Jed McKenna. My best friend wants to be a vampire but eternal life and no sleep is not my thing; what is, however, is being free and whatever comes along. Turns out or at least it seems to me, that Jed McKenna is.
Jed enlightened McKenna is a dude and an unconventional spiritual master. He is insensitive, politically incorrect and has a dry sense of humour. He talks about butterflies and caterpillars, vampires and humans and Buddha’s rotting head and bloody battles. He also writes poems and books, two of which are now my favourites. He had an Ashram in Iowa, and then he moved to Mexico and we don’t know where he might be now. But no matter where he goes, he seems to find the best house in the area, all with the help of this intelligent universe and some “letting go”. He jumps out of airplanes, messes with the police and comes out unscathed. He gets hurt, only physically, and does not make much of it. He’s funny and the only one he loves is his dog. He finds humans silly and himself, unable to interact with them. While most liken the enlightenment to a chocolate fudge, according to him, enlightenment is a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. And no one knows who he really is. He doesn’t do press interviews or actively promote his book. He says he’s not real, just a fictional character, like all of us. Of course, spiritual seekers are curious to know who he really is. Some claim he is Adyashanti’s evil twin brother, some say he’s Richard Rose and some say he’s not enlightened. He says that he’s just a finger pointing at the moon, and serious seekers would rather care about the moon than about the finger. And his finger points in one direction- further. He says that in the pursuit of truth, one does not stop. When you meet Buddha on the road, kill him. No, he doesn’t have any issues with Buddha. It’s just a Zen saying implying that in search for the truth, you have to get past all your ideas, all of them.
I want to be Jed McKenna because he’s awesome. I want to be wise and awake and fearless. There is no baggage which comes with being Jed McKenna, only awesome experience without an experiencer, as the enlightened like to say. I don’t know for sure if he exists, like I don’t know if vampires do. And all of it seems too good to be true, but that’s no reason to not dream about it.
