An Uncommon Victory

Student (S)

Master (M)

S: Master, how do I become victorious?

M: I cannot manufacture the motivation to answer such a question.

S: Why, Master?

M: Because the thing you are seeking to becoming victorious in, is a pleasure chase.

S: But Master, when I watch you compete with the sword, the arrow, and hand to hand combat, you are consistently victorious.

M: I suppose.

S: How do you become victorious?

M: This question does not interest me.

S: Why?

M: Because I am not trying to be victorious.

S: Is this why you are victorious?

M: You are attempting to trap me in a corner, student. It will not work.

S: I do not mean to trap you.

M: In fact, you do.

S: Why?

M: Despite my avoidance of your question, you attack from a different angle. Seeking the same answer to your silly inquiry as how to become victorious.

S: Master, may I ask you something with sincerity?

M: If you wish.

S: Do you genuinely not seek to become victorious?

M: That is correct.

S: Why?

M: If there is any victory I have devoted myself to, it is victory over the insidious concept of victory and defeat. THIS . . . is an uncommon victory.

S: If one does not play to win, then why play at all?

M: There is no requirement to play.

S: Why should a man play if he does not play to win?

M: He should not play then.

S: Do you not have a reason why such a man should play?

M: No.

S: Why?

M: The man who asks such a question will not be satisfied by any answer that does not coincide with his philosophy.

S: I do not understand, Master.

M: A man who questions why he should play if he does not play to win, is a man who sees things through the narrow lens of victory and defeat. He is a pleasure-chasing man. He will not hear anything that is outside the domain of this viewpoint.

S: Is not every man a pleasure-chasing man?

M: Almost all men are pleasure-chasing men.

S: Then?

M: Then what?

S: Then what advice do you have for them?

M: I do not have any advice for them.

S: But then whatever you have learned will go to waste.

M: It will go to waste if I spend it in areas in which it cannot take root.

S: But if almost all men are pleasure-chasing men, then should not your approach be tailored to help them?

M: No.

S: Why, Master?

M: Human beings are conditioned by their own beliefs. They are also conditioned to reject anything that does not coincide with their beliefs.

S: Then should you not find a way to help them?

M: Why do you ask silly questions, student?

S: Why is this silly?

M: A man who is “helped” against his will, will view the “help” as an assault. The man who asks for “help” is secretly asking for permission to act in accordance with his own beliefs.

The one who drops to his knees and is willing to divorce himself from all that he has come to belief because he would rather die than continue living the lies he has been living . . . this is a man who is truly seeking “help.”

S: Would you help such a man?

M: Perhaps.

S: Why?

M: Because he is Ready.

S: Ready for what, Master?

M: Ready to know The Truth.

S: When does a person become Ready, Master?

M: When, through whatever means or circumstances, a longing grows within him. A longing to either abandon the falsehoods he has been living. Or a longing to Arrive.

S: Arrive where?

M: The words differ for every human being. For one person it may be a longing to arrive at their ultimate human potential. For another it may be a longing to arrive at Truth.

S: Master, I feel sheepish asking this question. But is there anything wrong with victories, rewards, or ambitions?

M: There is no need to feel sheepish, student. It is a perfectly acceptable question.

S: What is your response, Master?

M: There is no right or wrong, student. There is only cause and effect.

S: Might you expand a little, Master?

M: There is nothing wrong with victories, rewards, or ambitions. The question is what effect they have upon a human being.

S: And what effect is that?

M: Where there is a reward on the horizon, there will be an effect upon the human mind. The effect will result in a chase.

S: If I may ask, what is wrong with a chase?

M: It would be more effective to ask what the Effect of a chase is.

S: And what is that?

M: The effect of a chase is anxiety. A man who chases will live under the weight of hope, fear, and anxiety. Any thought or action that arises from hope, fear, or anxiety is a reactive thought or action. Any thought or action that is reactive is not Truth. Thus it is bound to create more problems in its wake.

This is a path that can never lead to permanence, peace, mastery, or one’s true potential. This is a path that cannot lead to an Arrival.

S: I wish to move in the direction of Truth, Master. I do not seek to chase rewards any longer.

M: (Silence).

S: My first instinct is to ask what I should do. But I am learning not to ask for prescriptions. Perhaps it will be more effective to ask how you became devoted to the path of Uncommon Victory.

M: I came to see that pleasure chases had no end. I arrived at the realization that external rewards were a manifestation of an internal compulsion toward pleasure. And that they compelled a human to play the game that was already being played.

S: The game already being played, Master?

M: Rewards compel a man to jump into the ring. He spends his entire life in the ring, fighting and striving and struggling. But he never sees the ring for what it is. The reward has robbed him of the opportunity to see the game for what it is. Thus, he sees through the dark and clouded lens of the rulebook he has been given.

For his entire life, this man has thought of himself to be a “professional” at his craft. But he never comes to realize that he does not truly know the game that he calls his “profession.” For he has always seen it only through the perspectives that the culture conditioned him with.

S: And in this man’s profession and culture, everything is a lie?

M: Is there any way it cannot be a lie, student?

S: I do not understand.

M: As almost every man is a pleasure-chaser, must not every profession in the world be filled with pleasure-chasing men?

S: Yes. It must be so.

M: In a world of pleasure-chasers, what else can be produced other than a pleasure-chasing culture? In a pleasure-chasing culture, can there be anything other than lies? Can a poisoned well bear water that is pure?

S: No, Master. It cannot. It is now that I am beginning to see that few will be able to understand these words.

M: There is no reason to lament, student. If there is but One, it is enough.

S: I seek to be that One, Master.

M: (Silence).

S: I too wish to one day Arrive, Master.

M: Arrival lies not only in arriving “one day.” But Arriving at every step of the way. Arrival lies in arriving before you Arrive.

S: Thank you, my Master.