Unlike Bob Dylan, I did not dream that I saw St. Augustine. Rather, I saw Jim Ferguson (pictured above), along with Dwayne Patterson and a great many guests of Dorothy's Place (my old bliss-home). The dream went something like this...
In my dream, I am sleeping and begin to dream... in that dream Jim Ferguson awakens me and says to come with him as I am needed... So I get up and follow: we are somehow magically transported from Wisconsin to Chinatown-Salinas. We walk into Dorothy's Place where a lot of folks are eating their lunch and I follow Jim into a side room (that didn't exist when I was there). Dwayne Patterson was leaning against the wall. I sat down with the two men who were in conflict... Jim pulls out an I-Pad and starts a movie recording (that was a hoot)...
Anyway, after a bit of conversation, the two men reconciled. And Dwayne laughed because he thought it funny for me to be back at Dorothy's, and then, just like that, I was back in Wisconsin reaching for the 5 0'clock alarm...
I leaned back for a minute pondering that my dreaming self was also having a dream... I suppose that if there is a "truth" in this dream it is, as much as anything, the simple awareness of how deeply embedded within my consciousness are the years of my "Chinatown" life... Of course, it isn't "Chinatown" or even "Dorothy's Place" that yet live in my mind and heart: but much more. It was there that I learned how to really and truly love... Indeed, as I sit at my desk here in our home in River Falls, Wisconsin, writing these thoughts down, I know that in every true love there exists simultaneously a practice in dying...
This practice is above all else a willing appreciation for taking the last place... The great Buddhist mystic insight, likewise above all else, is the Bodhisattva Vow wherein the person who so vows wills to forsake heaven until everyone else enters first -- and promises to work assiduously for everyone's eventual salvation... Like the "Little Flower" St. Therese who solemnly promises to live her heaven in service to all of the rest of us still in the throes of life... And isn't this "last place" the exact place where Jesus is still found, at least for those with eyes to see...
Okay. So now I'm going to do my "Robert thing" and mess with your head: I'm going to jump from dreams and the mystical straight into the bed! Writing now as a pleasure mystic, all of this "taking the last place" stuff connects deeply with partner intimacy. I believe, based upon personal experience, that every aspect of partner intimacy (marriage, if you prefer) is best lived in the relaxed but intentional state of a "holy competition", each gently striving to love more, to give more, to pleasure more than the Divine Beloved...
While serving the orgasmic pleasures of one's partner is a delightful necessity, it should come as no great surprise to learn that there is an "orgasmic way" to fix breakfast, lunches for school, do the daily chores, practice yoga, go for a walk, pick up the dog poop, sit in contemplation, garden, write a poem: in short, when your life is less and less about you, and more and more about the well-being and happiness of your partner (family, friends, tribe, etc) it will lead to the inevitable discovery that your own well-being and happiness will likewise increase. Of course, the hinge upon which this "orgasmic door" swings is mutuality and communally: if everyone is in sync with this "holy competition" then there will finally be no last place... neither will there be a first place... What's left? Why, the Best Place, of course!
In my dream, I am sleeping and begin to dream... in that dream Jim Ferguson awakens me and says to come with him as I am needed... So I get up and follow: we are somehow magically transported from Wisconsin to Chinatown-Salinas. We walk into Dorothy's Place where a lot of folks are eating their lunch and I follow Jim into a side room (that didn't exist when I was there). Dwayne Patterson was leaning against the wall. I sat down with the two men who were in conflict... Jim pulls out an I-Pad and starts a movie recording (that was a hoot)...
Anyway, after a bit of conversation, the two men reconciled. And Dwayne laughed because he thought it funny for me to be back at Dorothy's, and then, just like that, I was back in Wisconsin reaching for the 5 0'clock alarm...
I leaned back for a minute pondering that my dreaming self was also having a dream... I suppose that if there is a "truth" in this dream it is, as much as anything, the simple awareness of how deeply embedded within my consciousness are the years of my "Chinatown" life... Of course, it isn't "Chinatown" or even "Dorothy's Place" that yet live in my mind and heart: but much more. It was there that I learned how to really and truly love... Indeed, as I sit at my desk here in our home in River Falls, Wisconsin, writing these thoughts down, I know that in every true love there exists simultaneously a practice in dying...
This practice is above all else a willing appreciation for taking the last place... The great Buddhist mystic insight, likewise above all else, is the Bodhisattva Vow wherein the person who so vows wills to forsake heaven until everyone else enters first -- and promises to work assiduously for everyone's eventual salvation... Like the "Little Flower" St. Therese who solemnly promises to live her heaven in service to all of the rest of us still in the throes of life... And isn't this "last place" the exact place where Jesus is still found, at least for those with eyes to see...
Okay. So now I'm going to do my "Robert thing" and mess with your head: I'm going to jump from dreams and the mystical straight into the bed! Writing now as a pleasure mystic, all of this "taking the last place" stuff connects deeply with partner intimacy. I believe, based upon personal experience, that every aspect of partner intimacy (marriage, if you prefer) is best lived in the relaxed but intentional state of a "holy competition", each gently striving to love more, to give more, to pleasure more than the Divine Beloved...
While serving the orgasmic pleasures of one's partner is a delightful necessity, it should come as no great surprise to learn that there is an "orgasmic way" to fix breakfast, lunches for school, do the daily chores, practice yoga, go for a walk, pick up the dog poop, sit in contemplation, garden, write a poem: in short, when your life is less and less about you, and more and more about the well-being and happiness of your partner (family, friends, tribe, etc) it will lead to the inevitable discovery that your own well-being and happiness will likewise increase. Of course, the hinge upon which this "orgasmic door" swings is mutuality and communally: if everyone is in sync with this "holy competition" then there will finally be no last place... neither will there be a first place... What's left? Why, the Best Place, of course!
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