Come Alive You Lucky Bastards!
“People need to be reminded that they began as cum. Not to diminish or cut them down to size – quite the contrary: I tell people they were cum once as a gesture of of my awe at their very existence and to pat’em on the back. There are no losers in this life because every one of us who is born is a huge fucking winner…Motherfuck being the Sundance flavor of the month; being the sole product of that careless cumshot my old man somehow kept inside my mom is akin to beating the Kurgan and becoming the Highlander. “
-Kevin Smith
You might have heard something like this before, a lot of people bring it up as a demonstration of how strong and fast and powerful you already are. What these folks leave out is that you were actually not the strongest and fastest sperm. The strongest and fastest all died off while breaking through the corona radiata and zona pellucida, making the way for the relatively smaller and weaker sperm to get through. Being the sperm that got to fertilize the egg is not an indicator of strength and speed. In fact if you really follow the thinking it may be a better indicator of laziness and a propensity take credit for the work of others :-). It does however show the incredible odds against you being you.
Buddhists call this the preciousness of human rebirth, which is one of the very first things that newly refuged Buddhists are supposed to contemplate. If you, like Buddhists, consider reincarnation as a non-human to be a possibility, the chances of being born a human are even slimmer than being the one sperm in three hundred million. Tibetans for instance would consider that you could be born in one of a multitude of other planes of existence, on another planet in this plane, or as an animal on this planet. Even if you are a human, the chances of being born with enough comfort to study or think about spirituality, enough mental capacity to understand the teachings, enough freedom to practice as you will, and in a time and place where teachings are available make your current life very precious indeed.
Buddhists have 18 qualifications for a precious human rebirth , and many of course are Buddhist specific. In Buddhist meditation, this focus on the rarity of your current circumstance, and the impending demise that will befall you relatively soon is supposed to turn your mind to the dharma, the thought being that all the material hubub of life is impermanent and fleeting so it is better to practice dharma and build something that will last beyond death yadda yadda yadda…
I think that the argument that everyone should practice Buddhism are not very convincing unless you feel a call to that particular path. After all, its just another bunch of dudes in funny robes telling you they know the score. The arguments about your precious human birth, and the motivation that should spark in you however is a bit more compelling. If you are reading these words, you are extraordinarily lucky. You are not chosen. You are not blessed by god. You did not create the circumstance all on your own. You are not the strongest and fastest sperm. You are just fucking lucky.
The second thing that Buddhists are meant to contemplate is impermanence The message here is that luck runs out. Right now you have the opportunity to make your life extraordinary. If you want to practice Dharma, by all means do that, but I am not going to tell you that I am 100% sure that the work you do will be any more or less lasting or worthwhile than a guy who makes a billion dollars finding a way to mass produce algea lamps at a profit.
Howard Thurman, once said “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” That is where the Sorcerer has departed from the Buddhist. I don’t want you to adhere to the Dharma, I just want you to live an extraordinary life.
Come alive!
