Augustus Finds Serenity by Short Stop Press an Imprint of A&A Book Publishing

“A profound parable for our times”. Dexter Dunphy AM, Visiting Professor, University of Technology, Sydney

Augustus finds

Serenity Musings and Meditations for Life

T ED S COTT

Following a long and successful career in Queensland’s electricity industry during which he was recognised by the Australian Financial Review’s Boss magazine as one of the country’s top business leaders, author Ted Scott is now an eminent executive coach and speaker on management practice. Buddhist writings and practice have provided models for his coaching methodology and the inspiration behind the parables that make up Augustus Finds Serenity.

Serenity

About the Author

finds

“This book is a profound parable for our times. Read it slowly and reflectively for it addresses our human condition with wisdom and grace. Reading the book requires little effort because of the story form; understanding emerges from the interplay of the characters who take us with them on a compellingandenlighteningjourney”. Dexter Dunphy AM, Visiting Professor, University of Technology, Sydney

Augustus

“Henry David Thoreau once said, ‘For every thousand hacking at the leaves of a problem, there is one getting at the roots’. For those readers who are interested in getting to the roots of life's psychosocial problems, this excellent little book will take them on a journey, through the medium of parable and story, into a land of understanding that goes beyond trite advice. The surprising thing perhaps, is that with this kind of medium, the solutions are not given directly but arise from within one's own subconscious through the natural heartfelt response elicited whenonegetsthepointofthestory”. Dr Phil Harker, Psychologist

Non-fiction/Lifestyle Companion

ISBN 978-0-9805055-0-4

T ED S COTT 9 780980 505504

“A profound parable for our times”. Dexter Dunphy AM, Visiting Professor, University of Technology, Sydney

Augustus finds

Serenity Musings and Meditations for Life

T ED S COTT

Serenity

About the Author

finds

Augustus

Non-fiction/Lifestyle Companion

ISBN 978-0-9805055-0-4

T ED S COTT 9 780980 505504

Ted Scott holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. He was awarded an Order of Australia in the General Division in 2004 for his contribution to industry. Ted is the co-author of the books Humanity at Work and The Myth of Nine to Five with Dr Phil Harker. He is now a partner in Human Factor Australia working as a management consultant. He specialises in change management, strategic planning and executive coaching. Ted has served as director or chairman on many boards. He is still currently Chair of the Centre for Integrated Engineering Asset Management and Chair of the Fitzroy Basin Association.

Augustus finds

Serenity

Ted Scott

SHORT STOP PRESS An Imprint of A&A Book Publishing admin@aampersanda.com www.aampersanda.com First published 2009 Text ÂŠ Ted Scott 2009 This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers. Cover artwork and design, internal illustrations and typesetting by David Andor / Wave Source Design www.wavesource.com.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Author: Scott, Ted, 1946Title: August finds serenity : musings and meditations for life / Ted Scott. ISBN: 9780980505504 (pbk.) Dewey Number: A823.4

I dedicate this book to the best man I ever worked for â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Bernie Stein.

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Prelude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.

Detachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Worldviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

All is One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Love of All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Identity and Oneness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Theory and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Piousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Dealing with Dualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

The End of Suffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

10. Guilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 11. Practice is Not Enough! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 12. Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 13. The Foundations of Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 14. Pursuing a Life of Substance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 15. The Receptive Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 16. Different Ways of Seeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 17. All is One (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 18. The Burden of the Teachings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93 19. Altruism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 20. Limits of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

21. Lost in the Crowd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 22. How Long to Get There? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 23. The Message in the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 24. Attachment and Delusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 25. Emptying the Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 26. Simple Truths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 27. Dispensing Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 28. Passing Through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 29. The Need for Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 30. Dispensing with Ego . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 31. The Best Teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

The Blessed One thought, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I have taught the Truth, But simple as it is, the people cannot understand it. Therefore I will tell them stories.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

In tro d u c ti o n

It has always seemed to me that humankind’s most important truths have largely been taught through parable and metaphor. It is as though what matters most to us is beyond reason, and is only accessible by what Darryl Reaney once called “another way of knowing”. Hence, the huge impact of such wisdom literature as the Christian Gospels, the Koran, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Greek Myths, Aesop’s Fables, and so on. This little book is a collection of parables, and I explain their context in the Prelude. The parables I have chosen as the vehicle for exposing a range of truths that seem important to me are Buddhist parables. In the text, I have quoted some of the more famous Buddhist parables, I have modified others to better suit my purposes and I have composed quite a few of my own that are similar in style. I am not a Buddhist, but having read extensively about Buddhism, I am convinced that Buddhism has come to a very workable understanding of the human mind. Buddhism seems, to me, to be more a psychology than a religion, and a well wrought psychology based on huge experience over the millennia. It does not seek to proselytise, but merely offers a methodology for living and, perhaps more importantly, of interpreting our lives. The most famous living Buddhist would have to be the 1

