I was asked to write up some reminiscences of Lee. Well, Lee and I had more than our share of interesting conversations, but most of them had one underlying theme; not so much helping students to awaken, but how to prepare students for the responsibilities that come automatically Just From Being Awake. Enlightenment is just the beginning.
One of the most plaguing problems that we in the Sangha (work circle) Leadership run into is “mid-life crisis of the spirit”. Shouldn’t happen, but it does. Somehow, the effort becomes too much, it’s all so overwhelming, and the patient falters and dies….well, the student gives up and does something more familiar, more dead zone, more harmonics without the need for actual harmony, joining the great masses toward comfortably numb chill-outs until they pass completely into vapourous mists.
I always rant on this subject — pardonnez-moi for the little lapse. I go into actual foam-in-the mouth ravings on the similar subject of Remedial English 101.
Never let them talk you into teaching Remedial English to a bunch of enormous college senior football heroes whose fist weigh more than your head and against whom you stand about waist-high.
They must Pass. Their English skills can be below nonexistent, their mangled speech can be unintelligible by any standard, and their spelling skills can be far below that of a kindergarten kid, but Pass They Must.
It’s not a direct threat. Oh, gosh, no. Those guys were friendly and actually intelligent, but unskilled in communication skills except with an elbow or the top of the helmet.
It’s the fans and the university faculty that will tear you to shreds if you ground one of their football heroes, and from the point of view of the university fund-raisers and their victims, the alumni, they’d be right to tear you to shreds; actually, that’s too good for you.
Oh, I know I’ll hear plenty about that one. How dare I call football heroes unskilled at English?
Because I taught three semesters of Remedial English to College Seniors waiting for my grade in order to graduate and dependent on my class to keep them on the playing field, that’s why, and not all football heroes are communication skills challenged; just my remedial students in need of a good grade.
It wasn’t their fault; they were encouraged to ignore those communication skills in favor of a basic comprehension of dozens of named and numbered “Hail-Mary Plays”.
It’s not just football players who like to wait until the last possible minute to act. Lawyers are remarkable in this respect, and of course their spawn, legislators and judges are equally renowned in this arena, if I may call it that.
I met more than my share of theater people who had the same exact problem, starting in high school and disintegrating more rapidly in and after college.
So Lee and I were outside the Alta Street Church back in 1978, lounging on a couple of beach-chairs set up on what passes for a grass lawn here in California. Radha was over in the kid’s area, talking with Morgan.
Lee says, in a soft, low voice, “I think I’ve figured out a way to know in advance whether a student is going to flake out in the end.”
I turned and replied, “Other than instinct, you mean? And I take it you’re talking about flaking out in the end after many years of apparent dedication.”
“Yeah, a way to know for sure, no doubt, no double-thinking about it.”
“Okay,” I nodded, “I’ll bite. What is it?”
“The Practice,” he said with a grin, thinking that he’d just explained something.
I sat there waiting for more, but nothing was forthcoming, so I plowed on ahead, thinking I’d missed something, “…and???”
He was still smiling. “…Yeah, right. And.”
“And what?” I prompted, expecting some sort of … well, some sort of answer.
“No, no, don’t you get it?” he chuckled, “it’s all about the Practice.”
“Oh,” I nodded, “the Practice… of course, why didn’t I see it all the time? Of course it’s the Practice,” I said in my best Maxwell Smart high-pitched tones, “naturally, it’s the Practice. I should have seen it right from the very beginning. I have only one question,” I added, “what’s a Practice?”
“Yeah,” he laughed, “that’s it exactly; if they fail to faithfully perform the Practice every single day, they can’t and won’t last very long.”
“Why would anyone hang around if they didn’t do the Practice?” I asked. I’d been asking my guitar students to practice five minutes a day without fail, and I’d added that warning to the dance movements students as well. If you don’t practice every day without fail, you lose the practice, the will and the temperament to continue through past mastery.”
“It’s worse than that,” Lee responded, and then he said something that stuck with me from that day forward… “if they don’t do the Practice, nothing really happens for them, and they end up getting nothing, but then, they blame me!!! That’s like telling a doctor that you didn’t follow his treatment but you hold him responsible for your continued illness.”
“That never happens to me,” I said.
