Who I am now
I have had a lifetime of spiritual practice, meditation, yoga, chanting, both devotional and abstract. But, as I shared with my elder brother Ram Dass, many years ago, I have always found my quest to be of service to the conscious evolution of humanity to be at least as sacred as any devotional path. Thus, we agreed, as we came to our work together from two different directions; he from following his spiritual path and the directive from his Guru “to serve the people”; and myself, my quest to expand and refine my consciousness to be better able carry out my mission; that being and doing could be equally sacred.
As I age, and I am over 80, I find that on the important matters, there is more and more not-knowing. I no longer seek to worship the Divine. Indeed, I am not certain that there is a Divine Being. In my morning prayer these days, coming from the Sikh tradition, which I began to embrace in 1970, I call upon Guru Ram Das, Guru Hargobind, Holy Mother, Divine Father, Infinite Creator, With Form, Beyond Form, within me, beyond me, real or conjectured.
I find that I do not seek enlightenment, though there have been moments here and there of visions and meditative experiences that have been awe inducing, and frequent moments of a sort of hair standing up all over from a kind of meditative thrill, but what I simply seek is some success at conveying my message, so that we can become a mature species that lives in harmony with one another and our environment.
I would not trade the possibility of success at this quest of mine for anything else. This is my holy grail, that humanity can come to understand: the nature, significance and consequence of our inner wounds; the clear possibility of healing these wounds; the need and capacity to raise our children with kindness and compassion (bringing an end to corporal punishment of children and other forms of child abuse); the need and capacity to work together with wisdom and skill (embracing good process and governance practices); thus opening the way to our becoming a mature species, living in harmony with one another and our environment.
As I age, and I am over 80, I find that on the important matters, there is more and more not-knowing. I no longer seek to worship the Divine. Indeed, I am not certain that there is a Divine Being. In my morning prayer these days, coming from the Sikh tradition, which I began to embrace in 1970, I call upon Guru Ram Das, Guru Hargobind, Holy Mother, Divine Father, Infinite Creator, With Form, Beyond Form, within me, beyond me, real or conjectured.
I find that I do not seek enlightenment, though there have been moments here and there of visions and meditative experiences that have been awe inducing, and frequent moments of a sort of hair standing up all over from a kind of meditative thrill, but what I simply seek is some success at conveying my message, so that we can become a mature species that lives in harmony with one another and our environment.
I would not trade the possibility of success at this quest of mine for anything else. This is my holy grail, that humanity can come to understand: the nature, significance and consequence of our inner wounds; the clear possibility of healing these wounds; the need and capacity to raise our children with kindness and compassion (bringing an end to corporal punishment of children and other forms of child abuse); the need and capacity to work together with wisdom and skill (embracing good process and governance practices); thus opening the way to our becoming a mature species, living in harmony with one another and our environment.
