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    Tales of Slot Machine Bodhisattvas
    Tales of Slot Machine Bodhisattvas
    Tales of Slot Machine Bodhisattvas
    Ebook354 pages3 hours

    Tales of Slot Machine Bodhisattvas

    By Mel C. Thompson

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    About this ebook

    You are always in some combination of medieval Japan or modern Los Angeles. At every turn there is someone leading you either to the highest transcendent state or into inexcusable vice, or some combination of both. In the final analysis, ancient Kyoto and current Santa Monica are one reality. Inebriation and iron-willed discipline are of one substance. Story after story carries you forward into questions that haven't changed for millennia and answers that change every moment. Nothingness and emptiness are far warmer than you could imagine. Samsara and Nirvana are one and the same state seen from different lights. To get the story told, there will have to be some violence, some illicit romance and excessive indulgence in every sinful self-defense. Every story will seem vaguely familiar and reassuring, but turn strange and unsettling at a whim. Come ride with discredited priests, monks and holy men and women as they enshrine the ordinary as sacred and blaspheme the sacred as substandard.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMel C. Thompson
    Release dateMay 19, 2018
    ISBN9780463476567
    Tales of Slot Machine Bodhisattvas
    Author

    Mel C. Thompson

    Mel C. Thompson is a retired wage slave who survived by working through temp agencies and guard agencies. Unable to survive in the real world of full-time, permanent work, he migrated from building to building, going wherever his agencies sent him, doing any type of work he could feign competency in and staying as long as those fragile arrangements could last. He somehow managed to get a B.A in Philosophy from Cal-State Fullerton in spite of his learning disorders and health problems. Unable to sustain family life due to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, lack of transportation and lack of income, he lives alone in low-income housing and wanders around California on buses and trains. He began writing at the age of 14 and continues till the current day. (He turns 64 in June of 2023). In his early years he wrote pathetic love poetry until, in his thirties, he was engulfed by cynicism and fell in with a group of largely antisocial poets who wrote about the underground life of drugs, sex, alcohol, poverty, prostitution, heresy, isolation and alienation. In his fortes he turned to prose and began to write religious fiction with an emphasis on the comedic aspect of theology and philosophy. He now writes short novels focusing on the attempt to find meaning in a economic world beset with money laundering, unethical marketing, contraband smuggling, human trafficking, patent trolling, corrupt contracting and every manner of spiritual and psychological desperation and degradation. When he is not writing, he wanders from hospital to medical clinic to surgical room attempting to sustain what little health he has left after a lifetime of complications resulting from birth defects and genetic problems. When he is able, he engages in such hobbies as reading, walking, yoga and meditation; and whenever there is any money left over from his healthcare-related quests, he goes to wine tastings and searches for foodie-related bargains. Before the pandemic, he spent many years gaming various travel-points systems and wrangled many free trips to Europe. He is divorced and has no children, no pets, no real estate, no stocks nor any other assets beyond the $550 in his savings account. His career peaked in the early 2000s when he did comedy gags for a radio station and had about 10,000 listeners per week. However, currently, he may have as few as five active readers on any given day. He no longer has the stamina to promote his work and only finds new readers through ran...

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      Book preview

      Tales of Slot Machine Bodhisattvas - Mel C. Thompson

      Tales of Slot Machine Bodhisattvas

      Mel C. Thompson

      Copyright © January 2016, 2018, Mel C. Thompson

      Mel C. Thompson Publishing

      3559 Mount Diablo Boulevard, #112

      Lafayette, California 94549

      melcthompson@yahoo.com

      Dedicated to:

      Alan Watts, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Adi Da Samraj,

      U. G. Krishnamurti, Werner Erhard and Joseph Smith Jr.

      Cover Image And Interior Text Notes:

      The cover image is a GIMP-adapted file from the collection of public domain photographs at the Wikipedia website. The cover-image layout and the interior text formatting were done with LibreOffice. Cambodian Buddhist castings and sculptures of the Hindu god Bramhá can be found not only in Southeast Asia, but also, serendipitously, at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. It seems I am not the first Buddhist to import the Hindu gods into his faith, nor am I the first to assert that there may be just a touch of divinity in all our silliest illusions. As the first volume of these stories notes, we might vow to save all living beings, but we shouldn’t vow to do it so quickly that we risk permanently ruining the beautiful illusions that Bramhá so shrewdly created. Yes, there is a reason that the best representations of Bramhá always include a smirk. (GIMP is an advanced, free, open-source image-processing software. LibreOffice is a full-featured, free, open-source office-suite software.)

