Zen and Pachi Mama
Different people try to get closer to God in different ways. The reason why people want to get closer to God is to become better than everyone else. The most powerful person in the tribe is the Witch Doctor or Priest who is even more powerful than the Chief. When we have a C-Level business meeting the closer we are to the CEO in the seating arrangement lets everyone in the meeting know how powerful we are. When we have dinner with the family, the closer we sit to the patriarch and matriarch, the higher the position we hold in the family. So in the human condition, we are always trying to get ourselves closer to a position of power. As in any human endeavor, we always create extremes. If we have a hard time reaching one, we can always gravitate to the other. Besides The Extremes, there are also Middle Roads or somewhere in between. Let's examine The Extremes and The Middle Roads so we can leverage our choices in line with The Human Condition of wanting to be better than others.
Some try to devoid themselves of all feelings, wants, and desires, and disconnect from “reality”. They are trying to achieve nothingness. To have no feelings... No pain.. No pleasure. They will eat as little as possible and spend most of the day meditating on Nothing. They feel the more Austere they are, the closer they are to God. These people find it important to get rid of their Ego or their personal identity. This is Zen or becoming one with the universe. It involves denying your feelings or emotions. You sit at the top of a mountain wearing a diaper meditating and allowing no pleasure in your life. You may eat an occasional cockroach and poop your pants. About once a week, a little old lady will come and visit you and bring you a bowl of soup. Eventually, you will dry up, die and blow away... and become a hydrogen atom which is the simplest of all of the atoms in the universe.
The other extreme is “Pachi Mama”... The Mother Earth Goddess. These people feel the more they eat, enjoy pleasure, and sex, and fully engage with their Ego, the closer they will be to God. They will carve a vagina in a rock so they can impregnate Mother Earth. They are extremely connected to the material world. The word material comes from the word matre, which is Latin for motherhood. Since this is the Mother Earth Goddess, it involves worshiping and reveling in their material possessions. This person is into parties, hookers, earthly pleasures, fast cars, fast cash, and fast sex. This person is dominated by The Lizard Brain… it is mainly concerned with The Three F's….Fear, Food, and Procreation (fucking). They feel the more they have and they experience, the closer they are to God. Their goal is when they die to be buried and become one with Mother Earth.
In the middle, we have Stoicism which Buddha referred to as The Middle Way. Imagine you have a partially filled glass of water. A pessimist will say that the glass is half empty… an optimist will say that the glass is half full… the business person will sell the glass of water… an opportunist will drink the glass of water while everyone is arguing about the glass of water… the stoic will exclaim… "I HAVE A GLASS! ...AND THERE IS WATER IN IT! ...AMAZING!!!" The stoic will then ask "Is anyone else thirsty?" A stoic will love and cherish his family and friends because he realizes that they may not be here tomorrow. Whether conditions move him toward the Zen State or the Pachi Mama State, he is ready to adjust his mind and living conditions to fit either one.
