Selfishness is "Heaven and Hell"

I once heard a story about a visit to heaven and hell. In both places the visitor saw many people seated at a table on which many delicious foods were laid out. In both places chopsticks over a meter long were tied to their right hands, while their left hands were tied to their chairs. In hell, however much they stretched out their arms, the chopsticks were too long for them to get food into their mouths. They grew impatient and got their hands and chopsticks tangled with one another's. The delicacies were scattered here and there. In heaven, on the other hand, people happily used the long chopsticks to pick out someone else's favorite food and feed it to him, and in turn they were being fed by others. They all enjoyed their meal in harmony.

--Shundo Aoyama Roshi

James: Now I don't believe in a physical, separate "Hell" or "Heaven" from the ones that we create and live in right here, right now. However, I agree with this parable in the sense that it points out the problems that come from being selfish, dualistic and trying to fight the Universal Law of inter-dependency and co-arising.

When we try to go it alone then we will always suffer sooner or later but when we work together we all grow, benefit and reduce our collective suffering. This all reminds me of the story of the monkey and the orange:

Apparently there is a trick to catching monkeys. You find a tree with a hole in it and put and orange in the tiny, tight hole. Then wait until the monkey arrives at the tree to take the orange. According to the story the monkey will hold onto the orange which prevents him from freeing himself from the hole in the tree because he is so greedy and thus you can come up and grab him without much fighting. I remember reading from Dr. David R. Hawkins (who's books are fantastic by the way) that the ego is so selfish and deluded that it will is willing to let the body die in order to get what it wants--such as drug addictions.

May we all always remember that liberation and true freedom comes from remembering our interconnectedness and striving for the good of all. If we only look after ourselves then we are sowing the seeds to our own destruction because as Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me (Matthew 25, verses 31-40 in the Christian Bible). So in other words when we hurt others we are hurting ourselves. In not caring about the environment or thinking that animals are not our equals we kill ourselves because as the animals, plants, fish insects, etc. go--so goes man.

PHOTO: The Dalai Lama in profile.

~Peace to all beings~