The list of bad names

In my many years writing on internet lists, I have found many folks who claim
some attainment. I have found many people who make great claims to have
reached a state where they are "one with everything", yet they seem to be
seperate from anything negative, or with a negative connotation. They are one
with sobriety, but seperate from a alchoholic, one with wisdom, but seperate
from the mentally ill. They are one with the pure, but seperate from the
defiled. I ask you how you can be one with everything, but seperate from any
of these adjectives on this list? If you cannot claim all these adjectives,
your claim to oneness is just another lie, both to yourself, and to anyone
else you make the claim to. Zen is not about pretending, if you are one with
everything, you are one with all these too. If you see yourself as seperate
from that conservative Christian who turned you off, your claims to
attainment are a lie. If you see yourself as seperate from the child abusing
priest, your claims are a lie. If you see yourself as seperate from the
facist, the dirty, the smelly , the liar or the cheat, you claims are also
just another lie.

There is a old Zen story, about a women who husband is ill, and she sees a
priest walking by, she runs up and asks the priest if he can recite a sutra
for her husband, the preist says he will, then the women asks "well, how can
I know if it will benefit my husband?" The priest assures the woman that a
proclamation of the dharma benefits all beings. The woman thinks for a
moment...."all beings? Would that include my neighbor?" The priest nods in
affirmation. The lady replies "can you say the sutra for all beings, execept
my neighbor?" We all want to include in our oneness only all the things we
like but exclude the asshole who lives next door. It is easy to love all
beings in general, but hard to love the person who cuts us off in traffic. We
all want to believe everthing includes gourmet food, and does not include
shit. That zen is something we have on a cushion, but do not need in the
bathroom.We all want to think that picking tea leaves on a sunny afternoon is
zen, but slopping shit from the septic tank on your pants as you carry it
down the hill in a bucket is not zen. But hey...everything includes
everything, not just the good stuff. This is what happens when things you
think meet the real world. If you cannot react the same to the shit on your
pants, as you do to the tea leaves in your basket, you have no real
enlightenment. The enlightenment you think you have is only in your mind. It
is not real.

If you have a problem applying any adjective to yourself, any claims to be one
with everything are a lie. This is why poking someone who makes the claim
they are one with everything (attained enlightenment) is such a good
exercise, their actions tell you whether they lie or not. It is not just that
they get angry, being one with anger is also necessary. It is when they deny
they are one with something, or someone, that the lie is exposed. It is when
they try and say the are one with everything, but seperate from that bitter,
arrogant, asshole who doesn't know shit from shoe polish, that the lie is
exposed. It is when they stand up and yell that they are not mentally ill,
that the lie is exposed, or when they whine like a wounded dog when they are
poked, that the lie is exposed, but even then, I am not seperate from them,
neither are you.

I have worked for years in the mental health field, and worked with the most
difficult and violent of clients. I have been called every name in the book.
(all these on the list and many more I cannot even remember)..of course you
can call a person any name in the book, and If he agrees he is not seperate
from the name, it will not affect him at all .....he already agrees with you.
If you call a person who makes a claim a name, and they react as if they were
knifed in the gut, the claim to some attainment is false, because in the real
world where things really count, they fail to demonstrate oneness. So go
ahead, call me any adjective you want, just do not think that your label
changes anything anywhere but in your mind., and I would suggest, that for
your own mental health, and your own enlightenment, you be very careful what
and how you change things in your mind.

To those of you who might be concerned for the my state of being, yes indeed I
do think these adjectives apply to me, of course, I think they apply to you
as well. I also think all the other "good" adjectives that you are willing to
accept apply as well, I do not think either you nor I is seperate from any
one of them, although I must admit, there are times I like to pretend the bad
ones do not apply to me as well.

I do see myself as not seperate from the deluded, the confused, the beginner,
or the lost. This is why I am on this list.

I am perfectly happy to own any adjective anyone can come up with.

And now I am off the the monastery. See you again in a few days.

Be Well

Fudo the Closed minded, defensive, smug, ego-ridden
down right angry,Fakir,faker,fool,asshole,idiot, con man,
liar,thief, apostate, heretic, mother fucker, father
raper, murderer, masterbater, moron, drunk, ego
maniac,child molestor, priest, gay, nutless, pussy,
coward, criminal, fraud, lazy, immature, loser, nut,
whacko, loony, liberal, lusty, dominating, fruity,
lesbo, dyke, gonadless, chicken, emasculating, unkind
, rude, crude, stinking, stuck up, sinister, slimy,
insecure, low down, smelly, gutter crawling, lecher,
pig, glutton, whiny, whore, wino, wicked, glib,
weirdo, crazy, cruel, crack pot,insincere,
twit,obstinant , stubborn, son of a bitch,
etc..etc...etc.."

And let's add arrogant, ignorant and bitter