Where are you right now?

Where is it now?, I asked him, as we were crossing the road.

“Huh?”

You know what I am referring to, I said with a grin

“Oh, THAT? No. please; I give in. I’ll never ask you that question again”, he pleaded

It’s just been a year, I reminded him. Aren’t you keeping track of where it is?

 

Ok. It’s time for the rest of you to get in to the story.

Ryan is a good buddy, and like all good buddies, he has a quirky nature of his own, that he is not aware of. Whenever he calls someone on the phone, the first thing he asks is not “how are you?”. He instead asks “where are you right now?” . I wondered why it matters so much to him to know where the other person is all the time.

So, one lovely evening, a year ago, I decided to settle the issue. I took him to our favorite café’. We ordered the usual. He was digging in to his plate of potato wedges, when I stopped him; abruptly.

Where is it now? I asked him

“What?” he asked, puzzled

That potato wedge you had just now. Where is it?

“It’s gone. I ate it”, he said.

No, it’s not. It can’t have disappeared into thin air, can it?

“Huh…No”.

Where was it before you ate it?

“In my plate”, he said confidently

Where was it last year?

“hmmm..As a potato, I guess it was growing in a field somewhere”

Where is it right now?

“In my stomach”

OK. Keep track of it. I will be checking with you every now and then!

“Oh come on. How can I do that?”

Imagine you put a small tracking device on it. Just be aware of where all it goes and all the forms and shapes it takes in its journey

“But it will change its form and shape in so many ways and may travel everywhere. That is a never-ending story”

So is a human being.

“How’s that possible”?

Our story is not too different from the story of the potato wedge. In our current form and shape, we are called men and women. We occupy some space and time as this for a brief period in the universe. It is only during this period, do we get our names as ‘Ryan’ and the ‘Urban Monk’. You called IT a ‘potato wedge’ only when it was on your plate. It wasn’t a potato wedge 100 years ago, nor will it be a potato wedge 100 years later.

“Is it the same or different then?”

That’s tricky. The question assumes the potato wedge has an independent essence through all these changes.

“It doesn’t?”

How can something which changes forever and takes on so many forms and shapes over millions of years in time, have an independent, unchanging essence? What will it be? It won’t even have anything to do with a potato. For all you know, I may end up as a potato wedge on someone’s plate a 1000 years later..gross, but funny..hee hee!

“I see what you mean…But what is the way out?”

If you stop grasping to random ideas of what your identity is, then you’ll see clearly

“What do you mean by that?”

If the potato wedge does not cling to the idea that it is a ‘potato wedge’, it will actually realize it is immortal – without beginning and end.

Grasping is what sustains the idea of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’. We can grasp to any number of things as ‘I’ and ‘Mine’

For example,

I = body. I= thought. I=emotion. I=man. I=woman. I=manager. I=husband. I=wife. I=enjoyer. I=sufferer. I=victim. I=sensation. I=religious. I= powerful. I=successful. I=earth. I=air. I=water. I=fire. I=space

Take your pick.

“Okay. I get the idea now. The ‘I’ is whatever we grasp on to. Cling to. Identify ourselves with“

Exactly. Dropping the ‘I’ is nothing else but dropping a false identification. It’s as simple or difficult as that. There’s no magic or occult practice involved.

 

“But hey…suppose I drop the ‘I’, where will I be then?”

(I couldn’t stop grinning)

It’s easy, Ryan. You know the answer already from your heart. You just won’t accept it, because you believe it is ridiculous. But I will give you a clue anyway.

Wherever there is water, there you are

Wherever there is earth, there you are

Wherever there is fire, there you are

Wherever there is space, there you are

Wherever there is air, there you are

Wherever there is consciousness, there you are

Even where there is none of the above, there you are

 

To realize this for yourself, you must drop the ‘idea’ that you are ‘just Ryan!’ Don’t think like a potato wedge. Let go.

Your mind believes it is a lot of pain and suffering to let go of ‘I’. But don’t listen to it.

It is not pain or suffering to let go of the idea of ‘I’. How can it be? It is just an idea, a thought, an error that you are letting go of.

It is the true taste of freedom.

“Aha!” he said!

(We got up to leave the café. Something was still troubling him, I could see that. I asked him what it was)

“Does religion have a name for this journey or story that happens through the ages?” he asked hesitantly

Oh, yeah. It is called reincarnation, I said

He stood there shocked, as I left the café.