Sunday Sermon [Arguing With the Future]

¡Hola! Everybody...
If you’re ever in NYC, make sure you include The Museum of Sex as part of your itinerary. It’s a fascinating place and they always have great, thought-provoking exhibits. I took pictures during Halloween (I was a pirate and I went out with a wench), but I just found out yesterday that I lost my camera...

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-=[ Fear ]=-

Better to die once and for all, than to live in continual terror.
-- Aesop, (620-560 BCE), Aesop's Fables

I always remember a particular incident when I reflect on fear. I was visiting a friend and he had his five-year-old son bring me a glass of water. The kid loves the heck out of me and he was happy to do something that pleased me. His father, an intelligent and well-educated individual, filled a glass, gave it to his son, and instructed him to bring it to me. As the child was about ready to comply, his father warned him, “Make sure you don’t spill any of the water... ”

You know what happened right? No sooner that the father put the negative into the child’s head, he went and spilled a large amount of the water. I tried to explain to my friend later that in order to erase a negative the mind first has to entertain it. The only way to get rid of the negative is to think about it.

Don’t have recipient anal sex with Eddie!

See?

LOL!

I’ve been told that fear is having an argument with the future. If we would only remain mindful that the future is essentially uncertain, we would lessen our impulse to predict what could go wrong, and fear would end right there.

The other say, I was was reading something that reminded me of an episode from the old television series of the early 1970s, Kung Fu. I used to love watching that show, as that was about the same time I was introduced to the Buddhist martial art, Wing Chun.

Anyway, one episode clearly articulates the essence of fear. In this episode, the young apprentice, Grasshopper, as his blind teacher called him, was taken into a back room of the temple. In the room was an acid filled indoor pool about 20 feet wide. A narrow wooden plank served as a bridge from one side to another. The master warned the young apprentice to avoid the pool’s edge because he could fall in.

“In one week’s time,” The blind master told the Grasshopper, “you will be tested. You will have to walk across the pool of acid by balancing on the wooden plank. Be careful! Look at the bottom of the pool.”

The Grasshopper looked over the edge and saw many bones.

“They used to belong to young apprentices such as you,” the blind master informed.

Finally, the blind master too Grasshopper out of that dreadful room and into the sunlight of the courtyard. There, the other monks had erected a plank of the same measurements as the one over the acid pool, except it was raised on two bricks. For the next seven days, the apprentice’s only chore was to practice walking on that plank.

It was easy walking that plank in the courtyard. In a couple of days he could walk with perfect balance, eventually even doing it while blindfolded. Then the day of the test arrived.

The apprentice was led by his master into the room with the acid pool. Grasshopper could see the bones of the other apprentices who had fallen at the bottom of the pool. Grasshopper got up onto the end of the plank and then looked back at his master. “Walk!” the master commanded.

Now, truth be told, a plank over acid is a much narrower plank of the same size in a temple courtyard. Grasshopper began to walk, but his step was unsteady -- he began to sway. The more distance he covered, the more he wobbled and things looked bad for the young apprentice. As he continued, he lost more confidence and his balance faltered until amid a flurry of flapping of arms and a desperate cry for help... he fell in!

The old blind master laughed hysterically as Grasshopper splashed about in the pool. You see, the pool was filled with ordinary water, not acid. The old bones were thrown in as props to lend some authenticity. They had fooled Little Grasshopper, as they had fooled the TV viewers.

“What caused you to fall in?” asked the master once they had fished the young apprentice out of the pool. “Fear made you fall in, Little Grasshopper, only fear.”

Love,

Eddie