“What? Never?” he was genuinely jolted. “Really?” he chuckled again.
“No, we both know that’s impossible. I was just waiting for my rim-shot,” I laughed back.
See, it’s not so much the failure of the student. If you teach anything, you see plenty of student failure and you learn to accept the odds that 1/3 of the class will excel, 1/3 will fail and 1/3 will barely pass it, but they will manage to just squeak by.
I taught college level and graduate courses, never high school. I told ya, I’m crazy, not stupid. I also never even considered for a single second driving a school bus. Now, crossing guard, I might consider, if the pay is good.
I have to say that every time I take note that a student is not doing the Practice, I find looking back on it that this was a clear sign that they had lost interest and were hanging on by sheer momentum.
That sometimes can carry you through a spiritual crisis, unless sex rears its ugly head.
It’s never business that interrupts your work, no. It’s not family, not friends, all of that can be overcome. It’s always about that dark side that demands satisfaction.
But if your Practice is sufficiently strong, no amount of temptation will influence you or take you away from your work… oh, and what exactly IS your work, anyway?
I can give you a clue for the super-smart:
If you accept the responsibility of getting your Ashram Avatar to the right places at the right times, you don’t even have to do the practices or learn anything about them. Your Avatar does them for you. But you do have to accept the service bond to get them to their work destinations on time and in good condition.
You can walk away from your Avatar, once you have placed him or her or it into the work pattern, such as the Tai-Chi space or one of the dancing circles or meditation zones.
Your flesh-and-blood life can proceed without harm to your Work, provided you take those actions reliably every single day without fail, to bring your Avatar to the work spaces at the appointed times.
I know, some folks have to go to work, where there is no internet access, but you can do as much as you are able, and that has to be enough. As you free up time with some entrepreneur projects, you might find yourself with more time and energy to take on even more obligation, such as actually attending some of the in-Ashram events rather than parking your Avatar there, but either way, you get the Merit.
Speaking of Merit, if something you do causes good, you automatically get Merit and automatically this goes toward your spiritual advancement and the spiritual advancement of those around you whom you influence with your goodness, even though it might be invisible help that you offer.
I was reminded of an important work item when I saw folks at the Earth-Healing circle the other day. It’s good to take part in this, because it does help the Earth. But always remember to look at yourself first, examine your own shortcomings and failures, and do it impartially, from a distance.
If you cannot function in an ordinary way, how can you hope to function in a work way?
Oh, someone asked me the other day if I could help someone with an alcohol addiction. Yes; there’s only one way to beat alcohol, and that’s to never touch it again, not ever, not even a little drop to see if it still affects you. It will. Alcohol is deadly to the body, and even more deadly to the work inside you. Alcohol dissolves the Soul.
I’m not judging. I’m telling you the truth. If you are alcohol intolerant, don’t drink it, no matter how many commercials and doctors and lawyers and insect exterminators tell you that wine is good for the heart. Modern medicine is run by money, and the vintners paid plenty for that, you can bet your bottom dollar they did.
It’s bad enough you let the Wall Street Bankers take all your real estate assets and all of your lifetime earnings and reduced their value to trash. You don’t have to drink and do their work for them of destroying you to benefit the mortuary trade.
There’s a saying in French; I’ll translate it for you:
Absinth makes the heart grow fondue.
I came up with that phrase in an editorial on The Collegian, back in 1964. It led to the creation and publication of Brother Godfrey’s Journal of the Year 1269, which is looking for a co-publisher who wants to do a bang-up job of it, disregarding costs, with color illios and embellishments, to be issued hardcover at $125 and softcover at $49. Total estimated cost of publication of said book, about $4500, with an expected return of almost half that amount, over a period of not less than ten years. That’s the kind of return I’ve grown to expect of the book trade these days.
Oh, golly whiz, it’s breakfast time already. I’ll be going into the studio with Oz this morning after breakfast, if all goes well, and you can listen to me lay down some ritual didge material for the Ashram.
Be sure to alert folks that I posted two blogs today. Don’t know exactly what the Practices are, what you should for sure do every day, and what you should do once a week, and what needs to get done only four times a year or once a year? Be at the Labor Day Convention for more!!!
See You At The Top!!!
gorby