“Human Control Is An Illusion”

Human control is an illusion.

Ouch! 

It kinda hurts to think that,

Doesn’t it?

But it’s true.

Human control is an illusion.

A moment’s thought should confirm it

To any but the thickest of numbskulls.

Why not admit it?

And having admitted it 

Why not leave that silly idea behind,

(Or as we zen practitioners say,

Unattach yourself from it)

And live on

In greater happiness

Without it?

Understand things as they truly are,

Realize the interconnectedness of everything,

Past present future,

Everything there ever was or ever will be.

Bringing us to this very moment.

That’s the zen of it!

And forget about 

Controlling anything

In this ever-changing world.

As painful a thought

As that may be.

 So don’t waste this valuable pain.

Make use of it!

Use your pain to help you think.

Use your thinking to gain some wisdom.

Use your wisdom to attain a little enlightenment.

Because enlightenment 

Makes it possible to endure living 

In this crazy,

Wonderful,

Uncontrollable world.

Never Get Off The Merry-Go-Round! (Pt 3)

They announced our flight for the third time.

“Time to go, Suzie,” I suggested.  

“Just now,” she answered. Which if you know a South African means in a second or a minute or an hour or a day. If ever. Suzie cared little for punctuality, that must be said, but somehow it only added to her charm. 

“Keep your flaps down, dahling,” she added with a laugh. “Or you’ll take off without the plane!”

“I’m just excited, I guess,” I said.

Excited and a bit afraid. America was a hugely daunting idea. Would we succeed? Could we find work as artists? 

Would we crack the big time?

(Whatever that was.) 

Yes! We had talent and an innate belief in ourselves… and we knew how to work hard. 

What else does one need?

Except of course the most important element of all;

Dumb Luck. 

Suzie was a haute couture clothing designer and, because designing clothing is sketchy income at best, she was also a travel agent. 

I was a film animator. My income as an animator could also be described as sketchy, but that would be exaggerating my income considerably. 

We’d been together a dozen years, through thick and thin as they say yet everything Suzie and I owned was packed into just three suitcases, and was stowed in the belly of a Boeing waiting at gate seven. 

Proving, I suppose, that it really is Art for Art’s sake in this material world. 

“Good luck, mate,” Nick said somberly as he gripped my hand. 

Nick was one of our oldest friends. He was the last to see us off, the others having drifted off or left by way of setting an example when they heard the public address blare out;

“Would Mr and Mrs Rusty Pliers PLEASE REPORT to gate seven IMMEDIATELY!”  

As he shook my hand Nick wore a serious expression, which gave his face an odd look. He wasn’t usually so grave. Looking at him, I was more than ever convinced he believed Suzie and I had made a horrible mistake and were doomed to failure in America. 

America, the hard place where we’d end up like every artist that ever was or ever will be ends up… to lie upon a filthy mattress in some slummy hovel, too weak from hunger to rise, and stare with bitter irony at the unrecognized masterpieces painted in my own blood hanging on the damp walls all around— and with my last painful breath receive the cruel enlightenment to reflect back upon my life and wonder; 

“Where did I go wrong?”

To be continued...

The Zen of Charles Chaplin

In the last scene of the Chaplin cinema masterpiece

The Great Dictator,

(Released in 1940 before the United States' entry into WWII)

The hero, a simple barber who is mistaken for a European fascist dictator,

Is led to the podium to speak to his adoring nation.

He is introduced as the next World Emperor!

His background audience of bootlickers 

And Nazi-style military men lean in,

Eagerly expecting to hear 

The usual bigoted warmongering nonsense.

We the audience know 

That he is not Hynkel, the fascist dictator,

But is in fact a Jewish peasant barber

Who happens to resemble the so-called great dictator.

Zen and circumstance have put the barber where he is.

Onscreen we see, 

Through Chaplin’s masterful acting,

The barber experience a zen moment. 

(And so, even decades later as I write this,

We who view it are able

To experience a zen moment.)

You can see enlightenment 

Come to the barber as he thinks;

Eons of karma, 

Trillions of years of human DNA,

The entire universe

Rushing outward into infinity!

