We Really Do Make It Up As We Go Along — Part 4 (or is it Part 5?)

God talks to me every day. In the morning. In the afternoon. At night.

God talks to me in many places: work, home, on the bus, on the golf course, in the bowling center at league bowling, at Stephen Craig’s (my best friend’s) house, on the tennis court, in movie theaters, in restaurants like The Bayside Tavern & Steakhouse (Red Wing, MN), and a host of other places.

No, I don’t hear voices per se. My definition of God is different than many people’s: God isn’t like the Greek or Roman god that lives on Mt. Olympus or up in some heavenly dimension overlooking us poor human schmucks. God is real but isn’t separate from the God-created universe. The Big Bang was a pivotal transition: God transformed itself from a being that wanted to create life into a being that was life.

In the bible, it is written “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them” – Matthew 18:20. To me, this means God’s latent existence in us all is made manifest when we ask for and allow God to help us do what should and needs to be done to improve our universe.

But we rarely ask for help because we”re convinced we have all the answers. Our arrogant ego separates us from potential help by assuring us we”ve got all the answers For example, mine assured me for several years it was in my best interest to get super drunk every night despite the considerable, seriously bad consequences. That was my dear, sweet wife Amy’s philosophy as well. She died at age 41 after her body gave out from alcohol-induced internal-organ failure. Our motto was, “I drink, therefore I am.”

In my recently-released and critically-acclaimed eBook, “The ‘Bad’ Path to Enlightenment – Learn from W.W. How NOT to Experience Nirvana” – https://gumroad.com/l/RglBe – the Dr. of Badology (i.e. – me) traces Walter White’s tragic fall to his misinformed, unenlightened view of the world. He adopts the traditional American economic of “every man (woman) for him or herself” and extends that to his view of life in general. He thinks it’s Walter White versus the universe instead of being in synch with the rhythms and energy of the cosmos. And look what happens to him throughout the insanely-popular and well-done cable TV series: While in some ways he benefits greatly from his increasingly-successful drug empire, in many ways, he makes himself and his loved ones miserable.

For the average person, they’re not building a meth empire while dying of lung cancer but their ego still tends to exact serious damage. A world view that says I’m over here and the rest of the world is over there or out there may not seem like a big deal but trust me, it is. I watched my beloved wife Amy die from a slow suicide via alcohol because although she knew drinking was killing her, she kept doing it because she associated her identity with getting drunk. I was doing the same thing and although I didn’t die because of my alcohol abuse, it wasn’t for lack of trying.

I get a kick out of people who’re “trying to find themselves” because they’re never going to succeed. There is no self that’s separate from everyone and everything else. It’s not you against the world. It’s you with the world/universe. But most people look at the superficial level, the physically separate bodies that we all have, and think that extends to a deeper separateness. I, and the Buddha and many other great spiritual leaders, including Jesus, believed and believe just the opposite. It’s known as “The Truth of Unity”. We’re all one spiritual and metaphysical body, united and unbroken. May you find peace, love and truth in your own unique but not disconnected life, brothers and sisters. May you be like my favorite gargoyle, Dedo, who simply sits placidly and takes it all, the One Life, in.

 

We’ve Always Done It This Way

Efficiency experts must hear this on every job they do: “We’ve always done it this way.” For example, let’s say an efficiency expert is examining a company’s accounts payable process. The expert probably begins by asking one of the A/P clerks, “What steps do you go through to get an invoice/bill paid?”

And let’s say A/P person says, “First I put a ‘date received’ stamp on it, then I write down the G/L (General Ledger) account(s) on it, and then I route the bill to supervisor of the department the bill is for. After they sign off on it, it goes to their manager for approval and then it goes to their manager for approval. They log in the date they sign off on it and then it’s routed back to me. I enter the invoice into the accounting system and depending on the terms of the invoice, a check is cut.”

The efficiency expert no doubt asks, “Why do three different people have to approve paying the bill?” And then if there isn’t a legitimate, logical answer, the clerk says, “We’ve always done it that way.” But what if the company is paying abnormally high amount of late charges, upsetting vendors due to slow pay rates, and delaying the beginning of company projects because vendors wait for payment of their invoices before performing services or delivering goods?

Just because something has been done in a certain way for a long time doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it. Likewise just because you’ve always thought in a certain way, say you’ve assumed there is a “me” or “I” that is your true self, doesn’t mean it’s the truth. The Buddhist concept of “no one thing” or “not self”, is explained on Wikipedia as follows:

“…the term anattā(Pāli) or anātman(Sanskrit:अनात्मन्) refers to the notion of “not-self” or the illusion of “self“. In the early texts, the Buddhacommonly uses the word in the context of teaching that all things perceived by the senses (including the mental sense) are not really “I” or “mine”, and for this reason one should not cling to them.

