The Vision
It came to me as if I was dreaming... it was both strange, but equally quite ‘normal’.
One moment I was sitting there, with my eyes closed wondering if I’d ever master this ‘meditation’ everyone else was raving about... you know, the one where you disengage from your body and just ‘float away... away, away, as if you were a pretty cloud... with no worry in the world... just a fluffy white cloud...’
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve smoked some powerful stuff in my misspent youth in college... Hey, it was the 70’s, we were all ‘experimenting’, and I tell you straight, there never was anything better than Congo Gold... or maybe Toledo Window Box...
Now, that would make you feel like a cloud... Ah, good times, good times ...
But I digress... It’s been years since I touched any of that ‘magic weed’... Yea, it’s called ‘growing up’, what with two kids and a divorce, you kind’a have to, y’know...
No more fun and games for littl’ol me, just work, work, work, and pay the bills...
That’s how my blood pressure went up, and the cholesterol too - so my doc. told me that I had the liver of a 60 year old, and me just pushing forty...
Well, that ain’t fair, now is it... so he gave me these pills - one for anxiety, one for blood pressure, two to take care of the side effects, and one to sleep... and, of course, one to pep me up in the morning... Ok, that didn’t work at all...
It’s no fun to get that pilled-up, and not too healthy, either... still, I needed to do something about my situation.
I tried Yoga [too stiff in the joints, not enough pretzel]... tried becoming Vegan [Kale is NOT my friend !]... even tried some ‘Ozone Therapy’ [did NOT want to stick that up my @**]... and so here I am, sitting on this pretty pillow, with my legs crossed, eyes half closed, focusing on my breath [wondering what I’m going to eat tonight]... when this weird little guru guy walks in, sits right up front facing us all, lifts his right hand...and as he gently brings it down, the lights dim...and a whisper, like a release, spreads through us all...
My eyes fully close, I exhale... and ... I’m no longer there ...
I’m floating... no thoughts ... just floating... and for the first time in my Life I feel no pain... no sorrow ... no struggles ... just... BEING ...
I don’t know how long I stayed in this trance... it seemed timeless...
And then I heard me name being called.
Slowly I opened my eyes... and I was no longer in the meditation hall, no longer surrounded by others, it wasn’t even daylight... but I felt no fear, no apprehension ...
Sitting facing me was a strange Hindu guy, with long matted hair, wearing a silk white wrap-around .. Oh, and he had this tiger skin over his shoulders [I kid you not !], but somehow I didn’t feel that any of this was strange... somehow it all felt so right ...
He said my name again... “This name you call yourself is such a simple limitation of who you truly are... Why are you so attached to this Life, this place, this struggle...?
Let it go, let it all go... and SEE your self truly !”
And now this most bizarre thing happened... As his eyes closed, there was this light, this weird light that started in the middle of his forehead...and it kind’a ‘punched’ through me... like my brain wasn’t there anymore... and this light just grew inside of me...moving swiftly throughout my body... and everywhere it went my body just... melted away... and there was only Light... only me...but not the ‘me’ I thought of...
I know, weird, right...
Nothing mattered anymore ... All that I had struggled with seemed so ... petty ... so small-minded ...
And when all is taken away... well, now it’s time to choose, ain’t it - embrace Light and live through it ... or return to Life-as-I-knew...
For what seemed eons I just ... did nothing ... just experienced - no thoughts, no desires, no nothing ... not even a decision…
An hour later they struck a gong three times... they brought the lights back up again, and invited people to stand up and share their experience...
Like little children, many stood, bubbling away in their enthusiasm... but I just looked at the weird little guru guy up front - who was looking back at me with a strange little grin on his face - and then … he winked …
… and I wondered - What the hell did just happen ... ?
