In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Car Blew a Gasket ...

... but I am happy to report that we (Richard, Dachog and I) did not.

It was a live example of the teaching in How to Solve Your Human Problems about inner and outer problems.:
"Our problems do not exist outside our mind. The real nature of our problems is our unpleasant feelings, which are part of our mind.  When our car, for example, has a problem, we often say, 'I have a problem,' but in reality it is not our problem but the car's problem. ... By differentiating between animate and inanimate problems like this, we can understand that the real nature of our problems is our own feelings, which are part of our mind."

I remember the first time I heard this teaching, at Summer Festival. It was brilliant! So wise!
One Teacher told us it's as if we don't have enough problems of our own - we feel obligated to take on all the problems of the things around us : )
More recently Gen-la Dekyong went on to explain that our problem is our attachment to our car, having a car that runs.

Here's the story, a few days old (as I said yesterday, I'm a bit behind):
Thursday we were driving out to Eastern Washington to spend Xmas with Richard's sister Susie when Richard noticed the car's temp was very high. I am so glad he stopped in Cle Elum to have it checked out. Both the Shell station and the mechanic they referred us to diagnosed a blown head gasket. Neither of them charged us. [You can insert your own car-ma pun here. One of my friends in college wore a pin that said, "My karma ran over my dogma."]
The word "blown" is misleading - it's not like a blown tire, which makes it hard to control the car and can be very dangerous. We didn't notice any particular event, just the temperature indicator, and the car still functions, although it's potentially dangerous.
I remember trying to find the problem - my mind habituated to thinking that a broken-down car was a problem - but mostly I kept thinking, "We're safe; we're safe." We weren't in an accident. No one's injured or sick. We're with each other. We have food. The sun is out. I did have to apply a bit of patience waiting for the towtruck, which took an hour, as we were warned it would.
The Buddhas were looking out for us - we could have been stranded by the side of the road, in a place where there's no cell-phone reception, in the cold and snow ....
Also there were recently a few pieces in the local paper about high towing fees in Seattle. In fact, there's no limit to what they can charge, and stories about $2,000 fees for towing within the city. Our charge came to $300 for 90 miles, and we did not have towing on our insurance or the Gold AAA membership.


Just for fun: This is what Richard posted on Facebook. He rode inside the car with the dog, on top of the towtruck; Dachog and I rode inside the cab of the truck with the driver. Richard said his experience was like being in a sleigh. Then we talked about the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, picturing him in his sleigh, on top of the big bag of all the presents he'd stolen from Whoville.




Rudolph the red-strobed wrecker
Hauled a lot of heavy loads
And if you ever saw him
You would even say he towed.

All of the other tow trucks
Wanted him to come and play
They couldn't see why Rudolph
Had to work for Triple A.

Then one sunny solstice day
Santa called to say
"Rudolph with your big flatbed
Won't you tow away my sled?"

Then all the wreckers loved him
As they shouted with a smile
"Rudolph the red strobed wrecker
You can net three bucks a mile!"

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