In the same vein, the Palisuttas(and parallel āgamas, both referred to collectively below as the nikāyas), categorize the phenomena experienced by a being into five groups (“khandhas“) that serve as the objects of clinging and as the basis for a sense of self. In the Nikāyas, the Buddha repeatedly emphasizes not only that the five khandhas of living beings are “not-self”, i.e. not “I” or “mine”, but also that clinging to them as if they were “I” or “mine” gives rise to unhappiness.

According to the early texts, while on the path, one should develop oneself in healthy and liberating ways, only letting go of the attempt to improve the self as it becomes unnecessary.”

I challenge you to, preferably while you’re meditating or taking a quiet, peaceful walk, contemplate this question: IF THERE IS A “ME” OR “I”, WHERE IS IT? And the follow-up question: CAN I PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF MY SUPPOSED SELF? If you can find the location of your self and/or prove the existence of your unique, permanent and special self, by all means email leeman999@yahoo.com or call me (651-212-3825) immediately. I am dying to know the answers.

Also think about, if it’s true there is no “you” that needs to be fed, pampered, protected, and constantly entertained, how liberating that is. It makes the world so much more fluid, solutions to challenges easier, focusing on the ever-shifting Now easier because you’re not looking over your shoulder to see how “you” are doing, and so on.

Like many things in life, although enlightenment is simple, it can also be incredibly challenging to achieve. Changing the way one views the world isn’t automatic. Your ego-generated pride will insist everything is fine and that you should ignore any attempts to change the status quo.

And BTW, you haven’t always thought this way. As a young child, you didn’t worry about protecting your self-image/reputation. You didn’t hesitate before acting because you were concerned about how it would make you look in others’ eyes. You were spontaneous, joyful, playful and generous. You were taught about me and I.

My book, “Overcome Any Personal Obstacle, Including Alcoholism, By Understanding Your Ego” – http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leewriter – is a Buddhist-inspired publication that features the Seven Insights of Enlightened and also traces the root cause of the Seven Deadly Sins to an overly strong ego.

 

 

Harold Ramis’ Five-Minute Buddhist Pocket Guide: Item #13: The Fourth Step on the Noble Eight-fold Path is Right Action

 

The Noble Eightfold Path—- the fourth of the Buddha’s Noble Truths— consists of a set of eight interconnected factors or conditions, that when developed together, lead to the cessation of dukkha (suffering). These eight factors are: Right View (or Right Understanding), Right Intention (or Right Thought), Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.

Ajahn Sucitto describes the path as “a mandala of interconnected factors that support and moderate each other.”The eight factors of the path are not to be understood as stages, in which each stage is completed before moving on to the next. Rather, they are understood as eight significant dimensions of one’s behavior — thoughts, words, and actions — that operate in dependence on one another; taken together, they define a complete path, or way of living.

In this post, we explore right action. Wikipedia entry: Right action falls under the division – or higher training – of ETHICAL CONDUCT. The description: “acting in a non-harmful way”. 

Per Barbara O’Brien at About.com — Religion and Spirituality — in Buddhism, right action, like all eight steps, works in harmony with all other steps on the path. This means that when we act “rightly,” we act without selfish attachment to our work. We act mindfully, without causing discord with our speech. Our “right” actions spring from compassion and from understanding of the dharma.

Barbara goes onto to write right action means keeping with the precepts. The ones most common in the various schools of Buddhism are:

1. Not killing

2. Not stealing

3. Not misusing sex

4. Not lying

5. Not abusing intoxicants

These are not like the Ten Commandments. They are a description of how an enlightened individual acts in response to life’s challenges. Compassion naturally leads to acting in harmony with those around us and indeed, with the universe as a whole.

RIGHT ACTION AND MINDFULNESS TRAINING

Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh teaches Five Mindfulness Trainings that correspond to the five precepts:

1. Respecting life: Awareness of the damage caused by the destruction of life, we strive to protect all living beings and Mother Earth that sustains life.
2. Generosity: We give freely of our time and resources when/where they are needed (no hoarding). We do not exploit other people or resources for our own gain. We act to promote social justice and well-being for everyone.
3. Avoid sexual misconduct: By being aware of the pain caused by misusing sexual contact, we honor our commitments and also (when possible) protect others from sexual exploitation.
4. Loving speech and deep listening: This means avoiding language that causes enmity and discord. Through deep listening to others, we tear down the barriers that separate us.
5. Discerning consumption: This means nourishing ourselves and others with healthful food and avoiding intoxicants. It also involves what books we read or what television programs we watch. Addictive and agitating content should be avoided.

