This essay,
Doing The Being: A Well Lived Life,
is the third in the open second group
People
(click
here
for the complete first group of thirty five
People):
I am indebted to Charles "Raz" Ingrasci who inspired this
conversation, and to Jack Rafferty who contributed material.
What can we say about a great man, about a really great
man? Not enough? Too much? There's lots to say. For starters, here's
one episode that says it all.
Werner
is speaking from a podium, with an audience of hundreds of
people.
We call these events "Be With"s - secondarily, because they are
occasions to be with
peoplelistening
for transformation; primarily, because they are opportunities to
be with
Werner.
And while he's speaking with us from the podium, he's looking through
his materials which are in a manila folder, searching for something to
illustrate what he's distinguishing, but not finding it. Eventually he
stops speaking. The auditorium is pin-drop silent. All we're hearing
through his wireless microphone is the sound of the rustling of
papers,
and nothing.
Suddenly he calls out "Raz" (what's a raz? I
wonder
...). Nothing. Still pin-drop silence. So he calls out again, louder
and more urgently this time "RAZ!". A silent minute ticks by.
And then, in that silence, behind me and over to my right, I hear a
door opening. I turn around to see a medium built man standing framed
in the doorway, back-lit by the lights of the lobby - it's Raz,
evidently. He exchanges a few
wordswith Werner
who then finds what he's looking for in the manila folder. Then Raz
turns around and leaves. The door closes behind him and the Be With
continues, with
Werner
being his
brilliantSelf
as usual.
From
that moment
on, that's who Raz was for me: he was
that guy
who knew all the stuff
Werner
needed, and where it was. He was
that guywith Wernerpeople
looked to for the important things, the final seemingly insignificant
yet hugely powerful items that make well lived lives coming from
transformation
accessible.
That's who Raz was for me for the next 45 years or so. Whenever I heard
"Raz ... RAZ!", I knew: as long as Raz was there, we'd all be
alright.
Werner,
at Raz's behest, traveled to
India,
and met many important
people
there, including Prime Minister Morarji Ranchhodji Desai and major
spiritual leaders, all of which led to the inevitable offering of
Werner's work
in
India.
Man! I
thought
to myself, you have to have some balls to take
enlightenment
to
India!
So I wrote an essay about what transpired which I titled
On Taking Enlightenment To
India.
I
shared
it with Raz who surprised me by saying he didn't like it! And I,
rapidly becoming very defensive, asked him why he didn't like it, to
which he bristled "Because that's not how it
actually happened!".
Now I pride myself in being open and
coachable,
although (to be honest) I didn't like it that he didn't like
it one iota. Nevertheless we arranged to meet so that he
could
share
his
opinion
(or so I called it) of
what happened,
with me. He began speaking. An hour and a half later, he reached the
first comma in the opening sentence of his description. It was all I
could do to keep up with him, scribbling notes furiously in my notepad.
I then rewrote the essay which now includes all his
brilliant,
genius
contributions. It's arguably one of my best works to date. It's
certainly one of my best known, having been cited as a reference
deserving of a
front-and-center
spot in the historic annals of
what actually happened
which culminated in
Werner taking enlightenment
to India.
And then ... there's his
family,
and the thing I want you to get most about his
family
is that after
God
made Raz's
family
(which is to say after Raz made
the family
that
God
made), he broke the mold. Raz for his wife, and she for him,
were
the love
of each others' lives for almost 50 years. Their
children
have a direct
access
to transformation which defies their youthful years, displaying an
uncanny (and totally natural) ability to
"lead with love".
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and the proof of the pudding
(ie the apple pie) is in the eating. Their lives are lived from
transformation. The mixture is disconcerting.
Doing The Being
Transformation / enlightenment is said to be living coming from the
being, bringing it to bear on everyday living. What Raz's life
epitomizes for me, is not merely bringing the being to
bear, but doing the being. It's a way that's prudent,
pragmatic, practical. Doing the being, his life epitomizes a life well
lived.