My partner & I were confronted with a glad-handing, faux-friendly, wanna-be sage and wise-man last evening. He engaged us in conversation, friendly-like, but really, it was an assault, a power move, letting us know we were in his domain, and well, we were not quite worthy, we didn't really belong. It was all conveyed with smiles, and gentle words. He repeated that Ram Dass idea: "Be Here Now," living in the moment, taking one day at a time. We have parroted that same philosophy for years. Coming from our wanna be wise-man, it was so transparently a clown-like put-down. Funny. It just sounded toothless & silly & besides the point.
The point of no point.
Once he turned away, a profoundly foolish man, we laughed. Sweet belly laughs came out of us. Not snide or cynical. Pure joyful laughter. I whispered to my partner: "Don't be here now." We fell into a sweet, sunny pool of laughter. Liberated, released, renewed. Everything fell away, no worries, no enemies, no unfulfilled desires. There was a beautiful, rosy haze around everything and everyone in the room. A bold rosy glow.
I looked it up this morning, wondering if anyone else coined that line? Yes. Indeed. Zen Peacemakers "Don't Be Here Now." Ha. Right. But, of course, there is no one to follow, no one phiosophy to hold us, or to pin us down. No club to join. No dues to pay. The joy is in the complete letting go. The laughter is a doorway. How easy it is go thru an open door. Alive. Aware. Awake. Being. Day-dreaming. Imagining. Surfing the wave, riding & reading the energy of any room. Watching all the rocks rolling down all the hills. Forever. Watching our fellow human beings spinning, gyrating, colliding, knocking against each other in a long-running tragedy & farce.
Finding an essential purity of existence. Beyond all that shite. Not a nothingness, no, instead an everything-ness. Embracing it all, but with a very light touch & embrace. Embracing & letting go simultaneously. Joyfully, truly, madly, deeply. No clinging, no needing, no wanting, no grasping, no holding on. No fighting or hanging on. No fear or desperation. A bold, empty, but incredibly gorgeous clarity.
Yes. So, so very funny, yes, and so, so very good.
