A Matter of Credibility

A poor man visited the well-to-do Judge and Mayor of their village, and asked to borrow the Mayor's donkey. The Mayor frowned.

"I'm so sorry," said the Mayor. "I've loaned my donkey to my nephew Thomas."

Just then the donkey, out behind the house, brayed loudly, and the poor man looked up.

"But I hear the donkey outside!" he said.

"Who are you going to believe?" asked the Mayor. "Me, or my donkey?"

That Which Drives the World

Japan, Long Ago: One of the younger monks climbed up the mountain for two days, and when he was admitted to the presence of the master, he asked, "O Master, please tell me, what is Fate?"

The master contemplated for a time, and then said, "It is that which gives meaning to the Beasts of Burden. It is that which Man must bear upon his back. It is that which drives the urgency of the cities and causes men to build roads and highways, and upon them inns and roadhouses."

The young monk thought a minute and said, "Oh. So that is Fate." The master looked up, startled.

"Fate? Fate did you say?" said the master. "I'm sorry. I thought you said Freight."

"Oh?" said the young monk. "Well, I wanted to know what Freight was, too."

How to Get a Girlfriend (or a Boyfriend)

Midwestern University, Wichita Falls, Texas, 1970: As a teen and a young adult, for years and years (and years and years) I was very clumsy when it came to women, and having returned to college at age 26 I decided that this really ought to be something that I could learn.

So I thought about it, and thought about it, and had a brainstorm!, and developed a method, and it worked for me. (I realize this is starting to sound like an infomercial, but it isn't! I promise I'll tell you how to get a girlfriend if you could use some help.)

I told some friends about my marvy new method, and several tried it, and it worked for them, too. Seems to work for guys wanting girlfriends; seems to work for women wanting boyfriends; probably works for other combinations too.

So after refining it over several years, I wrote it all down. I once thought I might publish it, but later I decided just to sell it very cheaply on EBay, in hopes that some other guys won't have to go through being awkward as I was.

This surprisingly-effective method is written up like a report -- very easy to read -- and along with two more handy ebooks as bonus material, you can get this method online with direct immediate download. For lots more information about what's in it, and how it works, and details about our TWO money-back guarantees, see our infopage at --

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The Monk Speaks

Tibet, Long Ago: There once was a monastery where the monks were not allowed to speak at all, except that every five years, if he wished to do so, each monk was permitted to speak two words. And so it was that, after his five years, the newest monk went to see the head monk.

"Very well," said the head monk. "What are the two words you'd like to speak?"

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Being Serious

I am reminded of a story. This monk, call him Joshu, always had difficulty being serious like a monk is supposed to be. And so every morning he would wake up and say to himself, "Joshu! Today ... be serious!"

And then he would answer, "Yes, sir! Yes, sir!"

Shedding Light on the Subject

Japan, Long Ago: The blind monk had spent the day visiting with a venerable master, high up in the mountains, and now the day was drawing to a close. The venerable master fetched the visitor's staff and his cloak, and said, "Wait! I have prepared a lantern for your trip down the path."

The blind monk laughed, saying, "Day and Night are alike to me. I do not need a lantern."

But the master persisted, saying, "It is not for you. Your feet are sure. It is for the protection of other travelers in the dark, that they might see your lantern and not bump into you."

"Oh," said the blind monk. "How thoughtful. Very well."

And holding the lantern on the end of his staff, he strode off into the night.

All went well for the first half of his journey.

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Basic Buddhism

India, Long Ago: Gautama Siddhartha sat beneath the Bo tree, and stubbornly refused to rise until he'd reached enlightenment. (He'd tried many other things in that past.) One day, he reached enlightenment. The enlightenment he attained permitted him to express the basic problem of living in Four Observations:

1) Our experience of living often consists of suffering. For example, we experience suffering from losses, illness, hunger, and death.

2) The suffering comes from our insistent mental reaction against the "bad" thing. That is, we insistently desire to have a thing that was lost, and so we experience suffering. (As an example, you throw away a piece of paper and it is lost but you do not suffer. But you lose the deed to your home and you insistently desire that the situation be different, and you suffer. But if you give away the deed to your home to your child, then you do not suffer.) The suffering comes from the "grasping desire" for the thing lost.