It’s important to remember also that genuine compassion is rooted inprajna, or “wisdom.” Prajna is the realization that the separate self is an illusion. This takes us back to not attaching our egos to what we do, expecting to be thanked or rewarded.

The Dalai Lama wrote eloquently of the relationship between right action and compassion: “According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It’s not passive — it’s not empathy alone — but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and loving kindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others (this is wisdom), and one must experience deep intimacy and empathy with other sentient beings (this is loving kindness).”

To learn more about my Buddhist-like publication, “Overcome Any Personal Obstacle, Including Alcoholism, By Understanding Your Ego”, go to http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leewriter.

For more info on my Buddhist-themed spiritual thriller, “Dead Man’s Plan”, including how to order your copy, go to

http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0060704049/Dead-Mans-Plan.aspx

NOTE IN RE MY SOBRIETY SCORECARD: I believe this post is long enough already. I will publish Sobriety Scorecard in separate post.

Harold Ramis’ Buddhist Five-Minute Pocket Guide: Item #5: Noble Truth #1 – Life is characterized…

…by impermanence and suffering, or  Dukkha (insatiable thirst).

The Buddha nailed this one. I think that “Groundhog’s Day”, one of Harold Ramis’ films, is largely about Dukkha. In the movie, the Bill Murray character keeps living the same day over and over and over. This repetitive, seemingly endless cycle of misery reflects what most of us feel. It’s like we’re on a treadmill chasing after superficial things like food, water, and sex. Even after we slake our thirst/hunger/sexual desire, we’re not happy for long because the same needs come back to keep us on the treadmill. In the back of our mind, and occasionally in the forefront of our consciousness, we have to ask, “Is this all there is to Life?”

The answer is, “Yes, if you don’t understand the true nature of things, which is that everything is impermanent.” If you understand everything is transitory/impermanent, you realize you can’t possess anything. You can experience things like food, drink, sexual satisfaction, spiritual satisfaction, joy, wonder, hope, sadness, loss, craving, depression, fun, tragedy, etc., but none of these things are permanent and hence, cannot be owned.

Craving, another word for insatiable thirst, results when one believes they are incomplete as they are so the person seeks something — physical sustenance of some sort — from the external world to make them whole. Alcoholics and drug addicts are the most obvious examples but they’re only the tip of the iceberg. Overweight people crave food. Smokers crave nicotine. The wealthy want more and more money. Politicians seek greater power. Celebrities want more and more attention. The list goes on and on. We’re never happy or satisfied for long because we believe we’re incomplete, not whole as we are. So there’s a perpetual state of wanting that we seek to fulfill with stuff, material things and non-material things such as attention from others, power (official power such as high-level positions in business and government but also power over others as in sexual power).

My next post will cover the 2nd Noble Truth — The Origin  of  Dukkha (suffering)  is attachment  to  desire.– but for now, simply reflect on the 1st Noble Truth and how it relates to living in the present moment. Or rather, NOT living in the present moment. If we truly live in the present moment, does that not lessen our craving to NOT be in the present moment by seeking something to make ourselves whole? Isn’t insatiable thirst a result of our non-acceptance of the joy of the present moment?

For more info on my Buddhist-like publication, “Overcome Any Personal Obstacle, Including Alcoholism, By Understanding Your Ego”, go to http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leewriter.

For more info on my Buddhist-themed spiritual thriller, “Dead Man’s Plan”, including how to order your copy, go to

http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0060704049/Dead-Mans-Plan.aspx

There’s No “I” in Team but there is “Me” Spelled Backwards With “A” in between

I hadn’t planned on watching much of this year’s Sochi Olympics but I am. As a manly man I’m supposed to switch channels when ice dancing comes on or at least claim I never watch it but I don’t deny I enjoy it. There’s interesting music and the crowd really gets into it, especially when the skaters execute a lively, heartfelt performance. Being a typical Minnesota male who’s interested in team sports, I follow the men’s hockey team especially close. And although I’d never do it, I get a huge, vicarious thrill out of watching the snowboarders and ski jumpers fly down the hill and through the air. Lastly, to me, curling is like croquet on ice except that in croquet the route to the destination more ziggy-zaggy. In both sports, you can use your stone/ball (I know, it reeks of male genitalia) to knock your opponent out of position. Also, for me, curling is like a cold-weather version of cricket: they’re both bizarre sports with scoring systems I don’t understand played by people who don’t fit the typical body type one associates with “athlete” (although cricket players are kind of like baseball players).

