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Will the REAL ME Please Stand Up?
 Will the Real Me Please Stand Up is a series of talks based upon the question: How do we live the bliss of being, the joy of life in the face of those costar, debilitating and impoverished beliefs we hold about ourselves and the world we live in.
When Siddhartha Gautama was born, a seer predicted that he would either become a great king or he would save humanity. Fearing that his son would not follow in his footsteps, his father raised Siddhartha in a wealthy and pleasure-filled palace in order to shield his son from any experience of human misery or suffering. This, however, was a futile project, and when Siddhartha saw four sights: a sick man, a poor man, a beggar, and a corpse, he was filled with infinite sorrow for the suffering that humanity has to undergo.
Like Siddhartha, something within us seeks to understand the existence in our own mind of that which our limited view perceives as an unfriendly universe. We say we want nothing to do with these things our eyes and mind wish to turn away from our ill health, our desperate minds, our apathetic and ungrateful moments and yet something within us calls them into our path of awareness. Could it be that an Infinite Knowingness within, which is always creating life out of Itself gives us that which we need to perceive our true self, our wholeness as one in Spirit?
After seeing these four things, Siddhartha then dedicated himself to finding a way to end human suffering. He abandoned his former way of life, including his wife and family, and dedicated himself to a life of extreme asceticism. So harsh was this way of life that he grew thin enough that he could feel his hands if he placed one on the small of his back and the other on his stomach. In this state of wretched concentration, in heroic but futile self-denial, he overheard a teacher speaking of music. If the strings on the instrument are set too tight, then the instrument will not play harmoniously. If the strings are set too loose, the instrument will not produce music. Only the middle way, not too tight and not too loose, will produce harmonious music. He learned to live the Middle Way, an experience of livingness created through the conscious integration of his inner and outer worlds, his mind/body connection.
Where do you pull yourself too tightly, through personal will – and when do you turn everything over to God – not taking responsibility for the role you play in creating your experience? Are you willing to radically release the illusions you have held about yourself , walk the Middle Way and Stand for Real?
In honor of our journey,
Rev. Nadene
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