3) To eliminate suffering, eliminate the grasping desire.

4) To eliminate the grasping desire, follow eight important rules. In these rules (called the Eight-fold Path) are proscriptions against the things that often result in unhappiness (such as killing other folks), and prescriptions to engage in practices such as meditation, to learn to still the mind (and thus still grasping desire).

Get it? (Got it.) Good!

Bishop Nippo Syaku

San Francisco, 1975: I saw the flimsy poster, but it was quaint rather than crude. Bishop Nippo Syaku would give some short talks about Zen.

In the rawboned Victorian near Filmore street, poor lighting made the room seem drab, but Bishop Nippo lit up the place. The Bishop was a round-faced, cheerful fellow, very chipper he was. He spoke often of the nature of things.

"We say, 'Oh the flower is pretty!'" He beamed, "But flower does not care!"

On this evening, he spoke of how the True Buddhist is without fear. This amazed me, and made me ponder. I raised my hand.

"Yes?"

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Doing for Oneself

Moishe is driving in Jerusalem. He's late for a meeting. He's looking for a parking space, and can't find one. In desperation, he turns towards Heaven and says, "God, if you find me a parking space, I promise that I'll eat only Kosher, respect the Sabbath, and all the Holidays."

Miraculously, a parking spot opens up just in front of him.

He turns his face up to heaven and says, "Never mind, I just found one."

Who Goes There?

Two monks argued about the temple flag waving in the wind. One said, "The flag moves."

The other said, "The wind moves."

They argued back and forth but could not agree.

Hui-neng, the sixth Patriarch, said: "Gentlemen! It is not the flag that moves. It is not the wind that moves. It is your mind that moves."

Law 23 regarding Being, Doing, and Having

This is a simple law of nature, but one which is very handy:

Doingness Goals can produce more Happiness than Beingness or Havingness Goals.

That's it. In the physical universe, one must Be something, in order to Do something, with the result that one will Have something.

For example:

One chooses to be a surgeon, so one can do surgery, and then one will have the respect, money, and lifestyle of a surgeon.

One chooses to be a ditch-digger, so one can do the labor of digging ditches, and then one will have the muscles, money, and workday of a ditch-digger.

One chooses to be a car salesman, so one can do the selling of cars, and then one will have the wardrobe, commissions, and lifestyle of a car salesman.

Can you imagine somebody being a ditch-digger, so that he can do the selling of cars, so that he will then have the respect, money, and lifestyle of a surgeon?

Nope. Because it just doesn't work that way.

And this knowledge leads us to something very, very useful ...

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Law 23 of Human Perception

This is a simple law of nature, but one which is very handy:

A human tends to see what the human expects to see.

That's it. It's just the way we put things together in our minds. If there is a gray cat in your neighborhood named JoeBob and you see a gray cat, you're extremely likely to think it is JoeBob, even it is some other cat altogether.

If your Aunt Mabelline always scowls when she sees you, when you visit and she opens the door -- even if she has a perfectly blank expression because she's having a deja vu about a long-forgotten lover, or maybe her underwear itches -- you'll probably see a scowl on her face.

Because you expected to see something, you 'Interpreted' your senses, and you saw it.

Once I had to give up a really cool business name because of this law.

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One's True Nature

The snake begged the frog for a ride across the stream.

The frog expressed fear, but the snake reassured him, pointing out that should the snake bite the frog then both would die.

The frog agreed. And mid-stream, the snake bit the frog.

"Why did you do that?" asked the frog, "Now we'll both die." The snake just smiled.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but I'm a snake."

Law 23 of Conspiracy Theories

This is a simple law of nature, but one which is very handy:

Humans in groups are generally clumsy, and damn few humans are skillful enough to actually create a Conspiracy.

That's it. The vast majority of things that go wrong are doing so because humans can not work together, and not because some skillful group of humans is both effective and secret.

For example, let's say that I'm concerned about global warming, and about fossel fuels, and about the gubbamint.

Does this mean that I decide to give up driving my Ford Focus grandly about the town?

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Law 23 of Roommates and Dishes

This is a simple law of nature, but one which is very handy:

Each roommate knows that he does more than half the dishes.

That's it. Just that simple. It's a law of human nature, as dependable as gravity, and it's caused by the way we see things.

For example ...

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