In the normal reckoning of space and time, I ‘met’ Thomas Vieira less than 2 years ago in San Francisco at a conference on A Course In Miracles. He and his former wife and teaching/learning partner, Nouk Sanchez, were giving a 75-minute workshop on their ACIM experiences and revelations. I immediately felt connected to both, like long-lost friends, as they engaged with everyone in the room, reminding us that we’re ALL long-lost friends. I can’t think of anyone I’ve talked to that didn’t have a similar experience. Starting with the whoopee cushions they placed on everyone’s seats, it was obvious that their sense of humor was of primary importance in their assigned task (while gently and whimsically reminding us it was OUR task as well) to dismantle the inner saboteur we thought we fabricated called ego.
Numerous metaphors that Tomas (and Nouk) shared stayed with me; for starters, how our inner voice for peace (a.k.a. Holy Spirit) is like a GPS; when we get off course, it doesn’t berate us for missing the optimal turn, it just gently recalculates another optimum way to see our ‘destination’ each moment without any implied guilt, blame or extra baggage. Probably my favorite analogy (that Tomas illustrated with great exuberance so that we could all identify with it, just long enough to see the joke and start DE-identifying with it :-) is the ego as the quintessential pork-pie-hat-wearing and cigar-smoking used car salesman… To paraphrase: “I’ve never steered you right before, but never mind that, just trust me this one … more … time.” What a great image! I remember laughing with Tomas at one of our favorite local restaurants (after they gave an outstanding 3-day workshop here a little over a year ago) talking about what a great video this could make to satirize our attachment to form…
… and Tomas really LIVED the lessons about releasing his interpretations about form, including his own deteriorating body. His attitude demonstrated the truly liberating truth that we’re not bound by anything, including the fleeting vehicles we ