It’s 2024.  There are all sorts of people to talk to … and I often do.  But I’d like to buy a time machine.  Perhaps IKEA sells the latest model.

I want to have coffee with human beings from long ago.  Pizza would also be nice.  I want to know what their lives were like.  Or are like.  “What thrills you all to bits?  What stops you in your tracks?  What do you wonder about?  What brings tears to your eyes?”

Etcetera

“How come you lived so long ago, and here I am … in the Now?”

Here’s a woman whom I wish I had known.  We would have had so many cool conversations.

Dipa Ma was a Buddhist teacher from India.  She was around four foot nothing (122 cm) and a giant among the open hearts of the world.  Our lives overlapped by forty years (1949-1989) but I never met her.  We both climbed the entrance steps of the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts … but not at the same time.

In the last few weeks, my spiritual practice has centered on loving the people I pass in the street or see through the windows of Izy Coffee. 

Here’s what Dipa Ma says:

Bless those around you.  If you bless those around you, this will inspire you to be attentive in every moment

I once had a friend take photos of objects that looked like letters of the alphabet.  She created a collage that spelled out “Welcome everything.”  They are words I yearn to live by.

Here’s what Dipa Ma says:

Whatever comes in life, I embrace

In my better moments, I see that what’s important is what I put out there into life.  Attitude, perspective, connection – fine words like that.  It doesn’t matter what comes back!

Here’s what Dipa Ma says:

You don’t need anything to be happy

***

So to Dipa Ma

And all you other cool folks who have lived

I say

“Thanks for being on the planet”

“Coffee?”