9/26/2023 0 Comments What’s It All About?The Investigation To gain access to the deeper recesses of my own being, I have learned to actively use my imagination to invite a wise person to help me. During my business career, I often called upon him as a consultant to help me make the best possible decisions. I think that all genuine religious and spiritual traditions are well advanced in this kind of exploration using saints, deities, guardian angels and other marvelous beings for visualizations and interventions. Recently, I asked for some guidance. It was non-specific, just a chance to go deeper into the heart of mystery, the heart of life. I suggested that he ask me a question to get the ball rolling. I sat quietly and simply waited. Out of nowhere, the theme song from a 1960s movie popped into my mind “What’s it all about, Alfie? Is it just for the moment we live?” Within a few heartbeats, a profusion of images filled my consciousness. And emerging from the center of this colorful explosion, almost like a hologram, was the word: CONNECTION This rang true and felt like the start of an investigation, so I let it be. The Article A few days later, I was reading an article in the Fall, 2023 edition of Tricycle, my favorite Buddhist magazine. It was written by Anne Klein and called the Big Picture. The postscript said that Anne was a professor of religious studies at Rice University and a founding teacher at Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism in Houston. Her first paragraph elegantly captured the essence of my experience / vision. Here it is. “We are all children of the Big Bang. We come from space. Everything we see and touch comes from space. Our blood carries iron, sourced in the explosive energy of supernovas. We as individuals are not separate from this grandeur. My breath, my iron, was once in someone else’s body and will be again. Yours likewise. Connection is central to our existence, but we seldom live as if it is. We feel separate from others, and from society at large, yet we don’t want to be alone. We feel separate from our greatest potential, yet we want to succeed. We feel separate from our own inner life, yet we yearn to feel more alive. Our sense of separateness is at the core of our suffering. Experientially, we long for the wholeness of deep connection even as that very wholeness eludes us. How to repair this is the essential lesson we humans need to learn.” Later in the article she shared a beautiful ancient poem from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition: Nothing, not even one thing, Does not arise from me. Nothing, not even one thing, Dwells not within me. Everything, just everything Emanates from me. Thus, I am only one! Knowing me is knowing all. Great bliss. That was it for that day, but I still felt more was to come. The Dream A few days later, I had a dream. I was in a large gathering place that reminded me of Faneuil Hall in Boston where street performers often entertain family audiences. Today, there was a very good juggler. He came over and offered me three balls to juggle. I made a lame excuse that I had once known how to juggle but… I felt my arms and back tighten and I could not juggle well. I did not like where the dream was going so utilizing a “lucid dream” technique, I changed the dream’s direction, just like a little push, and then let the dream unfold again. I was still in the square but this time, my neck, shoulders, and arms were relaxed. Also, my feet were moving as if I had very large clown shoes on, but it was not necessary to have the literal shoes. No costume was required. This time, when the juggler came over, I only took one ball. I began doing all sorts of marvelous things with it. I stretched out my arms, put the ball in the palm of one hand and simply flicked it to the other hand. I rolled the ball up one arm, over my back and down the other arm. I tossed the ball high in the air and caught it on the back of my neck. With my large clown feet, I hackeysacked the ball and caught it with the other foot. I was having such fun and then noticed a crowd had gathered. I picked three children and put them in a half-circle on my right side and then another three children and put them on my left. There was one space still open directly across from me. I looked behind that space and saw a child in a wheelchair with a baseball cap. He had muscular dystrophy and was all twisted up. The wheelchair was old, not the type he could control, so his mother had to push him into our little circle. I began giving instructions – stretch out your arms, move away from the circle, come in closer again, turn around, shake, shake, shake. All the children as well as the audience were having a wonderful time. We were all in it together, connected. And I then realized that I was teaching them the hokey-pokey because “That’s what it’s all about.” I brought it to a close and borrowed the boy’s baseball cap for donations. The audience quickly filled the hat to overflowing with all denominations of bills $1, $10, $50. I took the hat and simply taking the bill on the top, handed it to each child. They probably got different amounts and I realized that we all must play the hand we have been dealt. I now bundled up the baseball cap with the money and gave it to the boy’s mother. For the first time, I looked at her carefully and realized she was an immigrant from another country, probably Guatemala. She was crying tears of joy. She had just brought her son to the square for an outing, and now all this. I smiled at her, then turned around and disappeared into the crowd. I woke up, ever so softly, into a new day.
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David FeldmanDog walker, Dog Mediator, Father, Husband, Categories |