a funny

[chelidon]

This one posted by christeos_pir:

A monk once asked Chao Chou, "Master, please tell me how to meditate, that I might attain Enlightenment."

Chao Chou replied, "First, I need to take a leak. Would you mind doing that for me?"


A few posts previous, those who are so inclined will find a filk titled "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Thelemites"

Ya made my day, man. Thankfully, that was only water that came out my nose (both times).

Comments

[ravenedgewalker.livejournal.com]

The filk has much cheered my morning. good thing I'd finished my tea before finding this!

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Well, good, I'm glad for any cheering I could do! And yeah, tea out the nose is no fun at all, I recommend avoiding it ;>

[rainysummerday.livejournal.com]

I love it, this topic came up in conversation a while back, (in the context of the frustration of being in relationship with someone(s) who aren't on a path of change/growth/healing/intentional consiousness). No matter how much you may want to help or feel a loving responsibility to prompt someone along the way, you can't do another's Work for them. As D-fly says, "you can't pee for someone else".

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Ah-yup. Bullseye. It's hard watching someone beat their head against a wall over and over again, but beyond telling them, "'scuse, did you know you're beating your head against a wall?" there's often not much you can do. It's amazing how hard some folks will lash out in order to avoid actually changing their familiar entrenched dysfunctional patterns. First lesson they teach lifeguards is don't let a drowning person pull you under, and that applies in all kinds of realms.

As a teacher in a non-dogmatic tradition (where you can't just point to a book, and say "live this way or you're damned"), that's a difficult but essential skillset to polish -- how to facilitate others into finding their own way, trying not to take overmuch responsibility for anyone else, and still actually help other people's own progress. One of my spiritual mentors has a wonderful and wicked phrase she uses with her students that I find I've wholeheartedly adopted: "let's see how that works for you, then." I find the hardest part is not letting my inner cringe immediately and obviously show on those occasions when someone tells me, with happy enthusiasm, about some course of action that looks clearly to be leading them right over the edge of a cliff. Beyond the gentle questioning one can do, and, rarely, even the direct advice not to do something, there's not that much one can do. Beyond a certain point, it becomes a matter of "well, I suppose that's a part of their life-lesson this time around." Of course, lest I give the wrong impression, I've done plenty of cliff-diving of my own, some successful, and others...not so much ;>

[lylythe-strega.livejournal.com]

"Scuse, did you know you're diving off a cliff? There's no water down there, y'know..."

;> It is hard to watch. From one diver to another.

(*sigh*) "Hi everyone...my name is Lylythe, and I dive off of cliffs while beating my head against a wall!"

"HI, LYL!"

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

*lol* "I just have to not dive....today."