      Table of Contents

      1. Shiva At The Door

      Holier Than The World

      Paradise

      The Executioner

      The Voidness School

      A Question About Shiva

      The Purpose of Life

      The Avatar

      Not Broke Yet

      Awaiting The Messiah

      The Three Precepts

      A Zen Addict

      Panhandlers

      The Perfect Prayer

      His Holiness

      Shiva At The Door

      Their Fatal Mistake

      Breaking Out of Prison

      Ashoka’s True Love

      The First Noble Truth

      The Muse Confronts Mu Mu

      Near-Earth Objects

      The New-Age Psychic

      Which God?

      2. The Supreme Light of Mundane Existence

      Neuro-Linguistic Programming

      Islamophobia

      I Am Shiva

      Water-Truck Bodhisattva

      3. Mara’s Fame Factory

      All My Life’s Work

      Which Writings Are False

      The Divine Mother

      The Great Non-Achievement

      A Decent Donation

      One More Requirement

      The Secret History of The Sutras

      Mara’s Fame Factory

      Delusional Emptiness

      4. The High Mountain Seat of The Law

      The High Mountain Seat of The Law

      Finding The True Believers

      Absolutely Not!

      A Negative Religion

      Restless Zen

      The Reason For The Master’s Silence

      5. To The Lifeboats!

      A Quick Meeting With The Master

      A Short Discussion On Prayer

      A Few More Notes On The Great Matter

      A Dinner At The Monastery

      A Short Time At The Lectern

      The Ocean of Birth And Death

      6. No Wei Ai Go’s Fourteen Heresies

      No Wei ai Go’s Fourteen Heresies

      7. An Excess of Opium

      The Revolutionaries

      The Test

      Some Sayings of The Anti-Saints

      No Markings of Greatness

      The Way of The World

      Lao Tsu’s Failed Incarnation

      This Very Day

      8. Everything You Ever Wanted

      Everything You Ever Wanted

      Your High Standards

      A Parasitic Existence

      The Things You Are Asking For

      Leaving Your Mark Upon The World

      Half The Truth

      No-Nonsense Rural Guy

      Fu War And The Disillusioned Westerner

      Eager To Please Gets A Date

      9. Master of White Lies

      The Smallest Candle Flame

      Returning To The Scriptures

      Fear

      Master of White Lies Meets Radical Honesty

      Uptight Zen Guy And Pure Land Preacher

      Salvation

      Trying To Send Lao Tsu To Hell

      10. 108 Dusts

      108 Dusts And Perpetually Dissatisfied Lover

      All Living Beings

      Trying Again To Save All Living Beings

      A Literary Critic

      Entering The Gateless Gate

      The Great Patriarchs

      11. The Slot Machine Bodhisattva

      The Pure Light of No Teaching

      Those Scriptures

      Continual Bowing

      The Slot Machine Bodhisattva

      The Echo Park Buddha

      The Name That Can Be Named

      The Dreaded Fujikami Plays Humble

      Dialogue of X And Y

      Stray Dogs

      Winterhorse

      All The Things I Am Not Doing Now

      That Last Commandment

      The People And Cocaine

      An Encounter At Throne #6024

      Subject X

      2016 Haiku

      12. Selected Ancient Fragments From The Scrolls of To Fu

      Selected Ancient Fragments From The Scrolls of To Fu

      13. Every Labor Every Commenced

      Zen Moon Poem

      Social Duties

      This Dimension

      Every Labor Ever Commenced

      14. The Third Diamond

      Doctrines

      A Wealthy Man

      Jade Emperor 2017

      Miss Emotionally Wholesome Meets Primordial Sensei

      A Day In The Life of Aku no Ken no

      The Shogun And The Old Celibate

      An Idealistic Student Confronts Fujikami

      Shoji Screen # 2

      The Supreme Question

      The Odessa Juggernaut

      The Problem of The Precepts

      A Short Holiday Play

      Popular Buddhist Authority Meets Monk On Meds

      The Circumstances Regarding Sensei’s Eventual Retirement

      The Third Diamond

      Shallow Pleasures

      Mountain Lions

      Ask God For Anything

      1. Shiva At The Door

      Holier Than The World

      Return To Table of Contents

      Sir, I would like to join this monastery.

      
Why?

      Because the world is so corrupt.

      Do you think living here would make you holier than the world?

      Yes, I think so.

      Then come back when you view the world as the Body of Buddha.

      If I viewed the world as the Body of Buddha, why would I want to live in a monastery?

      I've been asking everyone here the same question. If you gain some insight on the matter, please let us know.

      Paradise

      Return To Table of Contents

      The Grand Mufti had grown irritable. Whenever he began to instruct his followers on spiritual matters, they would constantly interrupt him with entreaties to describe Paradise. Whenever anyone brought up the subject of Paradise, the Mufti would simply reach for his sword. This was the only way to silence the inquiries.

      One day the Mufti came before the full assembly and called out, Whoever loves God because he has promised us Paradise, raise your hands toward Heaven!

      A great roar came from the assembly as the over-whelming majority of people raised their hands, shouting for joy.

      The Mufti shouted back, Whoever would love God if there were no Paradise, raise your hands toward Heaven!

      Only five hands went up. The audience glowered at the five and they quickly put their hands back down.

      The Mufti hollered, Only the last five will go to Paradise!

      The Executioner

      Return To Table of Contents

      A dynastic government had a long-standing requirement that executioners be Buddhists of unimpeachable character. A certain Tien Chan had recently been appointed executioner of a provincial city due to his excellent citizenship and letters of recommendation from his Buddhist minister.

      Every day, before going to the prison to discharge his duties, Tien had two daily rituals. First he burned some incense and recited sutras at the crack of dawn. Then he diligently practiced chopping things in half with his broad sword.

      When he arrived at work, he was told who was to be dispatched. Most often all that was called for was one swift swing of Tien's broad sword. As far as anyone could tell, there was no time for the condemned man to feel any pain.

      Another one to the Pure Land, Tien would say with a hardy smile.

      One day, as Tien was visiting a local merchant, he was confronted by a college student who was training to be a politician.

      Has anyone told you how inconsistent you are? First you take a vow of non-killing in order to be a Buddhist, then you take a vow to execute anyone the Emperor tells you to. How can anyone be a good Buddhist executioner?

      If you ever speak to the Emperor the way you’re speaking to me, assured Tien Chan, the government will have me personally resolve the paradox for you.

      The Voidness School

      Return To Table of Contents

      I was reading in a Buddhist History book that there was a sect in China called The Voidness School. What did they teach?

      They taught the insubstantiality of all forms.

      That's not much fun.

      Not for you.

      
Why did they call their religion The Voidness School?

      Because they saw the emptiness of all names.

      How may I seek Voidness?

      Voidness is itself the extinction of all seeking.

      Are people happy when they reach the Void?

      They are awakened.

      Have you personally experienced Voidness?

      I experience it each time you visit me.

      A Question About Shiva

      Return To Table of Contents

      A distraught Zen student rushed into the Master’s quarters without setting an appointment. Instead of beating him, the Master was extremely gracious and said, Son, why don’t you sit down and join me for some tea.

      The student attempted to pretend he had regained his composure, but at last he blurted out, Sensei, I am very perplexed about something. I keep turning it over and over in my mind and I can't make any sense of it.

      Is that so? said the Master gently. Well, why don’t you tell me what’s troubling you.

      I had a very uncomfortable conversation with a philosopher yesterday.

      What did he tell you?

      He said that the god Shiva will destroy the world. Then he explained that Brahma would re-create it, Vishnu would sustain it, and finally Shiva would come along and destroy it again. He claims this pattern simply repeats itself for eternity.

      I'm afraid it’s true, the Master said softly, but don't go telling people or they'll turn it into a doctrine.

      Why would the gods do this to us? inquired the student anxiously.

      They do it out of love.

      What! The gods arrange to have us destroyed over and over again for eternity! What kind of love is that?

      The Master replied, "Exactly the kind of love you need."

      The Purpose of Life

      Return To Table of Contents

      A visitor asked Sensei, What is the purpose of life?

      Sensei replied, Are you listening?

      
The visitor said, I don't think you heard my question.

      Sensei replied, I don't think you’re listening.

      The Avatar

      Return To Table of Contents

      Quite a clamor was building around a certain Hindu priest in a neighboring province. His teachings and practices seemed indistinguishable from any other ordinary Brahmin, and he made no special claims for himself. He mostly tended to his small congregation, rarely issuing public statements and declining offers to go on speaking tours.

      This state of affairs was common among the superstitious villagers. Once some simpleton got it into his head that this or that person was a Manifestation of God-On-Earth, there was no talking him out of it. Depending on the persuasiveness of the particular sycophant who began spreading these rumors, the buzz could spread far and wide through countless chatty villages in no time at all. An unsuspecting priest might find himself surrounded by ten thousand pilgrims, all seeking a personal blessing.

      One day as the priest came back from his duties at the local shrine, he was besieged by a pack of reporters. Sir, are you really an Avatar, a World Savior? Sir, Sir, can I have just a moment alone with you? They say your eyes glow like green lanterns in the dark. Can you show us tonight?

      Seeing instantly what had transpired, the Brahmin said, I have no statement for you now. I am preparing to meet my family for dinner. Tomorrow night I shall address your most important questions at the town square.

      By the next evening, thanks to stories in the regional newspapers, the town square had become jammed with some forty thousand people. The local government threw together a stage and rented out a public address system. The leaders of the community organized a festival to take place before the main event. The local people took the day off work and went to the town square to watch the dancers, storytellers, yogis and singers enact the great Hindu epics. Open-pit grills were improvised, and the smell of smoking vegetables and vats of tea filled the air. As the sun began to set, torches were lit and the intensity of the crowd grew to a fevered pitch.

