The Oprah Effect by Nancy Mehagian

Author:Nancy Mehagian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Meteor 17

“My own spiritual quest remains a lifelong journey though over time my beliefs have become far simpler.”

I admit it. I was a bit of the wild child who gave my wonderful, loving and conservative parents absolute fits. I was brought up in a Baptist church; later we became Methodists. When asked, at age twelve, if I wanted to join the church I said, “No,” and that was it. Though I didn’t realize it at the time I was a seeker interested in actual spiritual experience and not just blind belief. I wanted to find what would connect me to source, and I knew I had to put trust in myself to discover it.

In my late teens I became a vegetarian, more for spiritual reasons than for health, and thus my spiritual quest began. Initially I looked to others for answers—psychics, astrologers and all manner of spiritual teachers. I tried Transcendental Meditation and read every spiritual book I could get my hands on. As I read and studied and matured and especially when I learned to meditate and trust my own instincts I discovered the answers I sought were always within. I could take principles from the masters and apply them, but that was it. Others could only confirm those truths, the confirmation usually occurring with what a friend of mine calls “the goose bump factor.”

It wasn’t until I traveled to Nepal in 1970 and first encountered Tibetan Buddhists that I truly found a religion that resonated with me. The Tibetan refugees I met there were so pure and gentle, resolved to maintain their faith and culture in spite of the persecution that had been inflicted upon them.

Over the years I have been blessed to receive teachings from the Dalai Lama on several occasions. Once, in Los Angeles, at the end of a teaching session, the Dalai Lama was answering random questions from the audience. Someone asked, “What is the fastest way to get enlightened?” There was laughter from the audience and I was thinking to myself that only in Los Angeles would anyone ask such a question. The Dalai Lama, seated cross-legged on his chair, held his face in his hands and bent forward. It seemed that he was laughing himself but when he rose up again I was sitting close enough to see that he was crying. He proceeded to tell us the story of Tibet’s great Yogi and saint, Milarepa.

Milarepa had committed terrible deeds in his youth. Fortune led him to Marpa, a great teacher and hard taskmaster. Before he died, Marpa’s final teaching to his student was to bend over and show him the calluses on his ass, formed through years of sitting meditation.

My own spiritual quest remains a lifelong journey, though over time my beliefs have become far simpler. I know I will never have calluses on my behind since I actually prefer walking meditation. I do know for sure that spiritual growth is the true work of our lives.

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