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Talk: 19840920-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-buddhas_ancient_med_path_a_modern_challenge_part_ii-1515 Leandra Tejedor Start_time: 01:27:43 Display_question: What is the balance between being goal oriented and just being? Keyword_search: energy, Buddha, India, striving, goal oriented, Russian, Buddhism, competition, love, inquiry, war, success, spiritual practice Question_content: Questioner: I guess in the last…a theme running through… you are providing of just being. Larry: Just being? Questioner: Yes. Larry: Right Questioner: You know I think for Americans we are goal orientated, and need to get permission. How do you balance that and… Larry: Yes Questioner: I’d love to hear you say… Larry: Okay Questioner: I always get so paralyzed when I hear that word Larry: Okay. Have you got about 10 hours? No, because I was, quite active in the achievement part… having gone to the university, quite a bit. Yeah. One thing that it's hard for us to understand, is that we think the only way we can have a lot of energy, is through competition, and conflict. In other words… friction. Unless there's something that we're trying to correct, or compensate for, or get ahead, or how's she doing, and that there won't be enough energy, to do anything worthwhile, we'll be siesta, just… under the tree and, just drinking. And we don't understand that there's tremendous energy that comes. It doesn't come out of achievement, striving, competition or any of that. It comes out of love. Break_line: Okay, now, for example, take the Buddha, as a very good example. The Buddha didn't work out of that angle. Let's hope he didn't. I mean, otherwise we're in big trouble. And he got a movement going. I mean, he spent 80 odd years of his life, walking on foot, from one end of India, back, and forth, and talking to anyone who would listen… from all castes, and got something going. It's still viable today, 2500 years. That takes energy. So, there was something a powerful, if you want to call it a revelation, that came through him, and was transmitted, and it's still going on. Where did that energy come from? In other words, it doesn't follow that if you don't strive, and become goal oriented, that you're going to become lazy. Break_line: Okay now, a practical hint… What if, let's play a game for the moment, and you're all welcome to play with me, but to me it's not a game anymore. What if it's true, as all these spiritual teachings promise, that at our core, we're perfect. Each one of us is…is a Buddha, without exception. No matter what our body looks like, no matter what our mind seems to be like, how racy it is, or if we're depressed, those are all… variations on the level of form. But at the core of our being, not only are we totally perfect, we're joyful, we're at peace. And not only that, we're all the same. There are no men, or women there, there's no upper class, lower class, black, white, Russians, and Americans. None of that. Okay, that's what they're saying. Certainly Buddhism is saying that. That there is a luminescent core to each one of us. And that once you make contact with it, there's a sense of well-being, which is independent of your circumstance. In other words, whether you get a reward, or you don't, whether someone says you're beautiful, or gives you a pay increase, or not, there’s a sense of well-being. It's intrinsic to the human state. Break_line: Now, what if we had faith, that that might be true, which perhaps we don't, because we're so skeptical, but what if we did? Then in a way, meditation would be just sitting down quietly, and seeing this insane mind, endlessly striving to get someplace, even though it's already there. And so, you…see, if you strive to not strive, it's still more striving, so that all you can do is bring…a sense of humor is tremendously helpful at this point, is to bring great care and attention, to the striving mind. And notice how the mind is always wanting something more than it seems to have, how it's always wanting to get somewhere else. This person is not good enough, this house is not good enough, there's somewhere, India is better, or that teacher is better, or some food is better. In other words, it's endlessly got new programs, for self enhancement. No sooner do we get them… and a little bit of time goes by, onto the next one. Break_line: Now so inquiry is very helpful. You start to see the cost that's being paid. I mean, tremendous psychic problems that people have, if it's a life of always striving, physical ailments, unhappiness, and in the extreme, war. I mean, war is an expression of us, of the fact of how unfulfilled, and violent we are. And it's expressed, in a small way, on an interpersonal level, and in a big way, it's called nations. So it's not that you can just turn a switch. I mean, I don't have a formula for you, but in my own case, I mean, I still have some. But the degree to which it's fallen away had a lot to do with, first of all, seeing the limitations of it. I became disillusioned with conventional success. In other words, to me, success was nothing… necessarily… do you know, whether it's money, prestige, it had to become really empty. That was very helpful. It was very depressing because I worked so hard to get these, what turned out to be illusions. And then it turned out I was just who I always was. Just me, with a bunch of bubbles over my head. In other words, what I imagined myself to be. Break_line: And then the other thing that helps, with the first part, is seeing the limits of striving. And the other part, is learning, that in a sense, that the best technique, is not a technique, but just being with your own striving, and seeing it, and it starts to get weaker. Now, it doesn't result in less energy, or less decisiveness, but probably you have a fantasy somewhere that, my God, if I don't strive, I'll just be nothing. I'll be completely passive, and indolent, and I'll be on the dole…you know… tomorrow. And that's because we've been brought up that way. Okay, you may need a spiritual practice…that there are some spiritual practices that is something for everyone in America. That's one of the great things about this country. End_time: 01:33:35
