The Blog

My son Brandon is an endless source of joy. He is 31 and has a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome, essentially high functioning Autism. He has a high intelligence but without the filters that most of us function through. He will just speak out what he feels, and his ability to put words together is a bit challenged sometimes. As a result, he comes up with some of the best spontaneous quotes I have ever heard.

Many years ago I was teaching a Reiki class at my home and the students were arriving. One of them rang the bell and Brandon answered the door. He asked her name and after her response,he asked her simply "What are ya?" Of course he wanted to know how she knew me, what our relationship was, etc, but it came out as this gloriously simple but brutally tough question.She stammered "um, um ,um, I'm a Banker!"

Of course, most of us would have come up with a similar answer typified by what we do for a living. This is understandable in daily dialogue. But, what is the true answer?

For my part, I would say her answer was partially correct. I would propose the following response to his question, an answer of course inadequate and replete with analogy and allegory. What else would you expect for an unanswerable question?

Everything we experience that we are is of course part of what we are. We cannot deny it because it is our experience. Our body, thoughts, feelings, opinions, memories, schooling, relationships, and orientations of various kinds are almost limitless in variety and are constantly changing and shifting. It is a terrific struggle to identify ourselves as any of these things, isn't it? Ever try to stand still in the ocean when the tide is pulling away?

For purposes of illustration, let's say that all of the above qualities, taken together, comprise 1 to 5% of What We Are. We cannot deny their reality, they seem to exist experientally.What is the other 95 to 99%?

How would it feel if you KNEW it was true, that every thought, concept and experience you have, including your ego identity, taken as a whole, was only 1 to 5%? of YOU? That the other 95 to 99% is absolutely beyond any experience or limitation, that IT is essentially infinite , boundless, free, all-knowing and immortal? When I Know this, it becomes very easy to accept all the experiences and limitations that arise in life. The struggle to maintain that "me" as a fixed unchanging stick in the wet sand falls away. When we can fully accept that limited part of us within the context of the far overriding reality of the 95 to 99%, we can welcome anything that appears. There is no longer a reason to resist.

And, the more we welcome life ("good" and "bad") the more that 95 to 99% becomes more and more evident and enlivened.

 

See what I mean? Since tomorrow is a holiday devoted to Memory, remember the 95 to 99%.

 

More Brandon quotes to come, and more on this subject as well.