March 3, 2009
Meditation without failure
By Ron Grubaugh
I am proud to introduce a breakthrough in personal consciousness that will put “The Secret” to shame.
I have applied this method to the game of canasta, and I have NEVER lost at canasta, not once in my entire life. By the same method you can avoid losing money in the stock market, never experience rejection by the “opposite” sex and even escape the experience of being nervous when speaking in front of a crowd, GUARANTEED!
So what is this fantastic method for never losing at canasta? Are you ready?
DON’T PLAY CANASTA!
Just think about it. If you don’t play canasta you will never ever lose at canasta. If you don’t invest in stocks you will never lose money in the stock market.
The potential of this method to avoid every possible form of disappointment is simply staggering! Speaking of disappointment, let’s look at how we can take this to the “next level.” Why waste time on these trivial frustrations when the source of all disappointment is staring you right in the face. The only reason that you have ever been disappointed is because you wanted something. If you don’t want anything then you won’t be disappointed. And what is unhappiness except an extended series of disappointments? All you need to do is stop wanting things and you will be free from unhappiness forever.
“But isn’t that wanting something,” you ask, “wanting to be free from unhappiness?”
Why do people keep trying to throw a wrench in the works? Here you try to offer people a perfectly good theory and they insist upon sabotaging it.
Admittedly, if you want to be nit-picky, there’s this logical error called “affirming the consequent.” Just because disappointment depends upon wanting something, “they” say, that it does not “necessarily follow” that wanting leads to disappointment. Bunch of Pollyannas if you ask me.
Then there’s that little matter of motivation being involuntary. Just because wanting is a part of your nature, and for that reason, something that you cannot do anything about, doesn’t mean that IF you COULD stop wanting you would be free from unhappiness. So the theory has a few problems. So what? Lots of good theories have a “few” problems.
As if the naysayers were not enough there are others that insist this is not even my idea. They attribute it to some bozo named Guantanamo Boo Duh. But this isn’t what he meant.
There’s either been a mistranslation or some misunderstanding or maybe even he didn’t know what he meant. He was talking about ATTACHMENT, that condition of being completely unwilling to take ‘no’ for an answer, the determination to take over the universe in the interest of your desire; greed, impatience, perfectionism, stuff like that.
True, if you did find some way to avoid those behaviors you would probably feel a lot better (good luck with that by the way). But those are only contingent expressions of desire. If you’re going to go around desiring things at all you still risk suffering the intolerable experience of disappointment.
My strategy is better. Just avoid desire entirely and be problem-free for the rest of your life.
Comments on Meditation without failure »
Ron, this is mind-blowing. I am so disappointed in myself, why didn't I think of this strategy first?
Agree
I did a talk the other week about "Getting to the end of the spiritual path."
The gist of it is simple: GET OFF THE PATH
More specifically, once you notice that the idea that a path actually exists is fiction (how to do that was the meat of the talk), once you stop playing the game by getting off the game board, you might discover — NOW — the benefits you thought you would get if you ever got to the end.
So, how do you avoid desire entirely, if it is involuntary to "want"? I couldn't follow the logic of your argument if it was meant to be serious. maybe you are spoofing?
Hi anna,
Yes this is a parody.
But I do not want anyone to think I am parodying Buddhism.
Something so absurd MUST be a misunderstanding of Buddhism.
Ron
You know Ron, although it is a parody it still works on a couple of levels–I love these absurdly firm logical assertions, great starting points for spinning off into complete nonsense.
Ron, a pre-requisite to your strategy would be to understand the "emptiness (no-self)" in the object of desire, in yourself and the consciousness/feeling of the desire itself before you can relinquish the attachment.
Otherwise, the illusion of self persists, thus the attachment will only be controlled and not truly eliminated.
If you're the Ron Grubaugh I went to high school with, I'd very much like to hear from you.
Yes, I most certainly am. It is fascinating that you would run across my name here. I guess the internet has made a small world even smaller.
Ron G.
I have to say, you had me going until paragragh 10. Very funny!
Ahahahahahahahah! (-D
It sounds ro me a little like the singer who's record title was "Ido not want what I cannot have"