Everything that ever was

Or ever will be,

All that has ever gone before…

Has led to this moment!

He is at one with the moment.

(Both as participant and as observer,

As we should endeavor to be.)

He knows it is time.

Time to speak truth to the mighty!

And attempt to inform

The uninformed

(Without being a jerk about it).

To offer hope to the doubting and downtrodden,

And to speak out against tyranny and evil,

By speaking to the human goodness 

Within us all.

An almost unimaginable opportunity for zen!

Standing in front of the microphones,

He is nervous but determined.

This is what he speaks.

(The Great Dictator © Roy Export SAS. All rights reserved. Used with permission.)

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost…. The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.
To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. .....
Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!
In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Charles Chaplin was an artistic genius!

On that we can all agree.

He changed cinema forever

With his inventive storytelling

And appealing characterizations.

He was world famous in the 1920s

In a way that is impossible to conceive of today.

His beloved character,

Known simply as The Little Tramp,

Did not utter a single word onscreen,

Yet enchanted millions upon millions of moviegoers.

Ah, but when he finally did speak

It was a whopper!

Wasn’t it?

Thank you Charlie!

I couldn’t begin to count

All the laughs, 

The thrills and spills and pathos,

As good as the best Greek tragedy

Or Shakespearian comedy,

That you so gracefully handed,

Possibly while wearing roller-skates

And twirling a cane,

Me and my zen.

And thank you Charlie,

For that incredible speech!

I hope to meet you,

Cosmically speaking,

Very soon.

If you'd care to see it, here is a link.

The Great Dictator Final Speech

Full Moon Zen

I saw some zen in the full moon last night.

Or rather say I saw some zen

In the moon’s reflection.

For I’d carefully placed a bucket

Half-filled with water

In a little clearing out back between the palm trees,

To catch the moon’s reflection

If it happened by this way.

Ha! Ha! So big and glorious an object

Caught in my old bucket!

I approached the bucket carefully,

Hoping to see the moon I’d caught.

How it gleamed in the dark water!

A perfect little moon.

I gazed into the bucket

And reflected upon the moon's reflection.

Then, emptying my mind,

I found some zen there.

After awhile I turned from gazing into the bucket

To look upon the real thing

Hanging in the sky overhead.

How it gleamed in the dark sky!

A perfect little moon.

Hmmm, I thought.

It’s wonderful to have a moon above us.

A friendly influence in high places.

A heavenly cameo shining brightly

To light our way in the night.

A moon to ponder upon and gain courage from.

To inspire both the lovesick

And the lunatics.

And the rest of us too.

(Although lovesick or lunatic

Probably covers everybody.)

Oh moon!

Forever flying the skies you make friendly,

Thank you for your zen.

Zesty Zen Monday

More offerings from 

Rusty's Zen Moments.

Wren Zen (pg. 44)

The gentle morning sunlight,

(For it gets pretty hot around here in the afternoons,

And is anything but gentle)

The gentle morning sunlight

Fell upon a female wren

As she perched upon a statue of Buddha

That resides in my garden.

How beautiful she is!

In her feathery mantle of rich camouflage.

From atop Buddha’s head she eyed the situation.

She has a sharp eye

To match her beak.

Spotting something of interest,

She flew away.

She had only paused a moment,

But there remained behind a wonderful residue of good zen.

I ask the same of you.

Not that you fly away.

Any fool knows that humans cannot fly unaided.

No, I ask that you pause for a moment,

And have a good look around

With a sharp eye

To see what’s what.

Because with zen,

One seeks enlightenment,

An understanding about things

That will make life bearable.

And you’ll never find enlightenment

Or anything else, 

With your eyes closed.

During the years they have lived in my garden,

This wren and her husband have reared many children together.

They work as a team and share the duties.

Building a home, finding sustenance, raising children.

Here in Florida with our light winters

They hatch a brood of up to three chicks,

Two or three times a year.

That’s a lot of wrens!

More than the red-tailed hawks, 

Who also like our Florida climate,

Can usually consume.

For they must feed their young ones too, yes?