Dalai Llama. I am impressed by, not only his humility and sereneness, but his willingness to take on new knowledge and foster dialogue with the world’s top scientists. Although he seems to have many answers, he does not have a closed mind. If these are the qualities that result from a practice in Buddhism then I applaud it. I have always believed those who know most have the greatest capacity to be receptive to new ideas. Those who know least seem to wall themselves off in the fortress of fundamentalism and resist having their meagre truths challenged. Even though I could just as easily have chosen one of the other wisdom traditions in which to frame my parables, it is for these reasons I chose a Buddhist context. In the 13th Century, a Chinese Zen Buddhist master called Wumen Hui-k’ai compiled a collection of forty-eight koans. After each koan, he made a commentary and often wrote a short verse ostensibly to help students in their study — although, I would have to say, many of his comments are quite obtuse, and he himself could have done with some lucid commentaries! This collection is now a famous Buddhist reference text and has come to be known as The Gateless Gate. Wumen Hui-k’ai is now commonly known by the Japanese translation of his name Mumon Ekai, or more usually just Mumon. In the spirit of this famous sage, I have adopted his practice of placing at the end of each parable a short commentary and/or a few questions that might help someone reading the book or using it as a mentoring aid, to come to, or assist others to come to, a better understanding of the underlying truths. Much of the material has already been used by myself as an aid in executive coaching. 2

Ch a p ter 1 0

G U I LT

NE MORNING ,

just after they had finished their practice, Augustus and his master were surprised to see two young novices walking up the path towards them. As they got closer, the master smiled. They were the sons of an old friend from his home village. He warmly welcomed the boys and they chatted for a time about village and family matters. After a time, it was revealed that the novices wanted to visit other relatives in a nearby village. The master volunteered to show them the way. He turned to Augustus. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Pupil, I will spend the day with these boys and bring them back here for supper tonight. There is a little pork and a little rice in my hut. Can you prepare some supper for us for our return?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Augustus nodded his agreement and the old man and the two boys walked off down the path to the next village. Through the day, Augustus laboured in the garden that he and his master grew to provide them with fruit and vegetables. He stopped for a while, in the heat of the day, to take a drink of cool water from the nearby stream and to meditate. Then, he resumed again, hoeing, weeding and transplanting. Finally, in the late afternoon, he stopped. He washed himself at the stream. Then, he picked a few vegetables and herbs and went back to the masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 53

hut to prepare supper. He kindled a small fire, put a little water in a cooking pot and hung it over the fire. He roughly sliced the ingredients and placed them into the pot, which simmered gently over the flames. He sat contentedly on the ground in the porch, at the front of the hut. For a while, he played his bamboo flute. Soon he would check on the cooking meal. He knew to keep the meal flavoursome it must not be overcooked. That was why he had lit only a small fire. His intention was to simmer the ingredients gently for a time. If he had built a larger fire the water would have boiled too strongly. However, if he was to keep his small fire just right he would need to occasionally add a little more fuel. How good it was to sit basking in the comfortable weariness of a good day’s work! How pleasant it was in the late afternoon with a gentle breeze caressing his face. ‘Hoy! Har! Wake up, you lazy wretch!’ Augustus awoke from his reverie with a start. There was his master, looking annoyed, standing over him. ‘What about our supper?’ demanded Takygulpa Rinpoche. Augustus ran across to find that the fire had gone out and the contents of the cooking pot were cold. Augustus must have been asleep for some time. The boys accompanying his master were amused by this turn of events and giggled at the pupil’s misfortune. Augustus was mortified. ‘Oh Master, forgive this foolish wretch for not providing your supper!’ The old man scowled at Augustus, but only in mock anger. After a while, he relented and said, ‘There is no great harm done, you foolish pupil. It will take but a few minutes to rekindle the fire and our meal will soon be ready.’ 54

Augustus quickly relit the fire and within a few minutes the delicious odour from the simmering pot filled the air. But the young man kept wringing his hands saying over and over, ‘Oh Master, I am so sorry.’ The sage frowned, ‘Why are you punishing yourself like this?’ ‘It is because I feel so guilty for having disobeyed you.’ The master responded rather forcefully, ‘Do not feel guilty!’ ‘But is it not appropriate to hate our sins, our misdemeanours?’ ‘Of course,’ responded the old man, ‘but when you feel guilty it is not your sins you are despising but yourself. When you understand that embedded in you is the Buddha nature, you cannot and should not despise yourself. It is appropriate to work on changing your behaviour, but it is futile to despise yourself. In fact, the more you come to understand and accept yourself, the more likely you are to awaken to the reality of the world. Guilt is a destructive emotion to be avoided at all cost!’

hings happen! And some of those things we would prefer to not happen. Should we feel guilty about this? Most of what happens to us in life has been determined by our biological history and our particular circumstances. There is a pernicious trend in pop psychology to try and make people believe they are the authors of their lives and that they can be anything they want to be. This is a philosophy that conventionally successful people like to expound. Those that 55

have risen to such success would like to believe they have been the architects of their own success — I have yet to see a book announcing, ‘I am a self-made failure!’ Guilt often becomes an excuse. Who is more likely to improve: • someone who is beset with guilt and flagellates themselves thinking, ‘I am a terrible, useless person,’ or: • someone who says, ‘I have made a mistake here. I don’t usually make mistakes. I will need to be a little more careful in the future’? Guilt is the way to despair, the way to despondency, and the way to depression.

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