Aug

28

Who the Heck Are You?

Filed Under The Mystery 

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I wish I had the cojones to take on the transmutation of our standard gregarious greeting reflex:

Instead of “HowAreYa?” I would transcend my habitual social catatonia in order to ask other humans, “WhoAreYa?” I know I would be stealing from Ramana Maharshi and his spiritual kinfolk, but I doubt he’d mind, now that he’s operating from a different astral plane.

Speaking of whom, Ramana’s question is the common element in all of the stories of personal transformation [hereinafter “PT”], whether it’s a fleeting insight or a foundation rattling illumination.

Whether you favor Wayne Dyer, Gangaji, Esther Hicks, Byron Katie, Eckhart Tolle or you have an alternative personal favorite, they all - I’m willing to wager on this, including your alt personal favorite - they all tell a story about a re-take of their self-portrait and a radical re-write of their bio.

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Before PT

The old self-portrait would show, in almost every case, a furrowed brow and pursed lips to go along with an anxiety-laced bio. [Not always. Esther Hicks says she was virtually carefree when she first encountered a consciousness beyond her own individual slice of the consciousness pie chart.]

The bio would describe a fairly typical conflicted interface with Time and Space. Ten thousand troubling thoughts a day about money, family, friends, personal and national security, aging, body image, and all the other things that remind us to keep our anti-depressant prescriptions current or at least keep the wine cellar stocked.

“Incidentally, Reggie Fox, who runs the Dalai Lama’s 16-mm projector, said that 16-mm Tarzan films or Marx Brothers films would make a big hit with the Dalai Lama and those around him. They most certainly don’t want to see any pictures where human or animal life is taken; amusement and adventure are the things that they are interested in.”

Out of This World - Lowell Thomas, Jr.,
quoted in the front pages of
Another Roadside Attraction - Tom Robbins

After PT

The new self portrait shows an amused adventurer in a goofball suit. Goofballs have the most fun in Time and Space.

The bio is short: “Holographic part-and-parcel of The Creative Mystery, having an adventure in Time and Space. Learning to focus on the fun and funny parts of T&S, as they come and go, and untying any emotional bindings to the bummer parts, letting them come and go, too, without hooking up.” Or, words to that effect.

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Once you really get that you’re not your body, your age, your dysfunctional relationships, your debt or your income - that you’re really an adventurous outpost on the growing edge of The Creative Mystery and regardless how this particular adventure ends it will just be the beginning of the next one - everything changes. Maybe not all at once in an angel dust whirlwind, but it does change.

You start feeling better, more of the time.

You don’t much care what other people think of your new answer to “HowAreYa?:” “Thanks for asking. I’m really stoked about my new job exploring at the growing edge of The Mystery.”

You don’t much care about what other people think about anything that concerns you. Traffic cops and loan officers may be the exception to this. Maybe.

You re-start your novel or your guitar lessons or your watercolor painting or whatever makes you smile, whether or not there will ever be any money in it. You can be a billionaire in your next life.

Speaking of which, you feel free to hang up when creditors call to make you feel guilty about being three days late with your payment. If you are fastidious about courtesy, you can always say, “Thank you for the thoughtful reminder. Now I have to get back to updating my Netflix Queue. Ciao and have a nice day.” Click.

Speaking of which, you no longer believe the Itinerary you created before this Trip into Time and Space needs to have “Paying My Bills On Time” as the pre-printed #1 reason you’re here. You scratch it out. You’ll get to it when you feel like it, starting with the people you really feel good about paying.

Also: You scratch out “Orderliness” from the #2 spot on the pre-printed part of the Itinerary. If you add it back in at all, it’s down at #29. If you’re a particularly busy or gregarious little critter, you may have to move it down to #89.

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It may take a few lifetimes, including one as a clone of Javier Bardem or Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but you outgrow your acculturation in American Puritanism and cultivate your inner European, where flashing a nipple on TV is de rigeur if you expect your commercials to be watched, and not a threat to national security.

Or, you do whatever you jolly well please. It’s your frickin’ adventure. You might as well feel good about it.

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