Samurai Counseling 3
Are you interested in Fractal Psychology? Fractal Psychology (founded in Japan by Mau Isshiki) can easily analyze the cause of problem. You can learn how it is possible and how it is effective to solve problems reading an entertaining scenario! Let's enjoy!
[Case No. 1 Repay for the Past 3]
(In Tatami room)
Madam, continuing Ikebana, remembers one scene of her old days.
(In her memory)
Young Mau: Please! Master, I don't endure waiting for the true answer anymore! Please tell me the truth right now. Why my hardships don't end? I really want to know its reason. Even if I would be hurt by hearing the truth seriously, I do want to know it. Please don't care about how I would feel. I can stand whatever you say. You know how long I have sought the truth, but I couldn't find it alone. So, please, Master. I'm ready to hear your words. (With tears in her eyes)
(In Tatami room) Madam sighs and looks with blank unseeing eyes, and smiles a little.
Scene: John’s Office
Accountant: Mr. Sanders, we can’t pay the bills. We’re 25,000 in the red. If this keeps up we won’t be able to pay the rent or the employees’ salaries. I suggest that we terminate the car lease to reduce….
John: What are you talking about? How can we make deliveries without a car?!
Accountant: Deliveries are way down because orders are way down. We’ve lost 40% of our customers. If we don’t do something about it, we’ll be out on the street.
John: Understood. I’ll take care of it so why don’t you go home for today. (The accountant leaves. John turns to the managing director in another room.)
John: Hey, what are you doing about sales? We’re losing customers left and right.
Managing director: I’m doing my best here. Our competitor is offering a 50% discount for six months. I have my hands tied just trying to persuade customers not to switch over. There’s no way I can chase new customers too. You should give me credit for keeping the 60% we still have. And what about you? Didn’t you promise you’d make some sales calls? Instead of just shuffling legal paperwork?
John: I’m dealing with two lawsuits here, and still don’t have a lawyer for one case. There’s a lot I need to do myself.
Managing Director: You mean the harassment suit, right? That’s your personal problem, not the company’s. I always thought you were too hard on Kane.
John: How am I the bad guy here? He should lighten up. Everyone was having a good laugh, and he was laughing right along. How is that harassment?
Managing Director: Sorry, but I’m going home now, I’ve been kind of depressed lately.
John: …. (Stunned silence)
Scene: Madam’s house.
(The fretwork of see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil monkeys)
A room with a wooden floor opposite the transom. There’s a table and two chairs. Azuchi-Momoyama style. John is seated alone, waiting for Madam.
While he’s waiting, John flashes back.
David: I see, that must’ve been tough. That’s why you’ve come back to me.
John: You are an excellent lawyer. Please, help me. I have a wife and a child. I don’t understand why these things happen to me. We’re only able to make ends meet because my wife is working. If things keep on like this, we’ll have to move and my kid will have to switch schools. I’ve been living an honest life. It’s totally unfair that these horrid things should happen to me. If there’s any justice in the world, I ought to win the suit. I haven’t done anything wrong!
David: Believe me, I’d like to help you. But as I’ve said before, it’s Madam who can help you, not me. I’m sure you understand that a lawsuit can consume months of your time. You won’t be able to focus on anything else, and your income will never be what it was before. That’s why I’m offering you a super short cut.
John: Are you trying to tell me that woman’s psychic and that she can get rid of an evil spirit that’s attached itself to me? What’s she going to do? Pray to change my fate? I can’t solve my problems with that kind of quackery.
David: No, no, this is actually quite scientific. Well, if you don’t have the brains to understand, it may seem like snake oil to you. What would Shakespeare make of a cell phone? Fairy whisperings trapped in a glass and metal block. I know you want results. But humans refuse to try anything they don’t understand, and they can’t understand what they won’t try, and so they’re stuck. Round and round in circles, they go.
(John comes back to the present moment)
John: (Internal voice) What here do you call scientific?
(Looks around. He sees: Paper sliding doors, the bamboo and rock fountain in the Japanese garden, a Japanese style lamp, paintings of forest and lake by Higashiyama Kaii, kebana in the alcove, framed calligraphy. )
Madam (Wearing a dress today): So, you’ve come again. Wonder how long you’ll last today?
John: Don’t start with me. I don’t know who you are, or whether or not you will help me. I’m here because I don’t want to leave a single stone unturned. Maybe right now I ought to be looking for customers. But I really want to get to the root of the issue.
Madam: The root, you say?
John: That’s right. I’ve always done the best I could. I have a wife and a kid. I’m a good, productive member of society, I haven’t done anything questionable. And yet, unfair things happen to me. Why do terrible things happen even when you haven’t done anything bad? I’m thinking there’s got to be some way out. I want to know how. I don’t just want to win the lawsuit, I want to put an end to this unreasonable world. (Presses his face on the table.)
Madam: This world isn’t unreasonable. You just think it is.
John: If it’s not unreasonable, what is it? Do you understand what it feels like to see your business go down hill? No matter how hard you work, you can’t pay your employees’ salaries and can’t pay your rent. Your workers quit one after another. You try to deliver your products to the customers you’ve managed to retain, but because you’re now understaffed, you can’t make your deliveries. And then you have to take call after call of customer complaints and apologize nonstop. I just feel pathetic. When I go home, my wife goes on about this, that and the other. If my business fails, we won’t be able to stay in the house, we’ll have to move. I can’t let things get that bad. It’s all because of Kane! Why in the world should I suffer like this?
Madam: (Pointing to the transom) Look at that.
John: The monkeys? I saw them the last time.
Madam: Why do you think the monkeys refuse to see, hear, or speak?
John: Um, because they’d rather not see?
Madam: Why do they not want to see?
John: That’s because….they don’t want to see because they don’t want to see.
Madam: It’s because they are arrogant. They have a monkey brain. Roughly speaking, monkeys have only the intelligence of a two-year-old, but they’re haughty. They’re lazy. They do a little bit of work and convince themselves that they’ve done well or that they’re great. They refuse to see, hear or speak because they don’t want their shortcomings pointed out. The human heart is like these monkeys.
John: Madam, if you know how I can solve my problem, please teach me. I’m willing to see, hear, and speak. I will do anything.
Madam: Is that so? All right, I’ll teach you. You must have bullied someone when you were a child, right?
John: What? No, that’s not true, I don’t remember bullying anyone.
Madam: Be earnest about seeing and hearing. Answer me properly.
John: No, really, I’ve never bullied anyone. I was a good, bright kid.
Madam: You’ve robbed someone of their happiness?
John: What? No, never. No, honestly, I don’t remember the past. What’s my childhood got to do with my current situation anyway?
(To be continued)
