Matt has been hired by a plumbing company to sell toilets. His old man who works for the same company got him the job. What could Matt do but accept? He was good at nothing else.
Larry, a hotshot salesman goes out with him one day and lays it on the line: “I don’t tolerate laziness. It’s a form of treason,” he says.
Matt says it’s not his fault he’s not pulling in big figures. He has no sales experience and no one is willing to train him.
Larry shoots back, “Baptism by fire.”
But Matt whines and says it’s been over a year and he still has no idea what he’s doing.
Then Larry comes back with this: “Your job is to go out there every day and get your face kicked in. It’s the only path to Enlightenment.”
I don’t know if Larry and the Buddha were talking about the same kind of Enlightenment and if they were would the Buddha have agreed with Larry’s method?
Is Larry right? Or can’t you find Enlightenment through the toilet trade?
Are some trades/professions more inimical to Enlightenment than others? Can a politician find Enlightenment? would it help him in his job?
John Malone 
Not sure if I even know what enlightenment is. Perhaps Larry meant Matt would figure out how to save his own butt. That’s enlightenment of a sort. Have you watched the movie “Kenny”? He seemed pretty enlightened to me and he was in the shit business. What do I mean when I say that? I think enlightenment must include compassion. That’s what I saw in Kenny.
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🙂 loved Kenny; I am still learning about Enlightenment: I know it involves acknowledging the 4 noble truths and following the 8 fold path —-
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Oh ok. That sounds very Buddhist. I mean I know it originates in Buddhism. But I guess I was taking a more general perspective on it. I got very interested in Buddhism (the philosophies more than the religion) in my twenties. It encompasses some fabulous ideas.
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it does, Worms: and there are many ways that Buddhism and Christianity align; I reckon if Buddha and Jesus were contemporaries, they’d be good mates 🙂
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I hope so. Most of the big religions share huge amounts philosophically. And yet still they divide us
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I can see them down at the pub downing a few beers, swapping jokes [politically correct, of course], rolling with the banter 🙂
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i saw kenny and loved it! as for matt and larry, i do think you can find enlightenment most anywhere, but i don’t see larry’s method of forcing it, as a way to attain it
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Loved ‘Kenny’; agreed: forcing the method on someone is not going to work —
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I think enlightenment, if it comes through a trade, can come through any trade. Any trade that is practiced from the heart. Be the best that you can be.
You, John- you are an enlightened poet.
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thanks 🙂 I don’t know about that but I too believe that any trade practised from the heart can lead to Enlightenment 🙂
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A number two
on the loo
is surely enlightenment!
Or is that apportionment?
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Lol
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Haha. Very creative. I think Larry and Buddha may be on different paths. Enlightenment can be a harsh lesson or punishment. It really is about acceptance. So face kicked in or relinquishing bonds, the end result should be teaching you something worthwhile.
Enjoyed this. 🙂
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thanks Terveen; it’s a neat little scenario 🙂
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“For enlightened meditation,
of the truly transcendental kind,
first one must flush all the crap
from your very dirty mind.”
~ Guru Hoodoo ☯️ 😎
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I don’t know if I know what “Enlightenment” means in this context. But I actually think one is far more likely to find it toilet sales than in many other professions. Toilet salesman is actually useful for society. There are many other professions which offer no benefit to society whatsoever *cough* influencer *cough*
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To suffer regardless of arena is to move down the path to enlightenment, so I think Larry’s on to something. There’s no set manual for maturation, and teachers while invaluable at pointing us down the right paths are a bit like training wheels, don’t you agree? It’s when they come off and we have to balance, fall, find our own path that real learning happens. Okay, you got me thinking. Great post, John.
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thanks , K: it’s got me thinking too 🙂
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