People also worship the Cargo God. This can appear in any of the above States… Pachi Mama, Zen, or Stoicism. The Cargo God has a ship full of goodies! The ship is almost ready to come into port, but it is waiting just off the horizon just for the right conditions to happen. This Cargo God will only come into port when everyone is good and obedient. If anybody in the community is evil, the Cargo God will not bring the boat into port. Therefore the community must police everyone to make sure they are compliant. If they can achieve this goal, then there will be plenty and abundance for all. This Cargo God was worshipped by many people in the South Seas. When the missionaries first showed up, and preached that God was waiting to bring abundance to the Earth, we did not know the day or the hour. This totally depended on obedience and compliance in a community. They said "AHA! This is our Cargo God!" So they readily joined the missionary's church. When they realized there was a significant difference they killed and ate the missionaries. Do you worship the Cargo God? Are you waiting for your ship to come in? You have the expression "When our ship comes in, we can buy this new house...yadayadayada…" Are you waiting to win the lottery? Are you waiting for the person of your dreams to show up in your life? Do you say "When I get around to it?" Then you are worshipping the Cargo God. If I just study harder, work more hours, and be more compliant, then success will come into port. You are worshipping the Cargo God. Are you waiting for an all-powerful being to arrive on the planet and correct all imbalances and imperfections in humanity? You don't know when this is going to happen, but you are waiting for this…
What do you want to be? Do you want to be more Zen? Do you want to be more Pachi Mama? Do you want to be a Stoic? Do you want to worship a Cargo God?…or do you want to be somewhere in the middle of these? Some days you may wake up, decide you want to stay in your room and do absolutely nothing… Simply Be. Some days when you wake up, you may want to drift toward Pachi Mama and get on a roller coaster, go to the bar, have passionate sex with thousands of people, jump out of an airplane, go bungee jumping, eat all-you-can-eat-gourmet-food, and enjoy as many pleasures as possible. Then other days, we may wake up get the kids off to school, get ready for work, drive to work, perform fantastic projects for the boss, gossip with our co-workers, come home prepare dinner, enjoy TV with the family, go to bed, have sex, and then go into a sound sleep. At different times and on different days, we may go to one extreme or the other. Most individuals that I have spoken to all say that they want to be somewhere in between. This is what Buddha chose.
Buddha was raised in a palace as a prince. He was fed the finest of food, educated by the smartest of the land, admired by the most beautiful ladies, and wore the fanciest of silks on the planet. Buddha was kept in isolation from the world outside the palace and became quite curious about what was out there. Buddha heard stories of Great Seekers that through years of discipline and practice in meditation gained enlightenment or ultimate wisdom. When the day came for Buddha to become King, he escaped from the palace grounds to find enlightenment. Passing through the world of squalor and poverty, Buddha became heartbroken at the plight of the peasants. He made a choice to give up all of his wealth and position, and become one of the people. Because of lack of food, shelter, and hygiene, he became quite ill… nearly to the point of death. Meditating under the Bodhi Tree or Tree of Enlightenment, Buddha had an epiphany. His epiphany was of The Middle Way.
The Middle Way is somewhere in between. Sometimes extremes may enter into a person's life that aims for the middle way, but he will gently find ways of getting back to the center. Even another wise person in Buddha's time said "Keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion." By becoming too rich, you lose your sensitivity to others' perspectives. By becoming too poor, you become weak and in danger of stealing or harming others. Wealth creates arrogance… Poverty creates hopelessness. Where would you like to be in this situation?
War is caused by extreme wealth contrasted with extreme poverty. Income inequality creates unrest in society. Even monkeys can be upset when one monkey receives a higher quality of food than another. This creates anger and fighting. Human beings do not mind if one monkey has a little bit more than they do. Though when a human is sleeping in a gutter and eating maggots, they become quite angry at the monkeys that are living in the palaces and eating truffles.
Human beings are always looking for one person in their group to become a leader. It is OK if this leader is fed better food, has a better selection of mates, and has the best shelter. When they are attacked by outside forces: famine, armies, ignorance, killer bees… they expect the leader to take the brunt of the punishment. He should be smarter, stronger, and faster than the rest of the group, and should take care of the problem much better than anyone else.
In groups of humans and monkeys, life is much more enjoyable and pleasurable for all when the extremes of wealth are not too great. This has been proven to be no more than 15 to 20 times from the poorest of the pack to the richest. The societies that maintain this balance are the happiest, are the most creative, and live the longest. What kind of society do you want to live in?
In politics, we have North Korea which has a Totalitarian vice-like grip on the people. They live in total fear and impoverishment. North Korea is officially called the People's Democratic Republic of North Korea. This is one problem with labels. If it says 100% Cotton… it may not be true.
The other extreme is Somalia which has no governmental control. The only ones in charge are the warlords. The warlords just like the government of North Korea keep a vice-like grip on the people in their country. In Somalia, if you displease the warlord, you are dead. Somalia like North Korea is one of the most impoverished countries in the world.
