Jeff Wolverton ”poem”, read June 17, 2022 after arti, live on Zoom

From Jeff:

The other morning at three o’clock I got up and wrote down the following for your entertainment. It is a cockamamie metaphor that came to me some time back, and in wee hours about week ago I fleshed it out. You might say it is about the trajectory of my life with Baba using the metaphor of driving a car. It describes the evolution of my consciousness of Baba that is pretty much beyond words (but why not try?), and I’m sure each of you can fill in the gaps with your own experience. This may not be the final draft, and I am open to any feedback or need of clarification. In His love, Jeff

GOING ALONG FOR THE RIDE

(evolving toward the provisional ego}

This life with Baba is like driving a car

along the perilous highways of this world.

It starts out like this: I am behind the wheel,

and I have placed Baba in the back seat.

He lovingly accepts this arrangement.

At first I have the windows rolled down, and I only vaguely hear

any guidance Baba might have to give me from behind.

I learn to value His interventions: from time to time,

He helps me when I am totally lost or am approaching serious danger.

In an effort to hear Him better, I turn down the radio and roll up the windows.

What an improvement! I find that Baba is an excellent backseat driver!

Discovering over time how helpful He is, I invite Him to come up and sit in the passenger seat. Baba is perfectly fine with that. We have great conversations,

and I enjoy His companionship. I can tell Him everything!

Occasionally He suddenly grabs the wheel so we avoid an accident.

When I get drowsy, I notice He does a little of the steering.

I begin to trust Him a little more.

Then at one point, it becomes clear that we really need to switch places.

I move over to the passenger seat, and let Baba get behind the wheel.

At first, from time to time, I grab the steering wheel when He turns toward

somewhere I don’t want to go, especially into the congestion of big cities.

Sometimes He drives through dark neighborhoods where I feel frightened.

Sometimes He spends too much time driving on roads that don’t seem safe.

Sometimes He drives too slow and sometimes too fast.

I have to work at trusting Him.

But time and again, His decisions prove to be the best.

He might turn off the highway onto a side road, and we find out later

that a bridge ahead had been washed out or a patch of the highway was iced over.

I realize my habit of grabbing the wheel from Him is not helping.

I decide it’s best to move to the back seat and let Him do the driving.

I’m now the backseat driver.

Sometimes I yell out instructions, and He is so accommodating.

He doesn’t force His will on me.

Eventually I see that it is easier to let Him do the driving entirely.

I trust Him more completely, and I don’t even bother to watch the highway.

From the backseat, I find myself I’m so attracted to watching Him drive the car.

And then I’m content to just watch Him.

I notice for the first time how beautiful Baba is doing something

so very ordinary!

But then He disappears as Himself.

Has He become what was formerly me, so simple, so natural—

just an ordinary person?

I wonder, what’s supposed to happen to me?

Am I now to watch Baba live my life from the backseat?

Am I no longer to look through my eyes,

but through the eyes of awareness itself?

If Baba has become me, then I must be a nobody. What an immense relief!

Does He want to eclipse my personality and drive this jalopy of a car

through the world, and I have only to witness this?

Could it really be that simple?

Baba has said that He is the One who plays all the roles.

Does this mean that everyone is really Baba in disguise,

and we are just consciousness witnessing this?

My ego says: “Have I been taken for a ride?”

But my soul counters, “Oh no, this has been the Ride of a Lifetime!”

Only time will tell!

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