Procreation!

Life and death!

Nature’s balance!

Zen at work.

With the passing of the years

I have watched this miracle

Many times.

Always with amazement.

It’s a Good Thing I’ve Got My Zen Along (pg.41)

What is the aim of life?

That’s a big question.

I don’t know exactly.

So it’s a good thing

I’ve got my zen along

To help me figure it out.

My Zen Loves a Laugh, Part 2 (pg. 60)

My zen’s got a great sense of humor.

It loves a laugh!

I’m glad of that,

Because who enjoys 

Being around a sourpuss?

Yes, my zen loves a laugh.

Especially at my expense.

But I don’t mind.

I can afford it,

Because it doesn’t cost a thing.

My zen is laughing at me all the time.

Laughing at me to remind me

How senseless it is

In this crazy world

To take things too seriously!

Ha! Ha!

Have you ever noticed how contagious laughter is?

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Oh boy! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Uh oh.

I think I just peed myself.

Words (pg.59)

The following is a list of words 

My zen and I wish we could do without.

1. No

Zen and the ISS (pg. 57)

My zen and I got up early this morning

To see the International Space Station fly past.

It being in low Earth orbit,

(That’s 249 miles above the equator,

Which doesn’t sound like low anything to me) 

You can see it with the naked eye

While standing in the street 

In front of my home in Florida.

As I understand it,

Sunlight strikes its giant array of solar panels,

(Which is bigger than a football field),

And the reflected light from these panels, 

Light composed of both particles and waves,

Is shot out into space

And caught by our upturned eyes

As we stand upon the earth.

Then by a further miraculous procedure,

Which I haven’t the time to explain,

From our eyes to our brain.

Thus, we witness the ISS.

Aha!

But only If you know when,

And where, 

To look.

That’s the zen of it!

Knowing how to look for the miracles 

That are happening around us

All the time!

You ask me how 

I happen to know when and where to look

For this particular miracle that is passing overhead?

You wanna know what makes me so clever?

Easy.

I have a smartphone app.

At the touch of a screen on my handheld device 

I am shown where the ISS is at any time.

This app also predicts within the minute 

When the ISS will pass over my current location.

(My current location supplied by another miracle, satellite GPS.)

It even has an alarm, this app, 

So that I might remember 

To go outside and look into the sky 

(At the right time and place)

To witness this scientific miracle.

So my zen and I got up early this morning

To see the International Space Station fly past.

After consulting my smartphone app,

I stood in the street in front of my house 

And looked up.

And, while waiting for the ISS to appear,

I experienced a zen moment.

Into my mind 

Sprang this thought…

Uncounted eons of karma, 

Trillions of years of human DNA,

The entire flow of the endless universe,

Everyone and everything that had ever gone before

Had lead to this exact moment!

(As it does,

Let us not forget,

To every moment!)

I was aware and in the moment.

Big stuff! 

Pure zen.

Oneness with all.

Enlightenment.

Buzz went the alarm on my smartphone.

So I emptied my mind of these marvelous thoughts,

And looked up into the heavens

Where the app told me to.

The ISS appeared out of the Earth’s shadow at 5:37AM

And passed directly over my house.

Or seemed to.

It only took a couple of minutes 

To cross the central Florida firmament from horizon to horizon.

It looked exactly like a bright, steadily moving star.

A beautiful star traversing the long sky with abiding purpose

And, miracle of miracles,

Carrying human beings!

It’s been circling the earth since 1998.

Traveling at a maximum speed of about 17,000 MPH.

Completing approximately 15 1/2 orbits per day.

That’s 16 sunrises and sunsets every day!

How marvelous to think that humans 

Have continually inhabited the ISS  

For almost 17 years.

What magnificent intelligence this feat represents!

Almost unimaginable zen!

What more evidence do we require 

That human beings are descended from the gods?

The gods who fell to Earth

From the skies above.

So why worry?

We’re as perfect 

As the gods 

Could make us.

Don’t let being human 

Hold you back!

Accept yourself completely 

For the miracle that you are!

And then become…

Unattached to that.