How Buddhism Killed My Ego
It was August 1997 and I was making myself sick. If you’ve ever been around me after feeding me milk chocolate, you know what I’m talking about. I get into a Cornholio-type babbling tirade where my mouth actually runs as fast as my mind. It doesn’t get out of control to the point of slap-upside-the-head-to-shut-you-up babble, but almost. When I’m in one of these moments, I will push the limits of anyone’s tolerance using absurd theories and non sequiturs while reciting lines from Tom Hanks movies that never made any money. These episodes last about an hour, and that’s when people usually decide that it’s safe enough to introduce me to their family and friends.
But in 1997, even after my mouth quit, my mind just kept running, tried to think about everything and tried to solve everything all at once. After graduating from college and starting my home business, I thought I shouldn’t be going “duh” anymore, that my theories should have already been proven or disproven, that my sequiturs should have partnered up with other sequiturs already. MY BABBLING NEEDED TO HAVE PURPOSE! In a moment of desperation and surrender, I closed my mouth and stopped talking, then my mind went “pfffttt…” and that red HAL 9000 light that represented my beliefs, my affirmations, my hopes, my direction, my gusto, went out. I collapsed on my bed and stared at the ceiling for six months. And then I got up and decided to vacuum.
While vacuuming, I saw Han Solo’s ship, the Millennium Falcon, shoot across my TV screen.
And this was on PBS?
Turns out it was the documentary The Power of Myth, with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. Turns out that George Lucas was a good friend of Joseph Campbell and much of the mythology of Star Wars was based on Joseph Campbell’s work. During the show, Joseph Campbell mentioned a guy named the Dalai Lama, and buddhism, and how Yoda and The Force was patterned after these two.
So I can geek out on Star Wars while learning some spirituality and metaphysics at the same time. In scrabble they call this a triple word bonus score.
(I gotta sleep now, but will continue this after after.)
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BTW…
– Two people have recommended that I allow comments on this site, so I’m doing it. If there isn’t a POST A COMMENT link at the bottom of this page, click on this blog’s title on the PREVIOUS POSTS column to the right of this page, and that page should have a comment link.
– I’ve decided to write a funny book about my experience as an immigrant’s son, from the time I stepped foot in America in 1974 to the present. The style will be similar to the stuff you read here, God help us all. It will be a short book, around 150-200 pages, and will hopefully help my parents pay for a hotel room at the Stardust Casino in Vegas for the rest of their lives. The working title is “The Big Mac and Coffee Sack Lunch and Other Stories”. If anyone has any title ideas, send them over. I’m working on other titles in case McDonalds wants to sue me.
Good day, gentle reader.