Groovey Man

Life is suffering, the first Noble Truth. Ya that's right, he just brought in Buddhism. For those of you who don't know it let me tell the story...

Many many years ago, in a land that is now called India there was born a man. But wait, the story starts before that. Yes, this is the Buddhist bit of scripture, the chink in the armor, the weakness, the Achilles heel. It is the spot where everybody gets to doubt as much as they want. So do it, doubt, i encourage you to.

Why? Because you need to, if you accept what i say, or anyone says, without proof, then you might as well give all your money to someone else and leap off a cliff (i would appreciate being considered for the gift of your money, please make the check out to cash).

So anywho, back to before the first Buddha was born. There was a prophecy made to a king (it just isn't as cool without destiny and prophecy and such is it?) saying that his son would either be the greatest ruler/ king, or he would be a great spiritual leader/enlightened man. He would become the king if he never saw illness, age, and death.

So he was kept inside the palace where he never saw anyone old, anything die, or anything sick. Then, when he was around, oh say about 20 he ventured out into the world with a servant. There he saw an old man bent over with age, covered in wrinkles, etc (just imagine somebody 102). So he asked his servant "Why does that person look like that(or some variation of these words, i wasn't there, i don't know). The servant replied "he is old, everyone ages". The prince asked "even me?" and the servant said "yes, even you." And back they went to the palace.

Over the next little while the prince and his servant traveled out again and again, the next time seeing illness and the time after that, seeing death. So then, or sometime after depending on which story you listen to, he left the palace, determined to find a way to end the suffering of age, illness, and death (what would have happened had he succeeded, really think about that).

So he traveled for years, looking into all the religions the area had to offer, failing to find the answers he desired. He joined a group of aesthetics who believed that physical things caused the suffering, and by decreasing attachment to them we would decrease our suffering.

He fasted and eventually trained his body to survive on one grain of rice a day (can you see where this is going? hint for people who know their ancient Greek guys, golden mean). The human body can't live like that, so eventually he collapsed, and a young girl fed him from the bowl of rice (or something) she was carrying. All the others saw him eating and thought that he must have lost the way so they abandoned him(great friends eh?).

It was at this point that he realized the main point of his own philosophy, he had lived his life in exile and denial of suffering, and just now he had suffered by choice to the point where it had almost killed him. Neither of these ways lead to the end of suffering, just to different forms. So he sat in meditation, determined to find an end.

Apparently he mediated for 12 hours non-stop(which is fracking impressive if you have ever meditated). Then here is where it gets all mystically, demons came fourth and tried to temp him to stop and one called out who would remember even if he did find his answer, the response was the earth he was sitting on would remember(awesome way to shut a demon down). It was then that he got his answer.

Basically it goes change the things you can, don't worry about what you can't. Accept your lack of control and move on. There is nothing you can really control except your own actions, and even those you don't always control. So move on. The purpose is to try to reduce suffering, which goes to the title, good vibes. Its what i am now actively trying to do (at least in my workplace) which is amuse people so that they are happier, and in turn spread it out farther.

The other part is to ground out negativity like a lightning rod. Think about when someone is rude to you and you carry it forward to the next person you meet, instead ground it out, let it go, and give the next person you see a brighter smile. Help me spread the vibes! (and for the detailed story of the first Buddha go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha#Life )