Beauty on the Headless Way

In reading more on the Headless Way website, I have found many stories that have touched me deeply. Stories that are simple, beautiful, and from the heart.


I also know how wonderful it is to have friends who value this direct way Home - 'Harding's Way' as J. called it in his article. And I wanted not only to have another Seeing friend myself, but for him to have a Seeing friend too - in me. Seeing friendships are deeper than words can say. You are consciously sharing indivisible being. This is wonderful and astonishing. You are two, yet you are one. What a mystery. Then when you are apart you can still see - and be - the being of the 'other' - right where you are.

And friends can so often inspire and teach us - when we are willing to look and listen. I guess that's one reason why God created 'others' - to explore in as many ways as possible the incredible miracle of Being. And when there are 'others' - who are yet at the same time 'OneSelf' - then love becomes possible in a way that would not be possible if there had remained forever only one.

[From Not in Prison by Richard Lang]

What do you do when a friend dies? How do you make meaning out of his or her absence? I am sure there are as many ways of dealing with someone's death as there are people affected by it. But in the next monthly meeting, after I had shared the circumstances of her death, we did a lovely thing. We gathered together, arms around each other, and looking down into the center of the circle, did the 'No-head Circle' experiment in honor of Rebecca. A voice, falling out of and into the Emptiness, began:

"Down there on the carpet we see a circle of feet, feet of friends who have come today to be together, feet of friends who will later leave, going off in different directions. Down there is the land of feet, the land of separate comings and goings, of hellos and goodbyes, of births and deaths. And into this land, Rebecca will not come again. We are saying our last goodbye to you, Rebecca, and giving you our love as you take the next step in your journey. Thank you for your presence here, for your energy and wisdom. We wish you well, Rebecca. Goodbye.

"But here, up here at the top of the circle of bodies, still looking down, we find no feet, nor heads, nor separate no-heads, no land of comings and goings, births and deaths, hellos followed by goodbyes. Here, in this unfathomable presence, in the midst of these few bodies gathered together, is the I AM, silently voicing, when we care to look, the eternal, timeless Hello of Who we really are. And here too, in the midst, free of the distinctions that separate you from me, is Rebecca - the real Rebecca, who so steadfastly lived from Who she really was - the real Rebecca and the real you and the real me. Rebecca, hello."

[From In Memoriam by David Lang]