--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Susan" <wayback71@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > Just as a followup, Susan, there are experiences I've had > > that are MUCH weirder than any I ever had while in Rama's > > presence, and thus of another order entirely. There is one > > experience that happened when I was thousands of miles away > > from him, had nothing to do with him, but was pretty amazing. > > > > Why it's fascinating to me is that I was with someone else > > who saw exactly the same thing I did, and who to this day > > describes it exactly as I do. There was no "setup" for > > having this experience, no expectation of having it, nada. > > It just happened. So the two of us (my best friend and I) > > have only each other to rely on when it comes to describing > > it. Most of the time we don't, because it's much more > > unbelievable in a way than having seen "deities." The > > only thing we know is THAT we saw it. How we saw it, or > > whether it really existed and could have been photographed > > or whether we were seeing into some alternate reality...that > > stuff we can't really talk about, because neither of us has > > any clue as to the "how" or actual "what" involved. I'll > > refrain from going into more detail at this point, because > > it would just become fodder for those who live to dump on > > me already. I suspect you understand. :-) > > I do understand. And I hope to hear the story some day. Thank > for your replies. I am at work and cannot give them the time > and consideration they deserve. Thanks again - your experiences > get to the crux of the whole issue, imo
Well, in that case, I'll dive once more into the "whole issue." I have nothing to lose, since the attacks started even before I told the story. :-) This is your opportunity ( and the opportunity equally afforded to lurkers ) to determine whether Barry is bullsitting you ( some of us are not afraid of words, and thus less prone to asteriskize them :-) or telling you the absolute truth, as he experienced it and remembers it. I do not tell this story often, or lightly, for what will become apparent reasons. Tell someone you had a vision of Jeeeezus, or Krishna, or even a ghost or a UFO, and most people will cut you some slack. Tell them you saw certain other things, not so much. The story ( which will be a little long, because I'm going to do my best with the telling of it ) dates from a period of time in which I was studying with Rama, but was not with him. We were living in New York at the time, and many of us were missing the Southwest Big Time. Perceiving this, he had scheduled a big group Road Trip. We would fly into Phoenix and then spend a week and a half traveling to various power places in that area, just to meditate and have adventures there. My cuppa tea. So my girlfriend ( who also studied with Rama at that time ) and I made arrangements to go on this trip. We booked vacation time away from work, the full tamale. And then Rama got a burr up his butt about something ( I honestly don't remember what ) and cancelled the trip. He gave all of us students a big "Fuck you!" for what we'd done or hadn't done. Drama queen...what can I say? :-) My girlfriend and I looked at each other and replied mentally with a big, New York "No, fuck you!" and decided to go anyway. So we did. We flew into Phoenix and I rented a big, campable 4WD vehicle, and we set off to see places like the Grand Canyon, Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Bandelier, and other just scorchin' power places in that area. We hiked and medi- tated there and then moved on to the next place. The weird story comes from one of those "moving on's." We'd spent the day -- the Summer Solstice if I remember correctly -- hiking and meditating and grooving on Monument Valley. Even if you've never been there, you have seen the place in hundreds of movies. It's one of the most spectacular places on earth, and IMO one of its most powerful. We watched the sun set while watching Navajo dancers and musicians play in the parking lot of the National Park, and it was WAY magical, up there in my Top Ten Sunsets Ever. Then we hopped into the car and drove down to the only motel in the area, expecting to find a room there, as I always had in the past. Bad idea. Motel booked. So we could either backtrack into the dreary motel town 30 miles in the opposite direction that we were heading, or we could just say "What the fuck" and drive North. We drove North. That drive followed maps that...ahem...failed to convey the steepness and looking-over-the-edge-of-a-high-precipice- seeing-your-death-at-every-turn-of-the-gravel-road of the route I chose. Hey...mea culpa. I'm the one who hadn't had the good sense to pre-book a motel room. While in Road Trip Mind, I am not always the most sentient of beings. :-) But we finally made it up to the top of the winding canyon pass and onto a two-lane blacktop that couldn't have been more straight if God had done the measuring. The plateau we were driving across is literally the least most populated area of the lower United States. There is just nothing fucking there, except two-lane blacktop and endless moonlit vistas of high desert majesty. So there we are, tooling along this road, listening to music but not talking much, when we both see something above the road in front of us. Not *in* the road, mind you, above the road. What I saw was a rather large airborne creature flying straight down the road, and about to fly right over us. I didn't say a word, and neither did my girlfriend. What we saw was just not the kind of thing you are tempted to speak about immediately. It kept flying towards us, sporting a wingspan that was wider than the two-lane blacktop we were driving on, and then flew right over us. I was so shell-shocked that I didn't stop the car until it was too late to see whatever it was disappearing into the distance. Instead, what I think I was the first to say was, "Did you see that?" Laurel said, "Uh...yes." I said, "What did you see?" She said, "No, what did you see?" We laughed, and then said simultaneously, "I saw a dragon." We saw a dragon. Really. Big-assed dragon, pretty much *exactly* as most dragons have been portrayed in myth. Big, scaly wings, big claws, long reptilian body, the whole tamale. We've compared notes since, naturally. We both saw a dragon, and the same dragon. Go figure. So, to get back to the "whole issue" you spoke of, what do you DO with having had an experience like this? What I did was to become somewhat fascinated with it, and try to do some followup. Later, when I'd stopped studying with Rama but lived in Santa Fe, I took numerous Road Trips up to the same area, driving or hiking in the same areas to see if the phenomenon would ever repeat itself. It did not. I went to see tribal elders of the Pueblo tribes in the area and talked to historians in the area to see if there was a persistent lore of dragons or even big flying creatures in that area. There was not. But Laurel and I saw what we saw. Neither of us was in any way stoned or high or in any way influenced by even the most Woo Woo Wonderful charismatic teacher. We were just a couple, driving through the night in the desert, who looked up into the sky and saw a dragon. We really DID both see a dragon. One of the people I have told this story to was a master Chinese tonic herbalist. I walked into his home and office for a consultation, and found myself surrounded by dragons. So during our consultation I told him my story, and to my surprise he didn't react the way most people in my life have reacted to hearing it. Instead he told me that in his travels in China while gathering tonic herbs, he had met a few people who claimed to have seen dragons. This interested me, because I have not. Ron said something like, "In China, one aspect of dragon lore -- besides the obvious that having seen one is major Good Fortune -- is that dragons only reveal themselves to the people *they* decide to reveal themselves to." That made me smile. Even if it's bullshit, it made me smile, and it made Laurel smile when I relayed it to her. LOTS of people, after all, claim to have "seen God," or "seen deities," or whatever. How many have you met who have been willing to step up to the plate and say that they have seen a dragon? I have. I really have. I don't have any idea what that subjective perception on my part "means," or whether it "means" anything at all. For all I know it could have been a brain fart mutually inflicted upon both Laurel and I by the burrito we had for dinner. :-) But it sure was fun. And if Ron's dragon lore has anything of truth about it, I want to publicly thank that dragon for allowing me to see it. You were just fuckin' AWESOME, dude. May you fly forever. And if I ever see you again, next time I'm going to fuckin' stop the car and try to have a conversation with you. Just sayin'.
