Karma-kaze and Feng Shui

If I didn't learn anything else from my days in Sunday School as a child, it was this:

"You reap what you sow"

So universal is this principle that it might as well be signed into law by Congress (except they've got their hands busy with a whole bunch of reaping from some not-so-thoughtful past sowing at the moment).  The Golden Rule, "What goes around comes around", "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - it's so inescapable, yet we bash ourselves over the head with the same ole bat of bad habits and wonder what just happened.  I'll tell you what just happened - you're a Karma-kaze.

The Buddhists summed it up in one word - Karma.  It's the law of cause and effect.  At the exact moment you have a thought, speak a word, or perform an action (causes), a corresponding seed of unripened potential registers in your ____ (life, future, soul, destiny, path, consciousness, mindstream - pick whatever word you want).   The reason that so many of us fail to live by this law is that the effects don't often happen until much later; until the seed we created grows up into a flower (or weed or thorny cactus sticking us in the butt or whatever).  We can't connect what's going on now with anything that just happened... because it probably didn't just happen.  What just happened is perfect arrangement of space and circumstances just feng shui'ed itself into your life, and that seed you planted way back all the sudden grows up on you real quick-like.   Like when I should've have been bad-mouthing my knees for all that time because jumping off of that high pull-up bar was the perfect chance for my knee to really get mangled and give me something to really complain about!  It has been a year since I karma-kazed myself into that unfortunate accident.  I intend for it to be the last....

The good news is Karma works in the other direction too.  If you really want something good to come into your life, gear all your thoughts, speech, and actions toward it.  Erase all seeds of doubt and negativity.  And the part that we all forget -  create the space for that thing to enter your life.  You've got to pull a clutter busting clearing of crap junk food in your cabinet if you ever hope to lose weight.  That negative person you're holding onto in your "relationship" hoping Mr. or Ms. Right will come along and save you?  Gotta clear the weeds in your romantic garden before you can even think about getting some roses (this really just happened to a friend of mine... trust me, it works if you work it!).  Get some acupuncture, a little Feng Shui, and take your karmic rewards to new heights.

5 Pin Meditation

I did an acupuncture treatment for a relative yesterday - it was her first experience with the medicine.  I used a very simple set points that involved one pin in each foot, one in each hand, and one in the forehead.  The treatment is called the "Gates of Buddha" in some circles.

Now this is the part where I'd tell you I cured all her ailments, she ascended to Enlightenment, and is chillin' out with Buddha himself, talking about some real heady stuff as we speak... I'd of course be stretching the truth (just a tad though!), but I will go out on a limb and call what did happen a minor miracle.

Before I put the pins in, she asked me three questions:  "Can I watch TV?", "Can I talk on the phone?", and "Can I at least keep chewing my gum?", to which I replied "No", "No", and "Okay... so be it..." (a man has only so much willpower you know?).  After the treatment was done 20 minutes later, I asked her how she felt.  "You know, it was kind of nice to just sit there with my thoughts.  I couldn't do anything about them because I couldn't move, but they didn't bother me like they usually do.  I should come home and sit down without the TV on everyday for a few minutes after work".

Me to myself:  "Holy Shit!  That's all meditation really is!  This rocks!"
Me aloud to her:  "Yes, that's great.  It's nice just to be sometimes isn't it?"

Serious business though, everybody seems to have a sense that meditation would cure a lot of their problems, but most seem baffled by how to actually do it.  The key is really to do nothing and give your body/mind/emotions/spirit time to work stuff out... and, eureka (!), I think I've finally learned the key to helping people meditate - pin their proverbial butts to a chair!

Peace friends.

Feeling Well About Wisely Using Resources

I bought a $12 dollar air pump from Home Depot the other day because I had finally grown tired of trying to dribble my poor basketball and watching its blob-like form take on the shape of the flat blacktop and proceed to stick there like a bucketful of pancake batter (only a slight exaggeration I assure you!).  Excited about this big, red, Husky brand behemoth of a pump, I started to dream about all the other things I could do with it... I woke up from that dream 30 seconds later with not so much as a "hmm... I wonder..." to show for it. 

You see, even though it was only 12 bucks, it's 12 bucks locked into a pump that I won't use for anything else because, let's face it, I'll buy a brand new basketball or give it away before it ever deflates.  Besides, at the pace I'm going, I'll end up selling the pump in a garage sale before my next move.  Of course you're now coming down on me with the common sense "Well, why didn't you just borrow a pump, silly man?".  Well thanks a lot, Baby Einsteins - all 17 of you are coming with me whenever I go to the store from now on!

The larger point I'm aiming to make here is my thought process and the fundamental flaw that's so engrained in our mentality in this country that it may well be our downfall unless we develop some major awareness about its insidious nature:

My basketball is flat = I need to buy (and thus individually own) a pump

As my dad Farris, Jr. would say "You are corr-WRONG!".  What I "needed" is to be a part of a community where "I" is instead "we" and "my" is instead "our".  Sure, everybody needs their own pair of shoes, but does every single person need their own treadmill?  Their own deep fryer?  Wet vac?  Quite possibly if you run every morning while frying chicken and often spill the oil everywhere and need to vacuum it up, but I don't know that person - do you?  Zipcar is making a killing off of a principle that we learned back in kindergarten.  Yep, sharing.  I think the more we share, the less we'll waste, and thus one step closer to what life is all about. 

Just let me know if you're in the area and want to save 30 minutes, $12, and a few miles on your tires... you can definitely borrow my pump!  Peace.