Becoming Whole

I have spoken about a play I am devoting myself to, that will first be preformed in Taos, New Mexico, on the 12th of June, at the Taos Literary Society (Somos). The title is:

Rumi, Hafiz, Elvis & Carl Jung!

Helping the Jailhouse Rock!

Aka: Buddha After Hours In the Bar

A Play-Reading by Daniel Ladinsky

You can read more about this play in my last couple blog entries before this one. The play will mostly be improv, with only maybe some four or five pages actually being read out—scripted— and the below, I think, will be one of them. It goes ...

I deeply feel, that if it were not for my teacher in India, I never would have gotten my name on a single book, or be sitting here now. I feel he so choreographed all that, and was so able to! And I have most spoken about him in all of my publications, and tell some of the story— of my genesis with writing, in my Rumi book, The Purity of Desire, in a few pages of the Introduction there, titled: The Wing Comes Alive In His Presence.

When the wing comes alive, when the heart comes alive, isn't that what we live for.

Our wings need to dance in the sky.

— Hafiz says

So here is that story, and then I rocket off— dance a bit —maybe! I hope! Expounding on manna, reheating it, the best I can! 

I was walking one day with my teacher. I was staying at a very private, small estate with him, in the countryside of India where Meher Baba lived the last 20 years of his life. My teacher, who was simply called Eruch, was the person closest to the profound — and really astounding — inner and outer life of Meher Baba. Eruch had known Meher Baba since the age of nine. I spent time with Eruch, off and on, for some 20 years before he passed on! And always in India.

To me Eruch had this wonderful quality of being able to appear the most normal guy in the room, and completely veil himself— when the sun, moon, and angels might have been (unseen to us) tugging on his shirt to come play!

I was walking with Eruch alone, on one of my literally hundreds of early-morning, private walks with him—leaving the compound always at 6 AM. 

In the rural countryside of India, where we walked, there were little farms all around. Little farms Eruch would sometimes enter and greet families (and even animals), and the families always seemed so honored he was there and talking with him about their lives! And a certain beautiful dog, that was free to be anywhere it wanted, would even wait for him at a juncture we always passed. Eruch would toss the dog some sweets; and this special animal would leap into the air and catch them, with a great smile it seemed, and even linger in the air longer than one might think; as if it were defying gravity.

We always walked east into the sun rising over some ancient hills, and above a lake. I have so many stories I could tell of these walks, that were for usually an hour; though sometimes two. And at times, I really felt I was walking with a living Buddha, or a great Zen master.

I sometimes would start to think to myself: What might really be this man’s experience of this world, and of himself? Many times he would answer just my thoughts with words and images I found extraordinary, and sometimes so, so distilled, and simple. An example being. So one morning I am just thinking as said, and Eruch responds with three words in a foreign language I did not know, and then I say, “What does that mean?” And he says, ... "I am whole!”

And whole, whole can mean: Complete, undivided! Perfect! And then, sure, we talked about all that some!

I sometimes write under a pseudonym —Shahooshi Shahooshi— when posting things on an international, spiritual Web-chat site I often offer things to several times a day. Shahooshi Shahooshi can seem smarter than me, and is a big help, as I wouldn't want anyone to think I really know too much. I might then get too much fan mail. And here is something I recently posted, and signed by her, and want to break open more, as I think it is about a real reality in all our lives; it went:

With the thousand voices one might hear

from their past or future! How wonderful

we can still dance!

— Shahooshi Shahooshi

The opposite of being whole could be defined as being in pieces! Or being torn apart! Needing! And with anyone having to listen, and at all be consumed with their past or future, would not that make one very unpresent? Very incomplete. Undermined! Even mentally disturbed one could become, and even act that. 

The oasis of beauty. The oasis of love, can restore us. Moreover is vital to us. And the more we can drink from beauty and knowledge & love, is the more beautiful and complete we become, and the more able to give to others, to this world, and to our precious self.

Gosh, the sun and moon and angels might start tugging on us— to please come play! 

And Hafiz & Rumi & Buddha & Meher Baba— and any great song! Go swimming there! Dive in! Dive in! They will help us in ...

Becoming whole! And finding golden wings to caress the cheek of God!

Daniel Ladinsky

May 2026