MESSAGE FROM WAYNE


Hello my loves...

This month marks exactly 25 years since I first met Ramesh and my life changed beyond my wildest imaginings. It also sees the publication of a book, The Way of Powerlessness - Advaita and the 12 Steps of Recovery, that has brought together some of the bounty I received from Ramesh as well as some of the incredible wisdom embodied in the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Ramesh's eldest son became addicted to alcohol in the latter stage of his life and finally succumbed to a variety of health issues. Some years after his death I shared with Ramesh some of my thoughts about my own alcoholism and how it led me to the 12 Steps and ultimately to him. With moist eyes he looked directly at me and quietly said, "Alcohol took one of my sons, but gave me another."

I am filled with gratitude for all that this life has given me. The pleasure and the pain. The joy and the sorrow. Ramesh and the 12 Steps. I feel blessed to be able to share some of this with you and others.

Sending a book out into the world is a bit like sending your child off to college. What happens next is out of your view -- though every once in a while there is a call home. I look forward to the occasional report about how the book is doing, but after so many years of living with it, I am glad to see it go. I wish it well.

There is incredible Peace to be had in life. It is here, touching everything. The Living Teaching of Advaita and the 12 Steps are both potent pointers to this Peace.

May it find you now.

With love,
Wayne


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A LIVING GEM FROM RAMESH
(never before published)

To be aware of reality, of the living present moment, is to discover that at each moment the experience is all, no experience of a “me” experiencing the experience. In times of happiness and pleasure, we are usually ready enough to be aware of the moment, to forget ourselves, and to let the experience be all. The mind makes no attempt to divide itself from itself, to be separate from the experience. But with the arrival of pain, whether physical or emotional, whether actual or anticipated, the split begins, and the circle goes around and round.

As soon as it becomes clear that the “me” cannot possibly escape from the reality of the present, then no possibility remains but to be aware of the pain, fear, or grief in the same complete way that one is aware of pleasure. The human organism has the most wonderful powers of adaption to both physical and psychological pain. But these can come into active play only when the pain is not being constantly re-stimulated by the inner effort to get away from it, to separate the “me” from the feeling.

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