From a philosophical viewpoint, I find the Olympics, and sports in general, to be fascinating proofs of the truth that we’re all one spiritual, intimately-connected body of Life (One Life, as Eckhart Tolle calls it) as opposed to the egocentric, “everyone’s an island”, entity-based view.

From four- and five-year-old kids playing T-ball to winners of the World Series; from grade-school kids shooting hoops in the gym or schoolyard; and from pickup games at family get-togethers to the THE FOOTBALL game with Roman numerals at the end of it, what makes it all so interesting and exciting is something physicists like Heisenberg would appreciate: it’s the uncertainty of it all.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle, in brief, states that nothing in the universe has a definite position, trajectory or momentum. If one more precisely knows the position of an object, that makes it less likely one can know its momentum with any significant of certainty. The reverse, if one knows an object’s momentum with a great deal of certainty, that makes is less likely one can know the object’s position. For a detailed explanation, including diagrams, go to http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle.

My version of this fundamental truth is called Lee’s Life is One Huge Cliff Hanger Principle. This states that predicting the outcome of any event, which includes human behaviors, with any significant degree of certainty is impossible. We don’t know who’s going to win the game until it’s over. We don’t how someone will act in a given situation until after the fact. Before it happens, it’s all conjecture and guesswork, which although can be really fun to do, shouldn’t be confused with thinking we really know what we’re talking about.

Just look at meteorologists, economists and sports analysts. They all try to predict the future and I don’t need to state the obvious about how successful they are. Betting on sports and playing poker for money are so popular because of the uncertainty. The participants have different ideas about what’s going to happen and they’re willing to wager cash money on their beliefs about future events. Back to betting on spectator sports, despite all the websites that offer to sell you their secret, winning system, no one really knows who’s going to win and by how many points. A large part of the joy of sports is when an underdog, especially a huge underdog, beats the favorite. Case in point: the 1980 USA Men’s hockey team defeat of the Soviet Union (now Russia).

Now every country uses professional and college players on their Olympic hockey team but that wasn’t the case back in the 70’s. The Russians were ahead of the curve in using professionals to play on the hockey team they sent to the Olympics but the United States, at that time, employed only college players. None of the “experts” and a miniscule percentage of hockey people in general gave the American team much of a chance. But we all know what happened. Masterminded and led by coach Herb Brooks, a determined, gutty, unified team of Americans pulled off the “Miracle on Ice”. The logical, egocentric crowd had put the Russian team into the box labeled SURE FAVORITE and the USA team into HOPELESS UNDERDOG.

Which brings me to a famous, fictional physicist, Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Being the supposedly brilliant master of physics, one would think he’d understand the uncertainty principle better as it relates to phenomena beyond the narrow field of physics. But he doesn’t because Sheldon is squarely rooted in the “every man/woman is an island”, entity-based view of the universe, which supersedes his vast scientific knowledge and understanding. As I note in my “The Big Bang Theory”-themed blog (http://wp.me/p2pija-xj), part of the humor in the show is Sheldon discovering how untrue his view of the universe is, most notably his over-reliance on labels, especially stereotypes, to define the world.

In sports, going into every contest, there are always two major labels, favorite and underdog. The larger the upset, the more it shows the shallowness and inadequacy of labels that purport to capture the truth. Did I hear someone say The Roommate Agreement?

To learn how to overcome any obsessive, dysfunctional behavior, including alcohol or drug addiction, go to http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leewriter to learn more about my first self-help book, “Overcome Any Personal Obstacle, Including Alcoholism, By Understanding Your Ego”.

Non-Buddhist-Related Blog – Back to Being “Bad”: Walter White as Heisenberg

I am saving Step 12 of 12 for a bit later. I’m back to being a “Breaking Bad” boy. In particular, I want to look at how Walter White using Heisenberg for his criminal, drug kingpin is both thematically fitting and paradoxical. But first, let’s review the Uncertainty Principle.

From Wikipedia: In quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle known as complementary variables, such as position and momentum, can be known simultaneously. For instance, the more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be known, and vice versa. From Wikipedia.com: The original heuristic argument that such a limit should exist was given by Werner Heisenberg in 1927, after whom it is sometimes named the Heisenberg principle.

