As I sort through 25 years of possessions, preparing to sell my Woodstock home -- infused, as it is, with the many memories of birth, death, fire, celebration, ecstasy, devotion, countless guests, exaltations, rites of passage, madness, dreams, dancing, bedtime stories, clinking of glasses, baby showers, live opera, dead mice, and ten thousand outtakes from the movie that seems to be my life, it dawns on me how little there is I want to take from this abode, in physical form. And while it won't come close to fitting through the eye of a needle, it will, I think, fit into a VW bug.

Michelangelo, when asked how he created The David, said it best. "I simply took away everything that wasn't." Indeed! Indeed! The statue was always in the stone. All he had to do was remove what wasn't. Less is more.

And so as I give away, throw away, and sell, I get to experience the odd pleasure of seeing what remains -- my own David, you might say -- the treasured totems of my life, all of which, no matter what form they take, serve the exact same function. REMEMBRANCE!

What remains from my estate -- what I have bought, inherited, or received -- reminds me of what it is I truly value here on planet Earth. A FEELING, a sacred moment out of time -- my soul's longing, God within, a wink from the Great Beyond: Many Buddhas, especially, Hotei, the laughing Buddha. Photographs of Evelyne, Jesse, Mimi, and me when we were at our best, loving life and each other. A 40-year old I-Ching. The Tao Te Ching. The poetry of Hafiz, Rumi, and Kabir. Many, many photographs of my amazing Master, Prem Rawat -- some beautifully framed, some tattered. A black and white photo of my parents kissing on their wedding day. My dog Chili's collar. And a box of journals I have never been able to throw away -- the hieroglyphics of my soul on fire. This is what remains. I'm guessing it will all fit into a box. Just like my body. This is my David. The rest? Just stuff.

PremRawat.com

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