      The mayor of the town gave a long speech and introduced many dignitaries. Ceremonial awards were given out to schoolchildren and junior athletes. In a last-minute decision to carry the Avatar’s address live, a national television network arrived and set up cameras.

      Just after twilight the mayor introduced the Avatar himself. The diminutive Brahmin looked small on the large stage in front of the immense crowd. From one camera’s angle he looked a bit hunched-over and frail.

      Good people of the Province, he started. Perhaps I am, as you say, an Avatar. But let me make it clear to you what an Avatar is, according to my humble understanding. A Manifestation of God-On-Earth is one who takes human form and wields the power to save the world. This planet has been blessed with a long line of Divine Incarnations. Ramakrishna and Jesus Christ come immediately to mind. But note that the power to save the world is not the obligation to save the world. In fact, if we look around us, we can plainly see that after hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Divine Incarnations, not one has elected to save the world. Now I shall do it. I hereby declare that you shall all be transformed into Avatars hence-forth. Therefore, I command you to look to no other man or woman for salvation. You are salvation itself.

      The forlorn crowd quickly disbanded and the reporters went home for good.

      Not Broke Yet

      Return To Table of Contents

      A prominent businessman began seeing our Abbot about a year ago due to a looming financial crisis.

      Sensei, he’d say, I’m going broke. My business is going bankrupt.

      But your business is a corporation. Its bankruptcy is separate from yours, shot back the Abbot. If you are not personally filing for bankruptcy, then you’re not broke yet.

      After sitting through a particularly arduous meditation session a few months later, the businessman tugged on the Abbot’s arm and said, I’m going to have to file for personal bankruptcy. They’re foreclosing on my house. I think I’ve had it.

      But the bankruptcy Trustee will still let you keep several months’ salary in the bank, replied the Mater, so you’ll have more than enough to pay rent and keep your car running.

      About a week ago this same businessman made a personal appointment with our Abbot. He entered the Zendo just as the Abbot was cleaning the altar. The Abbot was in the act of dusting off a statue of Kannon Bodhisattva when the businessman fell to floor in front of the altar, reduced to tears by his financial condition.

      My bank account is now completely empty. My wife has left me. My family has lost faith in me and refuses to help.

      Upon hearing this the Abbot produced a crisp, new thousand-dollar bill and put it in front of the supplicant’s face and said, You're not broke yet.

      The businessman rose to his feet in consternation. I can’t take that kind of money from you. That may be your life savings for all I know. Besides, where does a Buddhist monk go to get a thousand dollars?

      That’s easy, chuckled the Abbot, I’ve been stealing twenty dollars a week from your jacket for the last year.

      Awaiting The Messiah

      Return To Table of Contents

      The Rector was leaving his office to go home for the evening. As he passed by the front lawn of the Cathedral to go to his car, he noticed several members of his Episcopal congregation seated on blankets, eating out of picnic baskets and occasionally looking furtively at the horizon toward the sunset. Although he was very ecumenical in his outlook, he was surprised to see an odd collection of Jews and Muslims also seated on the lawn. A few had put up tents and were unrolling sleeping bags.

      May I ask, the Rector said curiously, to whom do we owe the honor of such a grand interfaith gathering?

      The Sunday school teacher said with child-like enthusiasm, Rabbi Ben Judah has predicted the Messiah would come tonight, some time after sunset. We heard it on his Prophecies of The Torah radio show.

      The Rector arched his eyebrows, sat himself on the grass with his parishioners and their guests and said, Then I suppose I have no choice but to wait with you. I had promised to take my wife out to dinner, but I’m sure she’ll understand my canceling our dinner on account of the Messiah coming.

      The sun set completely and the dark-blue twilight descended over the Cathedral grounds. A few of the parishioners broke out their guitars and taught some hymns to the visitors. Someone with a propane stove set up a marshmallow roast and a good time was had by all. One could hear a few of the teenagers popping open a beer can or two, but no one bothered to criticize them.

      Around midnight the encampment became very quiet. The Rector used this opportunity to move near the propane stove so all present could see his face. Friends, the Lord has just sent me a word.

      Speak it, Reverend, a few of the parishioners said.

      I’ve realized there might be a day even more important than the day the Messiah returns to Earth, proclaimed the Rector.

      What day is that? the choir leader asked.

      
The Rector solemnly said, The day we return to Earth.

      The Three Precepts

      Return To Table of Contents

      I take up the way of not killing. I take up the way of not stealing. I take up the way of not speaking falsely.

      It was a time of unrivaled chaos throughout the countryside. Two warlords were competing for control of the government. Law and order had broken down completely and murderous bandits roamed the highways. Monks were being slaughtered like lambs because it was well known among criminals that no good Buddhist would defend himself. In fact, each monk had taken a vow of not killing under any circumstances. This meant any group of traveling Zen students was an extremely soft target.

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