Extreme Right-Wing Politics also want total control over everything. They say they want less central government and stronger community governments as in Somalia. They also say they need a stronger army and everyone in the country should have their religion or belief system as in North Korea.
Extreme Left-Wing Politics says that the government should own everything and see to it that each person has equal access to resources… taking away personal ownership, pride, and ego of the situation. This does not exist anywhere in a political forum, though it does in religious situations like the Quakers and Mennonites. These groups are not allowed to flaunt personal possessions before others. In some groups, they are allowed to drive new cars and tractors, but these are all owned by everyone in the group. The group decides which person's job best fits the new shiny equipment. Another example of this is a commune or kibbutz. This is a community where everyone shares in the work and benefits from the fruits of the labor from the group. This is Extreme-Left-Wing Politics.
Where do you want to be? The majority of the people in the world will be very close to the center. If you were to question each person individually on their ideology, you will find people on the left that are 60% left-oriented and 40% right oriented. On the other hand, you will find people on the right that are 60% right oriented and 40% left-oriented. The only problem that we are faced with today is labels.
An example of the problems with labels is shown in a Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." In this episode, we had two remaining people from a planet where 50% of the people were half black and half white. The other 50% of the population were half white and half black. They were only fighting over a label.
Another example is in "Gulliver's Travels" where an entire nation was fighting over which end of the egg everyone should open up first… the top or the bottom.
In politics, you will also find people on the extreme ends of the axis. This needs to occur to keep things in balance. The crazies on the left will balance the crazies on the right. 99% of the people will be very close to the center to the point where it is hard to distinguish which is which. So people will try to control you (politicians, religious leaders, employers) by giving labels to everyone. Labeling people create divisions. When you receive a label, you receive all extreme parts of it, even though one small part of this label actually describes you.
You are not a label. You are not Zen. You are not Pachi Mama. You are not stoic. You are not Left-Wing. You are not Right-Wing. You are not strong. You are not weak. You are not smart. You are not stupid. You are not old. You are not young. No one is 100% male. No one is 100% female. You may contain varying degrees of each of these in who you are, but you are none of them completely. What you are may change from day to day. What you are may change from year-to-year. You are a living, breathing, dynamic, godlike energy being. DO NOT LET ANYONE LABEL YOU!!!
There is no wrong way to do anything. There is only one way that you choose. When we fully understand The Human Condition we realize that we will be in many states at the same time. These can change from day-to-day, and to year-to-year. Do you want to live in a rigid-fixed world where everything stays the same? This is otherwise known as Death... Or would you rather live in a living, moving, dynamic world where every day there are new choices to make, new things to see, and new worlds to conquer.
Are you ready to be the change that you want to see in the world?
In The Human Condition, there are three States: The Devil State (gossip or putting others down), The Human State (working hard to improve ourselves), and The God State (building others up). Just as in moving in one extreme to the other, which state you are in will change from hour to hour, day-to-day, year-to-year. These are choices that we must constantly make. We do not want labels applied to us, nor do we want to put labels on others. We must become aware of where we want to go, and who we want to be. When you drive a vehicle, you must make constant course corrections to keep yourself on the road toward your ultimate destination. This requires the vigilance of our surroundings. It is a team effort. In a team, everyone does not have the same potential or abilities. Each person works with the strengths that they possess. This is what makes human beings the most powerful animal on Earth. By working together cooperatively, as a team, each person has a different job and position. The more aware we are of The Human Condition, the smoother and more efficient the team will operate. Some people will be leaders and some will be followers. Where do you want to be? At what extreme do you wish to exist?
The more time each member of the team can spend in The God State, the more powerful the team will become. In The God State, you are more concerned about the success of others than your own. In turn, they will be doing the same for you. Where you are weak, they will be powerful. Where they are weak, you will be powerful.