Walter White chose Heisenberg because the man was legendary chemist and it was the first name that came to mind when Tuco asked what his name was. Upon a deeper analysis, it’s fitting because when you’re trying to describe who W.W. really is, there’s a whole of uncertainty. Is Walter the A) devoted family man and meek, mild high school chemistry teacher who’s battling lung cancer  or B) ruthless, cunning, brilliant criminal mastermind?

The truth is neither. He’s C) a combination of both A) and B). So in that way, equating his criminal lifestyle with uncertainty is extremely fitting. In order to get away with all the lies and deceptions Walter/Heisen berg uses on not only his enemies but also his partner Jesse, immediate family — wife Skyler and son Walter Jr. — and most of all, brother-in-law and DEA Agent Hank Schrader, Walter has to be able to convince people he’s telling the truth about whatever he’s trying to sell. So like the devil, he tells, and sells it so well, what people want to hear. That means he can’t be all bad or all evil, and he’s not. So consequently it’s uncertain what you get with Walter White/Heisenberg.

However, if one considers that it’s certain when you’re dealing with Heisenberg, he’s always looking out for himself, first and foremost, and that he’s one greedy, ruthless sonofabitch, then using the Heisenberg moniker is paradoxical. The only time he helps anyone is if there’s something in it for him, although he’ll claim he’s only looking out for your best interests. For example, in “ABQ”,, the finale of the 2nd season, when Walter hauls the bawling, distraught Jesse PInkman (his partner in the meth business) out of a ramshackle house known as The Shooting Gallery because drug addicts hang out there, on the surface it appears Walter is being a great humanitarian. He’s rescuing poor Jesse, hauling out of the druggie-infested house and into rehab. Great guy, right? Wrong.

The primary reason he wants Jesse to successfully deal with the overdosing death of Jane, Jesse’s girlfriend and the ensuing, related 150 or so deaths of the passengers on the planes that collided due to the grief-stricken air-traffic controller, who is the father of Jesse’s dead girlfriend Jane, is because Jesse is Walter’s meth partner. Walter can’t keep the meth train going, the train that makes money hand over fist, if his partner is an emotional mess. So it’s in Walter’s best interest that Jesse not burden himself with guilt and regret. That way Jesse can focus on being a great assistant meth cook and help with product distribution.

Walter does care about Jesse, almost as much as he cares about his own family but I wouldn’t call it love exactly. Or if is love, it’s a twisted kind of love. When it’s convenient and in his best interest, Walter tells Jesse the truth. But when it’s not, Walter/Heisenberg lies to his partner to further his own interests. In “End Times”, episode 12 of Season 4, Walt gets Brock to eat Lily of the Valley knowing it won’t kill him but only make him sick with symptoms consistent with being poisoned. Then Walter tricks Jesse into thinking it was Gus who used ricin to poison Brock and make it appear it was Walt who did it, which would so enrage Jesse that Jesse would kill Walt, thereby achieving Gus’ goal of killing Walter but not having to risk being caught by the police because he (nor one of this thugs) actually kill him. In other words, Walt actually poisons Brock but not with ricin, then uses the fact that Jesse thinks it was ricin to con Jesse into thinking Gus used ricin to pin the poisoning on Walt so Jesse would have a reason to kill Walt. This gives Walt ammo to use to convince Jesse he should team up with Walter so they can kill Gus. 

So there you have it, why Heisenberg is both a fitting and paradoxical moniker for W.W. It’s like that saying, “The only thing that’s constant is change.” Or as I describe an enlightened mindset in one of my previous post, the universe is best understood by adopting a POV that’s more like a rheostat than the on/off switch of the egocentric mind. In the former, one perceives the people, places and things around you as having different values at different times whereas the latter it’s an all-or-nothing proposition.

NOTE: Blogger is the author of “Overcome Any Personal Obstacle, Including Alcoholism, By Understanding Your Ego”, which is available at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leewriter. E-book is only $3.99!

Live Free and Beyond Your Ego’s Constraints, Learn from Walter White in BREAKING BAD, Season 5, Episode 3 – “Hazard Pay”

A flexible approach, piggybacking on available resources and processes, and driven to achieve a single goal – those in recovery can learn much from W.W. and company in this episode.

