicians, religious intolerance, murder – rape - riots – carnage – shit, fire and molasses. 

It is amazing that we have the internet and we can express our frustrations and incredulousness with the state of our individual worlds; but nothing has changed and nothing will ever change.   The players will be different, the venues will be different, the crisis of the moment will be different; but the world will remain fucked up – that is the natural order for the human race.  

Most individuals are basically decent people; but as soon as we pack – we heard up – we take power over others we become corrupt.  That’s who we are. 

It is hard to find something positive to blog about – perhaps cats.  

But in the meantime my blog will join the majority seventy percent and continue to express wonder at the insanity the human race brings to bear against itself. 

There is a ZEN story about a man on a journey that builds a boat to cross the river then drags the boat with him for the next hundred miles. 

 

It is good to be cognitive – it is good to be aware – and it is fine to be troubled; but let us remember we all have eighty-six troubles and let’s not drag the boat once we have crossed the river.

Have a good day

the Ol’Buzzard

A ZEN STORY

A man joins a monastery that is known to be very strict: the monks at this monastery are only allowed to speak two words every ten years.  

After ten years the man comes before the master and is asked, “What have you to say?”

The man answers, “Bed Hard.”

Ten years later he again comes before the master and is asked, “What have you got to say?”

“Food stinks,” the man replies.

Again, ten years later the comes before the master and is asked, “What have you got to say?’

“I quit!”

“Well I am not surprised,” replies the master, “all you ever do is complain.”

It is all right to quit.

the Ol'Buzzard