Secrets of a Buddhist Fly

[McArthur]

To quote from the link;

"Advanced Chodpas (practitioners of Chod) do not satisfy themselves with just the ritual practices. They often stay in cemeteries, desolate places, and haunted houses in order to face the fearful situations and experience the interference from desperate or evil spirits. By developing compassion for all beings, including those trying to scare or harm them, by sharpening wisdom through realizing the non-substantial nature of fearful phenomena and fear itself, and by deepening meditation stability through tolerating fearful situations, Chodpas gradually achieve transcendence over attachments, fear, greed, and anger. Through the hardship of direct confrontation they advance, step by step, on the path toward Enlightenment."

[McArthur]

Well, to carry on from the last two posts. I originally called the short story "Teachings from a Fly" but maybe i should change that to "Teachings from a Mayan Goddess."

As a minor coincidence i was re-reading parts of a book today at random and came across this about the Mayan/Aztec gods;

"If they had led a sinful life, the departing souls would be escorted into the underworld carried in the arms of Lord and Lady Death, Mictlantechutli and Mictlantechutliuatl, who lived in the underworld of Mictlan, home of the dead. Once there they would meet the goddess of Filth, Tlazolteotl, the large house fly who ate filth. There she lived with her consort Ahuilteotl (he of filth and vices) whose friendly prostitute Ahuianime met his every need. Here the goddess of Flies would purge the sins of sinners in 'heart letting' ceremonies by listening to their confessions which eased the burden of guilt in their hearts. From this came the word purgatory, and the goddess herself become known by the more endearing name of the 'goddess of Hearts'.
Once purged of sins, the sinners could reincarnate in the arms of Coatlicue, the Earth goddess, for another life and another opportunity to purify the spirit." - The Supergods, M M Cotterell.

I wonder how much of the above story was influenced by Spanish Catholic priests. Still, a nice coincidence nonetheless. Apparently the pronunciation of her name goes Klaz-ol-tee-owe-tul.

I did a google search on this goddess and, amongst other interesting sites, found the following poem;

http://www.egenterprises.net/asphodel/articles/pagan_poetry.html

(The next poem is written for Tlazolteotl, the Aztec Eater of Filth. She tears your fears and negative thoughts from you and devours them whether you will or no; she is related in spirit to great Kali Ma who devours her own children. I honor all the devouring goddesses and their terrible necessity.)

Eater of Filth

Let me feed on you
on your pain
on your gloom
let me suck it down until you are emptied
and I am drunk with it
I will dance crazed while you lie bleeding
betrayed, too weak to rise
you are my food
you are my fountain
you knew what I was when you went with me
and someday you'll thank me
but not today....

-RKaldera 1997

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I am thinking about taking part control of my Purgatory experience by doing the following. Every time you have a bad thought, feel down, angry, or annoyed, close your eyes and visualize holding your cupped hands out holding that thought/emotion/negativity in them. Treat the thought/emotion as an offering to the goddess Tlazolteotl and ask her to eat it, thus taking it from you. You shall be cleansed.

Or perhaps for those who prefer the Bible;

Psa 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Psa 51:2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
Psa 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Psa 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Psa 51:6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psa 51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Psa 51:9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psa 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Psa 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Psa 51:13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Psa 51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
Psa 51:15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
Psa 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
Psa 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Psa 51:18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Psa 51:19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

[Rob]

Hey McArthur! Great posts....lol....I might have to try your suggestion on negative thoughts, please do let me know if you find it helps.

With respect to flies, I'm finding it very hard to put into practice, but it does seem like everything really does have its place. A few stories:

My mum found a beautiful rose the other day when she was clearing her vegetable patch, surrounded by nettles. She uprooted the nettles, but the next day found the rose gone too. We have a lot of rabbits, and it turns out that the nettles were the only thing stopping them from eating the rose. And, apparently the nettles are also the reason we have been seeing so many butterflies around at the moment, as they lay their eggs on them.

My friend told me this one a week or so ago. A christian was in a concentration camp, in the war, for helping Jews escape the fascist clutches. Trying to get to sleep in the terrible conditions, lying in hay, there were fleas everywhere. She prayed, and thanked God for the fleas. Next morning, she finds the only reason the gaurds hadn't gone in that room to rape them the night before was.....the fleas.

But still, I have been worrying about the exact same problem as you in the last few weeks. I am covered in mosquito bites at the moment (we have a river going through our field), and I've killed entire swarms of midges recently.
I mean, everything has its place. But, if we were to do nothing about the thorns and nettles in our field, in a couple of years they would take over. Its a conundrum. I seem to be coming to some vague conclusion that we should be generally respectful of life, but kill when necessary. eg the thousands of midges I have killed, would have turned me into a pin cushion overnight if I had left them. But shouldn't I leave them there to learn from them??? AARRGG!! Or maybe I'll learn either way.....like I said, its a tricky question

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Star Wars aside - you sure you dont want to use "Power"?? Because "force will cause the flow to cease" - power, like in water or air, is the transferrance of forces, which, if the absolutely sweet film "Twin Warriors" is anything to go by, is the essence of Tai Chi. Great film, very good, WATCH IT!!!

[McArthur]

Because of the heat there have been many flies lately. Normally i refuse to kill them but shoo them out through the open window with my hands. Only this morning a blue-bottle fly woke me out of my wonderful sleep buzzing and flying around my bedroom. It was very annoying.

My mother finds the flies so annoying she has used a whole can of fly spray in less than a week.

Just now, after reading some Buddhist thoughts, i was doing a google search on Chod (*see below). Suddenly, a fly landed on me that had been flying around for a while. It can be annoying how they cheekily land on one causing tickling and making one flick a hand at them. This time i decided that maybe the fly wanted something from me and decided to be generous and compassionate towards it. So i asked it;

"What do you want from me little fly? Take it, whatever it is you want."

And the fly replied;

"I want to take your annoyance away."

One was so surprised by its reply that one is no longer annoyed when a fly lands on one thanks to that brave little fly.

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A response i got from someone on another forum about this "fly post";

>Next thing ya know the flies will be trying to convince him that
> laying eggs in his food is only an attempt to provide for their
> children.

And my reply;

Well i did manage to mention to it that most people have this bad view of flies because they tend to eat excrement.
It said;

"If you don't want us to eat excrement then stop shitting."

I tried to explain that shitting was an intrinsic part of eating but it just laughed.
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And about the Buddhist practice of Chod (please read the whole thing at the link);

http://www.yogichen.org/efiles/chod.html#2

1. A General Characterization of Chod

Recognizing the body as the root of one's attachment to self, Machig Labdron formulated Chod to be a practice that would destroy this fundamental attachment and simultaneously develop compassion for all beings. The main part of a Chod practice can be outlined as follows:


Transfer one's consciousness into space and identify it with the black Vajra Yogini.

Through visualization, identify the body with the universe and then offer it completely to all beings who would want them, especially one's creditors, enemies, and evil beings.
For details, please refer to Chapter III below for an example of a Chod ritual.

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This is probably the ultimate anti-neg ritual.