For a complete summary, go to http://breakingbad.wiki.com/Hazard_Pay. For the purposes of this blog, here is the big stuff:

• Walter White-Jesse Pinkman Meth Inc. and their new partner Mike eventually find a suitable meth lab, which is actually a network of “labs”, via a company called Vamonos Pest Control. The company is run by Ira, who has a burglary operation on the side. He uses the pest control crew to scout out potential burglary targets. WW and Jesse will cook inside houses undergoing fumigation (and have a tent surrounding the house), a perfect site because no one can see what’s going on inside and the fumigation process will take care of the odors from cooking meth.
• Walt objects to Mike paying part of their meth proceeds to pay Mike’s nine guys who are in jail. Mike calls it “legacy costs”. A grumbling Walt finally agrees, then after Mike leaves, brings up Victor’s death via box-cutter by Gus. He claims it was a result of someone taking a liberty they shouldn’t have, meaning it wasn’t Mike’s place to dole out money to “his guys” and that Walt may do something to rectify the situation.

You’ve got to admire Walt’s ingenuity. Who would dream that the house on your block that’s being fumigated is also a temporary meth lab? It’s brilliant.

Walt and Jesse have evolved and changed their meth business plan to meet changing business conditions. They began cooking in a RV, which made sense at the time because they could drive it out into the desert to an isolated spot to avoid detection by the police and the general public (who could report suspicious activities to the police). But then Hank tracked down the RV and was about to get a search warrant for the vehicle so they had to have it disposed of. Then Saul set up a meeting with Gustavo Fring who first bought their product from them, then hired the two blue crystal makers to cook for him. Then Hank was about to nail Gustavo Fring, and hence Walter and Jesse, so they had to destroy the superlab to get rid of any evidence of their wrongdoing and then oh yeah, they realized they had to erase the data and video from Gus’ laptop sitting in the APD’s evidence room. Now they need somewhere to cook but can’t afford to start another another business (or two in the case of Gus with his industrial laundry and chicken-restaurant chain.) So they piggyback on top of a pest control company that doubles as serial burglars.

But besides being really intellectually smart, Walt’s spiritually and morally unwise. He’s not only greedy – he wants the money Mike doles out to his guys in prison for himself – but he also objects to the fact that Mike thinks he has the authority to make that decision.

One strategy that our meth guys use – piggybacking on a pest control company’s operation – was a stroke of genius. Instead of spending a lot of time, money and effort building a meth lab, Walt, Jesse and Mike take advantage of an opportunity and of a resource that they have access to. In the same way (with a completely different goal in mind, of course), an addict/alcoholic can piggyback on successfully recovered substance abusers’ by using tips and techniques they come across at AA meetings, in recovery literature, online chat rooms or talking with a sponsor. The piggybacking idea falls under my seventh and final Insight of Enlightenment: “Devise a recovery plan but make it flexible.”

I’m sure Walter, when he was in college, never took a business course that addressed the issue of how to set up a meth lab with the least chance of being detected by the police and at a minimal cost. He and Jesse are flying by the seat of their meth pants in this show. Likewise I never took a college course that addressed how to turn your life around after seeing your long-time spouse kill herself with daily alcohol abuse and then have a near-death-experience from quitting drinking, sober up for awhile, then go into detox five times in one year, sober up for 18 months, get a third DWI, spend two weeks in jail and emerge to continue writing this blog. The key in all of this, besides understanding the truth of unity (no one is separate from the whole), is to make sobriety the absolute highest priority in your life. Priorities are what drive our actions. Actions are what determine the quality of our life.

If you’ve been sober for any period of time and want tools to help you keep that positive streak going, or if you feel you have a drinking problem and want a system that will inspire you and help you find your true identity, you can buy my e-Book for a mere $3.99. Happy (flipping} Meals and most Starbucks drinks cost more than that and they don’t last nearly as long as the benefits from my book! Your satisfaction is guaranteed. Go to http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leewriter for more information.

If you like this blog, follow it on WordPress.com and/or share the content with your online tribe on Facebook, Twitter, etc. THANK YOU. Have a blessed, completely aware day.

Note about the author of this blog:

Lee A. Eide is a freelance writer from Red Wing, MN. This blog shows how to free one’s self from any obsession by living beyond the narrow confines of the ego. His book, “Overcome Any Personal Obstacle, Including Alcoholism, By Understanding Your Ego”, is available at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leewriter and on Amazon.com.

Also available on Amazon.com and www.xlibris.com:

“Dead Man’s Plan” – spiritual thriller that’s been described as “a unique and fascinating read” by Midwest Book Reviews and “a great, exciting story with well-developed character’s” by Mary E. Dana of SharpWriter magazine.

Author’s website is http://www.leeeide-thewriter.com. Eide lives in Red Wing with his cat, Shaggy II.

