Wake Up

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey, we are spiritual beings on a human journey.

Stephen Covey
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Years ago I went to visit a very wise man. I was seeking his advice. My acting career was going fairly well. But I was also doing a lot of broadcasting work and could drop everything and stay with that full time. I had also been doing some teaching and wanted to do more. My drawings and paintings were becoming better known. I was confused about which direction I ought to go with my life and just wanted to talk it out with him. I spelled it all out and said I was uncertain about which of those activities I should focus on. His reply, which I've never forgotten, was "The answer is none of the above. What you should be doing is waking up."

That remark has stayed with me all these years as one of the touchstones of my life, something to test all fundamental questions against. I once wrote isn't it odd that we spend most of our adult lives somewhere between asleep and awake?

These are some of those fundamental questions. Why aren't we fully awake yet? Why do we see "through a glass darkly"? and are unable to view reality face to face? Is the glass dark, or is it our own darkness that obscures the view? Is the glass a window, or a mirror, a telescope, a microscope, or all of those? Is the truth in the image on the glass or in the one behind it?

I used to take a train from Westchester into New York City. That route is a particularly busy one for trains going in many directions. Out the window I would see other tracks as they slid in under the train or fanned out from beneath it, and feel the rumble and bump as those tracks moved under the train. Eventually the ride would smooth out as we made it on to the main track and shortly after that into the tunnel which took us to Grand Central Station.

It is necessary and important for humans to make a lot of changes on their journeys. There are changes in schools, jobs and careers, in dwellings and neighborhoods, family and friends and changes in experiences, beliefs, opinions and understanding. At a certain point some people click on to the final track and know that the destination is enlightenment and spirituality. But is spiritual evolution simply a matter of waking up? Are all the choices, changes, bumps and rumbles along the journey happening in our sleep? "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" said Shakespeare.

"Know thyself" is another one of those vital touchstones of life. I have a lot of questions and some of them are fundamental and have cosmic importance to my life and to the world. But I won't have many answers until after I wake up. "Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." When I truly understand myself I can wake up, become enlightened, cease looking for myself through a glass, know myself as a spiritual being and find my place on the journey.
(I Cor. 13)

DB - The Vagabond
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WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 5 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
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No Fooling

Journeys, like artists, are born and not made.

Lawrence Durrell
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I suppose there are as many ways to be a fool as those who've done it, which pretty much includes everyone. We have all stepped in the mud piddle at least once in our lives, taken the wrong turn off the highway and forgotten to record a check we wrote.

I think one of the biggest foolish steps a person can take is to deny who they are, either by not sufficiently understanding themselves or by convincing themselves, or being convinced by others, to try being someone they are not.

I was doing a play in Virginia and on a day off another actor and I went to talk to some high school seniors who had seen the play. They were a smart, bright and lively group. One boy asked us what it took to be an actor. That's a question which requires a 400 page book to answer. So I turned the question back to him and asked if he was thinking about a life in the theatre. He said "Mildly." My colleague said "Well, if you're thinking about it mildly, don't think about it."

The boy was a little shocked, but I hastened to say that my friend was not being insulting, he was saying the truth, a truth about any endeavor in life that is important. I didn't want to dissuade the youngster from following a career in show business. But I wanted him to know that he should think earnestly and honestly about whatever he did, to investigate things that interested him and to keep an open mind. I told him that one day, maybe in 5 years, maybe in 5 minutes, a light would go on and he would know "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life" whether it's acting, science, business, sports or something else.

I distinctly remember when it happened to me. I was about the same age as that boy. I had been calmly contemplating off and on what road I would take in life. Suddenly, at one moment it came to me in a flash. I was an actor and had been an actor since the day I was born.

I call myself a vagabond because my life is a wayfaring one, a journey, as yours is, even if you never leave your house. My journey is particular to me. It has taken me through many experiences that all relate in some degree to my life as an artist and entertainer. It has been a risky journey, chocked with dangers, but totally necessary to be who I am to the best of my understanding and ability.

I have known those who have fooled themselves right out of the lives they should have. I know a man who refuses to give up his regular job to pursue a career. He would rather be sleep deprived than to give up the safety and security he thinks he has. He is denying himself the life of the fine artist he could be. What foolishness!

My own family eventually began to treat me with envy and scorn because they all turned their backs on the talents and abilities they were born with to take orthodox roads to the future, and I didn't.

Now more than 50 years since that moment of realization I can look back and see that I did a lot of foolish things and have a lot of regrets. But for accepting the journey I was given from the day I was born I have no regrets.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
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Weekend Puzzle - Weekend Puzzle

What? No contestant? Not one?
If I have to tell you the answers you are going to be ashamed of yourselves.
I've added two more questions at the bottom which should be major hints.

I give you the questions, you give me the answers.

Ready. Set. Strike up the band.
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1. What's here to stay?
2. Who am I dreaming of?
3. What are free?
4. Where should you tell your feet to go?
5. When did I know the time?
6. What do the light winds say?
7. How did she live her life?
8. Where should you take me?
9. Where have I got you?
10. What shall I brush up?
11. Who ran Venezuela?
12. Why should I keep my violin and bow?
13. What don't I know?
14. Who looks good on a tandem bike?
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I'm tapping my foot waiting. Good luck.
DB
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Wisdom's Watching 10/06/09

Tomorrow hopes that we have learned something from yesterday.

John Wayne
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Let's go.
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Here I am on the cusp of my 8th decade and it seems to me that life is still about learning the rules. As I was working on one of my paintings yesterday I was wondering if I will ever learn how to paint. I was an actor for 50 years and one thing I learned during that time was that I didn't know as much about acting as I thought I did. That's not so surprising, I suppose. One can say that about any of life's ventures.

In my youth I gleefully and proudly acknowledged that I was an actor. Then, a few times, and an unfortunately few times, I worked with older actors who really knew their business. Those few times opened my eyes to what the potential was for really excellent work and set me to learning more. No longer content with what I was capable of I set out to gain more knowledge of my craft and my art.

Leigh, in her journal http://leigh-mythoughtshonestly.blogspot.com/, writes "Living a life of possibilities and new experiences. My life's journey has been, and still is a learning experience."

I applaud that. I think this is the truth of things. The journey is all about the journey. The question "When will I learn to live?" is matched by "What will I learn today?" What will I learn today about life? And when my today becomes yesterday what will it mean to tomorrow? What new experience will I have, what new horizon of possibilities will come into view for me? What experiences of yesterday can I leave in the ground as seeds for tomorrow's harvest? Not just what rocky roads might I find tomorrow and how will I deal with them, but what challenges did I successfully meet yesterday and what did I learn from them?

We are all capable of more than we do. That's true. But it is also true that we are all more capable than we think we are.

"Will I ever learn and, if so, when?" I like to think that Lawrence Olivier, Leonardo Da Vinci and Albert Einstein were asking themselves those question right to the end.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
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May you be swift to love.
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P. S. My leg has much improved.