With A Bow to Stephen Gaskin
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| Stephen Gaskin (February 16, 1935 - July 1, 2014) and his wife, Ina May |
In meditation, the subjective nature of Time passing becomes obvious.
Sometimes, an hour zips by. At other times, I've felt like a dazed
prizefighter hanging onto the ropes of a painful existence waiting
forever for the bell to ring.
Although modern science creates a "benchmark" for one second of objective time tied to the decay of a cesium atom, Einstein's theory of relativity already pointed out that it "ain't that simple."
No shit, Sherlock.
As I get older, it becomes increasingly impossible to grasp the nature of concepts like a second, a day, a decade. In fact, at this stage of the journey, it's easier, at times, to directly sense the mysterious nature of the Timeless glowing in the boundless expanse of each moment. I blame that on jumping heart first into Bodhisattva Practice years ago.
I first came across the Bodhisattva Vow as it was expressed by Stephen Gaskin in Hey Beatnik! The words resonated with something in my heart of hearts. I was hooked. At that moment the vow took me.
So, did Stephen Gaskin and the Farm.
Although I only had three conversations with him -- spread over a dozen years -- Stephen was a major influence in my life. I'm
not surprised that he came to mind for the first time in a long
time during a conversation with an old friend a couple of days ago. It was that time of year. Gaskin passed away twelve years ago on July 1.
In some traditions, the anniversary of a guru's passing is a high holy day. I don't usually put a lot of weight on the "spooky" stuff. Yet, Gaskin's
"Mahasamadhi" brought about his mysterious "appearance" in my life twelve years ago -- a few days after he died.
As was my practice in those days, I would compose a post each week and send out an email "tickler" announcement. (I'll do that for this post as well.) As I sat at my laptop, struggling to write a commemorative post for a man that I revered, the iPhone dinged.
When I opened the phone, I was amazed to find an announcement for Your MMM Courtesy Call: "Lighten Up!" -- with a quote from Stephen Gaskin staring me in the face! For some inexplicable reason, Google re-delivered the email announcement I'd sent six months before! (I'd only quoted Gaskin twice before in the epigram of a Your MMM Courtesy Wake Up Call post in hundreds of posts to that point.) Google had never re-delivered an old email I sent before. It hasn't done so since.
Wierd!? Synchronicity? Coincidence? All I know is that I lightened up. I found myself grinning from ear to ear. I just wrote a brief intro about the experience -- and re-posted "Lighten Up."
Stephen Gaskin and the Farm
Stephen Gaskin always maintained he was more of a beatnik than a hippie. Yet, wearing tie-dyes til the end, Gaskin was at the epicenter of the burst of spiritual energy that encircled the globe during the 1960's and 70's. A Marine Corp veteran of the Korean War, he was teaching in the English department at San Francisco State College when the hippies of Haight-Ashbury mushroomed into a worldwide counter-cultural phenomenon.
What Gaskin started as an experimental evening discussion class with six students in 1968 grew into Monday Night Class which drew as many as 1500 people each week at a local rock venue. They meditated together in silence. Then Gaskin would deliver and extemporaneous talk on psychedelic spirituality before answering questions. Within three years, Gaskin and those who considered him to be their spiritual teacher had established an intentional community called the Farm in rural Tennessee. At it's peak it had about 1600 residents. They met together for meditation and a talk by Stephen weekly at Sunday Morning Service.
This, of course, gathered a lot of public
attention. It sure caught mine. I devoured the books the Farm's
publishing company distributed. I visited it three times during its
first 5 years, staying a month at a time twice. (When push came to shove
though, I couldn't make the choice to live 700 miles away from my ex's
and children.)
High Times -- With or Without Drugs
If the truth be told, I was a lightweight when it came to psychedelics. Introduced to marijuana in the Spring of 1968, I went on to experience a number of trips on mushrooms, and on what was presented at the time as "synthetic mescaline." (who knows what it was...) Yet, as I began to explore Yoga and Meditation, I soon sensed that the drugs weren't the only means to accessing extraordinary qualities of consciousness. Intrigued by these experiences, I read extensively about spirituality, religion, and mysticism. I also met regularly with a small group of friends who were actively exploring spirituality in their lives. (Two of them were being trained as peer support facilitators at a cutting edge psychiatric hospital.)
Although
I continued to pass a joint around once in awhile during those years, I
actually avoided LSD out of concern that I wasn't "ready."
It didn't matter!!
The Collective Consciousness was so energized as the 60's became the 70's, that I was swept up in a set of "paranormal" experiences. I had a number of compelling out-of-body experiences, saw aura's, encountered ghosts and other "astral beings." I also experienced moments of synchronicity and telepathy that were absolutely mind-boggling -- without drugs in my system at the time!
Then, in the spring of 1972, I had a direct experience of Perfect
Oneness that fulfilled my deepest aspirations for Spiritual Connection at the time -- and dispelled a fear of
death. In those moments, I tasted the Real Deal. The elements of the Perennial Philosophy were no longer merely conceptual. I knew, in my bones: There is Sacred Oneness. We are, individually and collectively, emanations of infinitude. And as Saint John of Liverpool (and mystics through the ages) proclaimed, we all shine on!
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