Here I am blowing out the candles on my birthday cake, making wishes for the future.
Now I’ve seen a lot of the movie of my life, and what often seemed random and unconnected at the time of living it now makes sense as I look back down the tunnel of time. Every move of my life brought me to this point right now, writing on my bed, soft spring breezes stroking my cheek, and I have no regrets for anything, no matter how daft I was. No regrets; a conscious choice when I peer back over my shoulder at my varied past. Every event, large and small, is one of the building blocks of now, which makes that movie of my odd life far more vital and meaningful than I once imagined.
I began to meditate when I returned to the UK after my revelation on the beach of Formentera and immediately, by cosmic chance, so to speak, met a Thai Buddhist monk in a flat in Liverpool, who casually understood my experience and invited me to meditate with him. Nirvana may be glimpsed thus, he said, as he introduced me to the path to make this state my home. What a year that was, when Grace intervened twice to set the course of my life, what good fortune I have had.
More than fifty years later I am still meditating, it makes all the difference to the quality of my life, it was well worth the time and effort. In fact I am writing this as sunlight fills my sweet home after my morning hour of practice. There is no other way to write than coming from my centre, the mind in my heart. Along the way from youth to here I’ve met one of the great Gurus of India and imbibed treasures from his vast wisdom over man years, I’ve worked in the Human Potential movement, where I learned about myself and my immediate world, I lived in Japan for almost ten years, in California, in Spain, and India, all of which opened my mind to cultures beyond my own. I’ve made the primary life shift from one gender to another, which revealed many secrets behind gender, destiny, identity and how we make our worlds. I designed and made gardens for years; I was a landscape artist. Here are some pictures of my work, my art, in a garden in the windy wet primal beautiful hills of North Wales.
I’ve been an activist for human rights, told stories, taught meditation and delved deeply into the nature of my mind, my heart and how I make my own experience of life in this body on this earth. It was a fascinating and fruitful pigrimage back to my own Self.
As the great pandemic and the lockdowns which have impacted so deeply on us all begins to diminish here in the UK – we hope – so many of us are wondering who we are now, what life is about, what we want, where we are going.
From what I have learned, from the experience I have gained over the years I write, give talks and, with the clarity of shifting the fundamentals of my identity, my gender, created my podcast of conversations with remarkable people; The Masks of Gender
Love to you. I’d be happy to hear from you about anything – Persia
Persia West 