Esteemed Reader

Higher people are those who have become completely original, unlike anyone else in the universe. Who have found their own way of being completely themselves, offering their whole selves to the world, and accepting the consequences. It is not comfortable, because there are no precedents.
—Rodney Collin

To live outside the law, you must be honest.
—Bob Dylan

To remain integral, whole; to be utterly oneself in the face of events that evoke trite reaction; to outlast the urge to come forth with a half-baked solution; this is the task before us. This is the purpose of being born human—to rest in the prior disposition of native identity, to be whole, unfractured, impartial (not parts, but one); to be ourselves.
Not only is it the task of a singular human, but it is the task of humanity as a whole. We have spent too long, too many eons waging war; too long engaged in some variety of spurious violence, fighting against the very one which is all of us. Warring no longer has relevance. It is a vestigial pre-sapien tendency without real use. I don’t care who the enemy is. It must end. And it will end, if we come out of hiding and be ourselves.
Can we be outside the constricting law of our false conditioning; and be “outlaws”? Can you, can I, take an action which is complete; which reflects the whole of who we are?
I say one thing but I mean another. I behave one way, with an opposite result in mind. Why not take courage! Be whole, accept the urge which is my own, which presents a glimpse of my original face—you know, “the one I had before my mother and father were born”?
This is the task of a true human’s moment, which, accomplished, even minutely, will begin to transform the face of humanity on the whole. We must be ourselves; and let go of the silly games, the deceit and deception, the stratagems and ploys implanted through childhoods of suffering; childhoods in which we were required to betray the self which yearned to make contact with (and serve, simply by existing) the world.
There was a great betrayal; a great loss of innocence; a great expulsion from the Garden of Paradise. It happened to you, to me, to humanity. Now is the time to forgive those who have relegated us here, on the outer fringe of creation, in a land (a mode of existence) which is little other than a hell on earth; here, in the culture of a society premised on the ambition to get and have, to “become” and achieve; to get ourselves anywhere other than where we are, by whatever means of distraction are at hand. It is time to quit blaming, and begin receiving the abundance that always and everywhere envelops us, cares for us, nourishes us to true becoming.
“Some call it heavenly in its brilliance / Others, mean and ruthful of the Western dream / I love the friends I have gathered together on this thin raft / We have constructed pyramids in honor of our escaping / This is the land where the Pharaoh died.” —Jim Morrison
Do you want to have the hardened face of a corporate criminal, a cog in the wheel of biospheric destruction? Or do you want to wear the face that is open and resilient, giving of the light that would otherwise be hidden “under a bushel” of arrogance, fear, ambition, and an unconscionable urge to prove the unproveable, to become what isn’t, vainly striving thereby to gain the love that was withheld from you when you simply allowed yourself to be?
A human life—your life, mine—is a precious opportunity to become. Not to accomplish or prove. And not to become anything other than ourselves, fully and boldly, in each succeeding moment. And to become free of that which holds us back from becoming; free of the illogical (though no less understandable) fear of one another.
Can you be open? Can you be strong and resilient enough to be yourself? Not hiding, not pretending, not reacting. Balanced on the knee of listening; a giant open ear with hammer, anvil, stirrups and ossicles available to resonate with the world as it is, from the disposition of you—who you are.
In such a disposition there is no room for hate, resentment and righteousness in all their forms, which are the insidious roots of every kind of prejudice and bigotry. There isn’t even room to think—only to be.
So the next time someone asks you who or how you are—even if they are distracted and haven’t waited to hear the answer—let them know that you are; and not by some pseudo-philosophic foray, but by allowing their question to be a reminder to be yourself, to relax and unfold in the precious moment of this ever-diminishing life. Allow yourself to be a genuine outlaw, an agent of wholeness, an instrument of peace. Allow yourself to be yourself. —Jason Stern

Jason Stern will present an introductory workshop entitled “War Against Sleep: The Fight to Live in the Real World” on Sunday, April 14, 7:30pm at the Sunwise School, 64 Plains Road in New Paltz. For more information call 255-5548.