You can be the next Tiger Woods, guaranteed!
WARNING: This will be an unusually short post for me 
I already talked about this particular issue, so I don’t need to rehash it. But I ran across the PERFECT example of it, so I had to bring it up again.
So… There’s a new movie called Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint directed by a big-deal Tibetan Buddhist (who was actually born in Bhutan), named Netan Chockling Rinpoche.
(By the way, I’m not trying to be facetious when I say “big-deal”… he is an well known and respected teacher/practioner.)
In an interview that appeared in my local newspaper, Rinpoche described the story:
Milarepa’s mother was so tempted by revenge that she sent her son to sorcery school so he could punish his greedy aunt and uncle by conjuring up an epic storm that flattened their village.
Later, though:
Milarepa lears that revenge isn’t the answer and becomes one of the great sages of Tibetan Buddhism.
Now, here’s the fun part. Get ready:
“Milarepa is really a normal guy — nothing special,” Rinpoche says. “If he can do it [become a Saint], anybody can do it.”
Okay, hit the pause button.
He’s a normal guy?
Hel-lo-o?
When’s the last time you developed the skill to create a storm out of thin air, point it an a village, and turn it into something that looks like the floor of Spring Break bar at 5:00 am?
In fact, in the Tibetan tradition Milarepa is not just a conjurer, but one of the GREATEST conjurers. He isn’t just a murderer, but a… well, if one wants to murder and is successful at that mission, does that make them a GREAT murderer?
Does that sound like a “normal guy” to you?
When someone gives us one of these Horatio-Alger-pull-yourself-up-from-the-gutter-anyone-can-be-president-(or-enlightened) stories. We just nod our heads like bobble-head dolls. We love these stories. They confirm our greatest hopes. They play right into our desire to ensure our happiness by controlling the the universe in some way.
But come on. Seriously. If someone said, “Tiger Woods was just a kid with parents; if he could become one of the greatest golfers of all time, so can you!” or “Really, Bill Gates dropped out of college; if he can become the richest man in the world, so can you!” or “George Bush… he was a C student, alcoholic, coke snorting…” okay well maybe that’s not a good example. But you get my point.
You wouldn’t use thes rare examples as proof that YOU can be that… they’re RARE… that’s WHY we find them fascinating! They’re proof that humans can do amazing things sometimes, but not that YOU can do it simply because it’s possible.
Tiger Woods can’t run a 4-minute mile. Bill Gates can’t stack cups in a 3-6-3 6-6 1-10-1 speed stack set in 7.5 seconds (http://speedstacks.com/videos.htm if you don’t know what I’m talking about… I LOVE this “sport”). George Bush can’t… again, I’m not going there.
I don’t know about you, but when I hear the Milarepa story and tilt my head with a curious, Hmmmm… I no longer think I can imitate Milarepa. I see that he’s a, well, let’s just say he’s unique.
But so am I and so is everyone else. I don’t have a clue where my “path” will lead and, frankly, I don’t much care since I don’t really believe in paths.
But I have a hunch it’ll be a better ride if I’m not thinking Milarepa is an example of how mine will/could/should be and comparing what I imagine my life to be to what I imagine his life to have been.
Off to make sure it doesn’t rain on me while I’m in the hot tub…
Tags: spirituality, spiritual growth, gurus
September 20th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
dear steven,
you are a riot! i love the way you write, and bow to your honesty.
but that doesnot stop me from having my own thoughts…
here they are, and i preserve my right to be wrong:
i do feel that we - each one of us humans - have the potential (i mean POTENTIAL)to be great. we need to acknowledge that.
and i agree with you that the WAY it is bandied - this ‘potential’ thing - in the self-improvement world, is wrong: it creates pressure; makes us feel small/wrong/lazy/ignorant… ‘if we can’t find/manifest it’; it suggests that greatness is in terms of achievement or world-impact, rather than simple uniqueness.
the reason i use ‘greatness’ as a word is BECAUSE of this myth becoming world reality. that myth has people searching ways to be seen and acclaimed as ‘great’ - moving away from their own nature - which is what makes them ’small’.
a rose trying to be a daisy is ’small’ (because thats what it feels about itself). a rose becomes great when it ‘allows’ its roseness to emerge.
we may not, everyONE of us, be here to DO great things visible in the world. impacting one life also makes us great, if that is our ‘rose-ness’.
so, it is not the concept (that each one of us is unique, and great in that sense) that is wrong. but it’s propoganda and understanding (which actually hinders the greatness, rather than helping it)
do i make sense? (not necessarily a sense that makes you nod your head… yet, a clear illusion, if you will.
…)