Book Excerpt: Introduction
Introduction
This
operating manual is written in the oldest traditions. That of question
and answer. As an author, I deliberately chose this to let my “inner
muse” dictate what I would talk about and when.Imagine if you will a young student and an older master meeting at a remote rural setting. You'll see as you come along that the younger student has the trappings of a modern life, while the elder “master” has few.
And the point and style of this book is just in that format.
Manuals and guides are usually didactic – meaning that they stand up there and pontificate to give you solutions to problems that they had.
That doesn't mean you'll get the same mileage. In fact, many modern self-help guides and guru's actually make their money from entertaining people instead of helping them find their own path to enlightenment.
And many authors, on the other hand, having been there and done that, point out that enlightenment isn't necessarily all that it's cracked up to be.
Zen points this out with their many masters. So often, one can find that they start off (as Lao Tse) saying that they can't possibly tell you what “The Way” is – and then proceed to fill a book with exactly that.
But the point of these many masters is often to get you to think on your own. To give you fodder for your grist mill, so that you can grind it coarse or fine to suit your taste.
In my too-many and too-few years on this planet, I've personally seen a lot of stuff come around and go around. More than most, less than some. And in this, I've learned that it isn't my job to tell anyone what is best for them or not.
This book is simply written as more entertainment for you to read (or not) on your own personal journey to wherever it is that you are going.
It can't replace your own self-inspection and the thoughts you might want to sort out on your own.
And of course, any opinion these two fictional characters may have might or might not resemble any particular truth or fiction which is currently under discussion in self-help, metaphysical, or spiritual realms.
Because it is all entertainment, after all.
But that is, again, just unfounded opinion, with which you can do whatever you want.
And there are more entertaining books referenced at the end, if you'd like.
Meanwhile:
Good Hunting!
Robert C. Worstell
Sept 23, 2010
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