Sauce and Game

Clusters

The voice of the guru

How did Yogananda speak? In such a way that his voice attracted a goat. But that is not all. He tells:

We used to have here at Mt. Washington a goat that was invariably attracted by my voice. One day, while I was speaking in this chapel, the goat came trotting in and right on up the aisle to me! . . . it simply liked to hear my voice. [Ak 23]

I find that sweet.

Speeches

Balaam and his talking donkey. 1252-70. Detail.

The Old Testament contains a story of a talking donkey. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the donkey behaves better than God's prophet, saves him from being killed by an angel with a sword, and talks to him upbraidingly,

"What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times? . . . Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day?" [Num 22:30, passim]

All of a sudden the donkey of the prophet Balaam (Bileam) could talk without previous learning and known instructions, and also knew much better than the prophet, says the Bible.-

❖ A talking, untaught donkey - but could it sing songs too? That would be even more marvellous . . .

Pancha Tantra fables were formed to help a coming king in dealing with difficult problems by knowledge of ways of the world. Animals in it are used to describe and typify common human problems to assist in realistic coping of quite lasting value, and they talk a lot [Pan 300 etc.].

Not careful, guarded and moderate most of the time, you can end up torn to pieces. "The great mass of the people . . . will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one," said Adolf Hitler [Dq].

Lodgings

There is an old European story about a king who went hunting. He lost his way in the wood, and visited a humble place to spend the night there. His courtiers were concerned about his prestige, and adviced against sleeping there. But one of them said,

"No, it is not the king that loses prestige by sleeping here, it is the place that gains it."

"That is a fine perspective," the king agreed, and entered the place for a good night's sleep.

❖ Chinese wisdom: "We cannot expect . . . a deaf man to listen to bells and drums."

Moderation

Diogenes (?412-323 BC) observed a child drinking from his cupped hands. At once he drew his goblet from his satchel and threw it away, saying,

"In the practice of moderation a child has become my master. (Alternative: But a child knows better than me.)"

Understanding

❖ "Blindness and deafness are not confined to the body alone - the understanding has them too." [Chinese wisdom].

❖ A former professor's advice to students in education: "If you have not laid your hands on the book yourself, better not to refer to it." It is different with Internet texts.

❖ By cultivating clarity within, some rise to abandon delusions. [see I Ching hexagram 30]

❖ In the biography of St. Theresa she comments Luther and his reformation with horror in one place, and uses ritually negative verbiage. She hardly practices the right sort of moderation well enough.

❖ Do not waste effort by being out of season.

❖ Conserve light if you can.

The life-long road to living in a villa

All-round happy living can be understood as great renunciation. (Avadhut Gita 4:21)

There is a long road from young disciple "Faye" to the monastic "sister Daya", next "Daya Mata" and finally "Sangha Mata" (mother of the community) - and as such she has only rarely been seen in the community, for in secret she lived in a villa for thirty years. And a convent nun is most likely not a biological mother, and hardly knows all of what it is about.

Jean-Jacque Rousseau said in the beginning line of his inspiring novel Emile: "Everything degenerates in the hands of men." [Dq]. Title modesty is hardly inappropriate in a wider and ink-saving perspective.

Go for health

Be healthily attuned to the natural affairs of things.

When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do. - Walt Disney

First go for benefits, then you have resources to see and help better.

Animation offers a medium of story telling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world . . . We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. [Walt Disney]

The figurative prowess (maya) within the human strives for balances that are savoury, and in the long run helps man as to survival, getting fitness and keeping his already "domesticated" balances. In the garb of nightly dreams some themes appear, and we can learn to interpret them.

Like many business partners, relatives can be friends out of bitter necessity [cf. Ap 503].

Solutions that blunt or starve man's inner Child (libido) cannot be good enough.

As you start to grow tall, like a tree, many animals can rest in your shade.

There are two or three recommended primers by Professor Haim Ginott on how to respond to vital matters to children and youngsters - and we are all children and youngsters deep within, hopefully. There are many vital matters to adults among vital matters to children. [Bpc; Bpt, Tch].

Adults are only kids grown up, anyway. [Walt Disney]

Literature  

Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1982.

Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main ed.), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Au: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 13th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1998.

Bpc: Ginott, Haim G. Between Parent and Child. Rev. and updated by Alice Ginott and H. Wallace Goddard. New York: Three Rivers, 2003.

Bpt: Ginott, Haim G. Between Parent and Teenager. New York: Avon, 1971.

Dq: Cohen, J. M., and M. J. Cohen. The New Penguin Dictionary of Quotations. Rev. ed. London: Viking, 1992.

Pan: Rajan, Chandra, tr. Visnu Sarma: The Panchatantra. London: Penguin Classics, 1995.

Tch: Ginott, Haim G. Teacher and Child: A Book for Parents and Teachers. New York: Avon, 1975.



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