{"id":13169,"date":"2008-08-21T02:41:41","date_gmt":"2008-08-20T18:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=13169"},"modified":"2013-02-01T03:51:02","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T19:51:02","slug":"adventures-zeph-tales-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2008\/08\/adventures-zeph-tales-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures : Zeph Tales (8)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from http:\/\/wp.me\/p54LT-3qg<\/a><\/p>\n

Do You Believe in Balloons?<\/b><\/p>\n

\"13202_colored_balloons\"<\/a>Sometimes, Zeph wrote the most ridiculous things in his journal in a bid to be spontaneous, in the (fat) hope that he could by some ‘karmic coincidence’ come up with something wonderful and original, without actually going through proper spiritual practice to realise any truth. While some of the ridiculous things written still remained pretty ridiculous, some develop to make some sense. An example was when a crazy question came to his mind \u2013 ‘Do you believe in balloons?’ He decided to write that down… to see where it led to. And this was the outcome: Do you believe in balloons? What kind of a question is that? Funny? Ridiculous? Serious?<\/p>\n

Balloons come in all shapes and sizes and colours.
\nSome go with a bang while others shrink and wither away,
\noften resulting in shock and disappointment.<\/p>\n

Remember as a child,
\nwhen you were given a balloon.
\nYour parents tie it to your wrist,
\nafraid that you might lose it to the sky.
\nYou hopped along happy at having something so wondrous.
\nDetermined to keep it forever, you bring it home,
\ntying it to your bed post before going to bed.<\/p>\n

When you open your eyes the next morning, it has shrunken in size.
\nYou cannot understand and sadness you feel.
\nThe slow death of the beloved.<\/p>\n

Or do you remember as a child,
\nwhen you bought a balloon in the shade,
\nand walked out into the hot sun, and it went POP just like that.
\nThe sudden death of the beloved.<\/p>\n

Balloons must and will die.
\nBecause I have faith in that.
\nI have little faith in them.
\nI don’t believe in them,
\nthat they can bring me lasting happiness.
\nPainful lessons I’d learnt.
\nBut this pain lived made me a stronger person.<\/p>\n

As a grown up,
\nhow many balloons do you still keep?
\nHow many more do you still buy?<\/p>\n

Balloons come in all shapes and sizes and colours.
\nA slick jet black sports car is a balloon.
\nA big house is a balloon.
\nAll the things you possess are balloons.
\nYour loved ones are balloons too.
\nAnd all balloons either go with a bang,
\nor they lose their form with time.<\/p>\n

Your balloons might outlast you,
\nso you might still want to play on.
\nPlay \u2013 go play! It’s REALLY okay!
\nJust remember the nature of balloons.
\nTreasure them then,
\nfrom moment to moment,
\nbut without attachment-
\nbecause the next moment,
\nthey might just pop.<\/p>\n

But what you should always remember,
\nis that you too are a balloon.
\nAnd so am I.
\nI am a balloon.
\nAnd I don’t believe in balloons.
\nDo you believe in balloons?<\/p>\n

Zeph thought, \u201cSeeking true happiness is thus looking for something that is NOT like a balloon!\u201d What kind of a statement is that? Funny? Ridiculous? Serious? Nirvana, AH! Beyond all shapes and sizes and colours, that which pops not and loses not its form, because it is beyond form. It’s funny, but ‘Nirvana’ is simply the technical name for a ‘non-balloon!’ Zeph slapped his forehead and sighed! ‘Why do I keep thinking of these crazy ideas? Smart Alec! Idiot!’ Zeph the unenlightened human balloon \u2013 was almost bursting, full of what was almost total nonsense, and with what was almost pride about this rubbish! Disgusting!<\/p>\n

The next day, Zeph came across a ‘The Sinister Man’ (‘El Hombre Siniestro’ by Antonio Prohias) comic strip, where the title character gives a boy a balloon, which he received happily. The Sinister Man then uses a catapult to burst it, before slipping it into the back pocket of another boy. The one with the popped balloon turns around, and sees the catapult sticking out of the other boy’s pocket. As they clash in a fist fight, the Sinister Man grins and walks away.<\/p>\n

Isn’t this the story of our life? Isn’t it hilarious? We pin too much hopes on balloons, while these hopes constantly cast the impending shadow of fear and disappointment – since these hopes can be easily dashed. Wasn’t life quite okay before the boy had the balloon? Did attachment to the balloon come before or after having it? Is a balloon worth fighting over? Is it sensible to have so much aversion to the loss of a balloon? It’s greed and hate at play – that arose from delusion, not seeing the way things truly are \u2013 that they are ‘sinister’ tricks we fall for. Is the Sinister Man truly evil, or was he a great teacher to the boys? Who is really the elusively sinister one? Who is the real cause of suffering? Him, or us? (Incidentally, greed, hatred and delusion are the roots of all suffering in Buddhism.)<\/p>\n

A special note on balloons… Releasing balloons in the air might feel ‘romantic’ or joyous, but it is environmentally harmful as balloons are made of non-biodegradable material. After being released, they will inevitably shrink or pop, and fall somewhere, where it does not rot but accumulates as garbage, possibly harming animal life too. Balloons are indeed overrated! I really don’t believe in balloons! You don’t really either!
\n
\nContinues at http:\/\/wp.me\/p54LT-3qx<\/a>
\n<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from http:\/\/wp.me\/p54LT-3qg Do You Believe in Balloons? Sometimes, Zeph wrote the most ridiculous things in his journal in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mix","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}