I'm With You, Boys

“I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.”
                                      - Mahatma Gandhi


“Don’t be too timid or squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.”
                                       - Ralph Waldo Emerson


       These two gentlemen put it rather well. In Clintology parlance, it’s living life in vivid technicolor, however that shows up according to the very unique and individual characteristics of your own Television Of Self. And it’s about taking risks, lots of them, as often as possible, and being with the joy, and the discomfort, and the unknowing, and the juice of those risks; learning and growing and expanding and transforming all the while.

Demon T

       Whilst meditating in a cave, a woman was visited by three of her oldest and most powerful demons. As her demons whirled and cavorted around her, taunting, chiding, and attempting to distract her, she kept on meditating. Annoyed because the woman was not reacting to them, her demons intensified their efforts, getting louder and more vicious; yelling and screaming and throwing all sorts of harmful words at her. Still, the woman would not engage them.
       When she was done meditating, she started a fire. The demons became enraged, throwing the worst they could muster at her. They howled horribly hurtful words, called her names, and threw venomously barbed insults. They dug up her most painful wounds. In horrid and vivid detail, they assaulted her with stories of her biggest and most consequential failures. The demons also began causing real physical chaos; tipping over chairs, spitting on the floor, and throwing her possessions all over the cave. Sill, the woman went about her business, not reacting. In fact, she put a tea kettle on the fire and began to boil water.
       Finally, exhausted and frustrated, the demons gave up. They asked her “What the fuck is going on? We are your greatest fears! Your deepest woes! Your worst nightmares! Why aren’t you reacting to us like you usually do?” The woman said, “Well, you’re here now. You’ve been here before. And you’re probably going to be around me the rest of my life. I thought it’s about time we should sit and have some tea together.”
       This week, I’m at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
       Can you tell?


©2013 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.

Update on Monday, July 29, 2013 at 4:31PM by Clint Piatelli

I thought this would have been clear, but apparently it was not: I didn't create this story. I just retold it, in my own words. It's an ancient Hindu, Buddhist, or otherwise enlightened philosophy's tale of making friends with your demons instead of trying to get rid of them or fighting with them.