Free Yourself from Your Ego’s prison: Learn from “BB, season 2, Episode 9: 4 Days Out’

• Sleazy Saul Goodman gives money laundering lesson to Walt, says he’s got $16K left of drug money, enough to buy a 2nd-hand Subaru, so he should cook meth while he still can.
• Walt lies to Skyler, says he’s going to visit his mom. After Skyler drops him off at airport, Jesse picks him up with RV and they drive out into the desert to cook meth.
• Walt makes Jesse clear space in the cook area. Jesse clears area and in the process sticks key into the ignition, unwittingly causing an indicator light to come on.
• Montage of marathon cook session that yields 42 pounds ($627,000 each) by the time it’s complete. The partners do a high five.
• Elation is short-lived after they discover the indicator light on dashboard has completely drained the RV’s battery. Jesse accidentally spills some of the gas he siphons from the RV on the generator and a stray spark sets the generator ablaze. Jesse douses fire with the last of their drinking water. Eventually Walt improvises a makeshift batter from their lab supplies and they jump start the battery and drive back into civilization.
• Jesse drops Walt off at the airport. “I know I can trust you to, uh…” Walt begins. “Whatever happens, your family will get your share,” Jesse replies.
• At the doctor’s office, Walt learns that his cancer is in remission and his tumor has shrunk by 80%. Skyler, Hank and Marie congratulate him. Dr. Delcavoli the white spot on the scan is tissue inflammation that’s very treatable but that coughing up blood, which Walt didn’t initially tell anyone about, is bad because it might result in a dangerous rupture. “No more secrets, Walt,” says the doctor.
• In rest room at the doctor’s office, Walt sees his reflection on a metal towel dispenser and violently pounds it with his fist.

Walt is still in transition. He hasn’t wholeheartedly embraced the Heisenberg persona. He’s aware of his lies and deceptions but like a victim in a “Saw” movie, he doesn’t see any way out of his predicament unless he lies. The last scene in the rest room shows Walt’s self loathing, which means he’s knows he’s been a real scumbag and strikes out the reflection of himself on the towel dispenser.

Long-time alcoholics like myself often reach their breaking point and the result is like Walt’s pounding his reflection with his fist. With me, the breaking point came in February of 2006. I’d been consuming copious amounts of alcohol every night (and some days too) for approximately three and a half years, the last six months being especially bad because the ringing in my ears, tinnitus, combined with Amy’s worsening health issues due to her abuse of alcohol, had combined to give me a prolonged case of insomnia. I used my insomnia as an excuse to drink too much. The problem was my sleeping pills weren’t strong enough to help me get to sleep so I mixed alcohol with them, which of course was a stupid thing to do. After I told me my doctor this, he refused to sign off on anymore prescriptions. So I just drank a lot but passing out isn’t the same thing as falling asleep naturally. Many times I’d wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. and not being able to fall back asleep. Then I’d frequently e-mail my boss to let her know I was using a sick day.

Then one February morning I was taking a walk around the neighborhood. I was both exhausted from lack of sleep and wired from the stress of not sleeping and weighed down by my guilt of not doing something to help my wife Amy turn her life around. The fatigue was profound, my nerves were shot. It was the only time in my life I felt like killing myself. I called the Fairview Southdale Medical Center and told them about my problems. They urged me to come in to see a psychiatric specialist, which I did. I spent two or three days in the psychiatric ward. After being released, I started but did not finish an outpatient alcohol rehab program run by Fairview.

Walt didn’t try to kill his physical self like I briefly contemplated but he was trying to at least really hurt himself in a symbolic, metaphorical way when he beat on his reflection in the rest room.

A central theme of the show how destructive a criminal lifestyle is because it creates the need to deceive. This is reflected beautifully when the doctor says, “No more secrets, Walt.” Out in the desert, Jesse catches his partner in a lie when he points out that methylamine doesn’t spoil, which was the reason Walt gave Jesse for having to cook now instead of waiting until the next weekend (Jesse wanted to spend time with landlord Jane but Walt used the spoiling methylamine lie to convince him to cook instead).

As shown  by Walt’s on-the-fly creation of a mercury battery made from lab supplies so they can jump start the RV battery, Walt’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t have a lot of answers to questions, especially in the chemistry field. His problem is he’s asking the wrong question. He asks, “How can I keep making meth without getting caught or killed?” instead of asking, “How in the hell can I get out of the meth business ASAP?”

When I was a raging alcoholic, I was asking the wrong questions: “How much tequila do I have left? What kind of booze should I have tonight? Do I have time to get to the liquor store before it closes?” Instead I should have asked, “How can I stop drinking?”

Another way to say, “Am I asking the right questions?”, is ask yourself, “What are my priorities? Your priorities drive your actions and direct your energies in a certain direction. Make sure it’s the right direction for you.

