THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A COINCIDENCE

When perfect connections are made, between events or between people, it might seem like coincidences exist. But what is really happening is that we’re mistaking those events for being "in the zone", "wired to the universe" or whatever you want to call that perfect state of mind where we are realizing things at the very moment they happen. We’re experiencing no time delay. Yesterday I spent more than an hour thinking about the subject I wrote of in my journal, "giving up control", letting things happen, going with the flow. So, after I was finished with thinking these (for me) fairly deep thoughts, along comes a messenger from far in the past, Doug Borwick. The phone rings, I hear Doug’s voice, and thus begins a re-connecting with an old friend from the early days spent with Maharishi. The year was 1972, it was Fall and I’d just spent all my money to join more than a thousand meditators from the U.S. and Europe, in La Antilla, Spain—a small tourist town on the Atlantic coast between Gibraltar and Portugal.

Doug, myself and a fellow from Las Vegas—stage name, Dave Diamond—were randomly thrown together in a small beach house. Maharishi’s people had rented most of the houses along the ocean through the autumn and winter to the course participants. In our house, Doug quickly became known for his intensity. Although he spent virtually the entire day in his room meditating, whenever he appeared outside his room, he always seemed to have something to either complain about or to teach. He seemed to be "the expert" on almost everything! As much as we all loved him, he grated on people’s nerves because of his overly zealous way of rendering opinions on whatever the subject.

So here was Doug 30 years later—yesterday—on the telephone delivering news about a healer, the message related in the same overly zealous way I remembered. That is to say Doug’s Swami was the ONLY Swami on earth worth consideration and if you didn’t believe that, Doug was going to convince you. Doug currently spends seven months of his year, he told me proudly, in Swami Kaleshwar’s ashram in south India. This is particularly pertinent to me because it immediately connects with what I have been thinking about—back to the idea of "letting go".

I’m guessing that Gurus, Sages and Masters everywhere are trying to teach "letting go" to everyone who sits at their feet. During my years with Maharishi this was an oft-repeated message for me: learning to let go—in my case, mostly of the fruits of my labor. I think that one of the reasons I left Maharishi’s tutelage, after spending six wonderful years, was because I believed in my heart that I didn’t feel the need for someone to stand between me and my God. And this is what I found myself telling Doug after listening to him expound about Swami Kaleshwar.

Do we need to have a teacher on this earth to help guide the way? Certainly Maharishi’s wisdom has guided me through many storms. I am fond of saying that after Vietnam screwed me up, Maharishi saved my life. I still believe that. He gave me rules to live by that have guided my ship past many deadly shoals. But I have also felt, rightly or wrongly, that at some point it was up to me to take responsibility for my own life—to grow up spiritually and dare to break with my teacher and set sail on my own! It seems to be my karma to learn things the hard way. When learning is made too easy for me, I don’t seem to grasp the knowledge being offered. It seems that for me it takes a more difficult experience in order for the lesson sink in.

What always haunts me is the fact that I might be wrong about needing a teacher or a guide. Had I remained working for Maharishi, receiving his daily blessings, I might be enlightened today. And so, with the question of "letting go" freshly painted in my brain, with Doug presenting the possibility of introducing me to yet another enlightened teacher who is willing to guide another willing student, I wonder if paying Swami’s ashram a visit might not be the right thing to do…