The Parts We Play

“The Parts We Play”

Letter to a student at BU

Nareshnee,

          Bear in mind that we are not the parts we play, we are something else.

          An expert on this is nonduality Guru Ozay Rinpoche, a friend of mine.  He has cultivated dozens of online characters, very interesting ones, to make the point that we are not that, we are the Infinite God Within.

          So when someone looks at my life story & sees the variety & disparity of the parts I play, they might think,

          “She’s crazy.”

          It’s because we believe that a person can be one thing, but not another, that we are LIMITED in the “theater of life”.

          But are not the greatest actors able to play many disparate parts, & we judge them by how well they can adjust to new roles?  (Tough guys who were also comedians, dancers, romantic leading men as well as villains come to mind, Sir Lawrence Olivier & James Cagney.)

          In studying the teachings of exorcist Bob Larson, I learned that “multiple personality disorder” is not a flaw but a sign of intelligence.  Bob Larson cited a Harvard graduate who got through school by making himself several different people. One, he was a chauffer, hauling himself around when necessary; he was a scholar, he was an athlete, he was whatever he had to be to get the job done.  With each part he immersed himself & “forgot” the others, & that got him through.

          When I look at my background & list of credits, I sound like one improbable person that could be called “eccentric,” a “prodigy – genius” or someone who is “mad.”  How could one woman do so many things that seem in contradiction to one another or so totally disparate that it must be “a lie.”

          With each role that I played, however different, it was completely natural & not planned or plotted.  It just simply grew out of my own desires & abilities, & I might add, that I worked hard on all the things I did.  For example, I am an expert dream interpreter.  This started when I was fourteen years old & read the book on dream interpretation by Sigmund Freud.  I’ve been interpreting dreams ever since & published a book on it, planning to do many more before I die, compiling the world’s biggest list of original dream symbols. I estimate this will take three more large books.

          My dancing ability began also when I was a teen.  At the age of thirteen I won the “twist” contest in high school &, minutes after being shown how to do it. This followed with other dance victories.  Is it not surprising that when I came to State St. I won the “hip hop” contest, also minutes after being shown “what it is” by a couple of girls, even though I was now in my sixties? 

By having a world-class body, I went into the field of dance, beauty contests & modeling, venues from which I made a living most of my life, so of course, today, I can hold my own again any young girl or boy.

In spite of my physical assets & dancing ability, THAT IS NOT WHO I WAS.  From the age of five years old, I was deeply in love with God.  No matter what my profession - dancer, model, Community Organizer, Social Worker, my mind & heart were foremost riveted on God, my own greatest good.

God was Number One, the Center from which all things emanated.  I never forgot the pursuit of God, always & everywhere, from the age of five years old.

And so, it is no wonder, that I eventually became a minister (ordained by two Churches, 1973 & 1978) & then a Guru (2004), & today, I am considered by some experts, to be in the highest state of God Realization.

If there is anything I am confident that I do know about, it is how to get to God, to find Union with our own greatest good.

 

The other things I learned along the way, like being a masseuse, for instance, or a hypnotherapist, also came through study & practice.  From 1968 to 1971 I studied Edgar Cayce & was inspired to practice massage on my friends & relatives, today they are delighted by what I do. I learned hypnosis from a private teacher & had an office at the Sunset-Vine Tower, Hollywood, at the age of twenty three & later in Sydney, New York, (not far from here.)

          There’s a lot more I could say but I will rest my case now & see if Ozay Rinpoche has anything to add on the subject.

          My question to Ozay is:

          Who are we?  Are we the parts we play or not?  Should a person be limited or restricted by their roles in the theater of life?  Is it a contradiction to at one point, be an academic, an intellectual, a celibate spiritual soul, while at another perspective or time being athletic, involved in the adult trade, & in their maturity, when all is said & done, going back to relish sex?  Does this mean one is “mad?” Is there a limit to the roles, attitudes, likes & dislikes we can portray on earth?

          Thank you.

 

Guru Rasa Von Werder

Sept. 5, 2011