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Note about the author of this blog:

Lee A. Eide is a freelance writer from Red Wing, MN. This blog shows how to free one’s self from any obsession by living beyond the narrow confines of the ego. His book, “Overcome Any Personal Obstacle, Including Alcoholism, By Understanding Your Ego”, is available at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leewriter and on Amazon.com.

Also available on Amazon.com and www.xlibris.com:

“Dead Man’s Plan” – spiritual thriller that’s been described as “a unique and fascinating read” by Midwest Book Reviews and “a great, exciting story with well-developed character’s” by Mary E. Dana of SharpWriter magazine.

Author’s website is http://www.leeeide-thewriter.com. Eide lives in Red Wing with his cat Shaggy II. His wife Amy died on November 24, 2006 after years of abusing alcohol. Eide nearly died a little over a month later from quitting drinking cold turkey. He entered a 21-day inpatient rehab program at Fountain Center in Albert Lea, MN right after the near-death-experience, then moved to the Cochran House in Hastings, MN, a halfway house. Two months later, he moved in with his father Lavern. He’s had periods of sobriety, including 18 months (from Oct. 2010 to March 2012) during which he wrote “Overcome Any Personal Obstacle, Including Alcoholism, By Understanding Your Ego”, since then.

Free Yourself from the Prison of your Ego: Learn from Walter White’s Mistakes in BREAKING BAD, Season 3, Episode 4 – “Greenlight”

For complete summary of this episode, go to http://breakingbad.wikia.com/wiki/Green_Light

 The major events in the episode as they relate to Walter’s character arc and their relationship to my groundbreaking self-help book, “Overcome Any Personal Obstacle, Including Alcoholism, By Understanding Your Ego” — http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/leewriter — are as follows.

1. With Saul and Mike secretly listening, Skyler tells Walter that whether he stays or leaves the White house, they’re not married anymore.
2. Walter, livid over her affair with boss Ted, tries to confront Ted at the office, but is thrown out the front doors by three warehouse men.
3. Walter, having deduced his lawyer planted “bugs” at the house, makes Mike remove them. Mike comments, “You know, Walter, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have someone watching your back.”
4. The school principal, due to his erratic behavior, places Walt on indefinite leave.
5. As Walt goes to his car after the news of his leave, Jesse shows his the blue meth Jesse made on his own, which Walter finds fault with, complains, “That is my product” and that his guy doesn’t work with junkies, only pros.
6. Gustavo, “Walt’s guy”, decides that after he hears Mike tell him Jesse and Walt aren’t getting along that Gus will go against his usual philosophy of not dealing with junkies and do the deal with Jesse anyway.
7. Jesse gets paid from the drug deal but receives only half the money.
8. Walter, at a traffic light, sees Victor (one of Gus’ henchmen) throw a bag of money into his car.

The ego-centric Walter’s envy, pride and anger, three out of the seven Deadly Sins, are on prominent display in “Greenlight”. In my book, I trace the root cause of all the deadly sins to an overly strong ego. Conversely, to achieve the Seven Virtues (opposite of the Seven Deadly Sins), one needs to adopt a more enlightened world view in which we are all part of the One Life, which means we’re all intimately connected on a fundamental, profound level. 

First off, it’s Walter’s pride and envy that boil to the surface when he nitpicks at the quality of the blue crystal Jesse made without any help from Walt. Even he’s decided, for the moment, to not cook meth, he doesn’t want Jesse to get any credit or financial rewards from cooking the blue crystal. He resents his partner’s potentially being able to profit from making meth without him.

And then it’s Walt’s anger that forces him to storm into Skyler’s workplace and go after her boss and lover, Ted. Walter doesn’t acknowledge that it was his criminal lifestyle that’s caused the emotional chasm between his wife and himself, thus making the affair possible in the first place. Instead of looking inward and learning from Skyler’s affair, he looks outward and strikes out at an easy target. The ego-based person treats its own (i.e. – the self) with kid gloves while is merciless with other people who become surrogate victims that hid the true source of the problem.

Mike’s comment to Walter as the former removes the bugs from the latter’s house, “…it doesn’t hurt to have someone watching your back,” hints at the danger of the ego-centric, “everyone is an island” philosophy. Pride assures the person they can handle things themselves but that’s not always true. If Mike hadn’t seen The Cousins enter the White house while Walter was in the shower, and then made a phone call that resulted in the assassins deciding to meet with Gus to discuss the planned assassination to avenge Tuco’s death, Walter would have been dead.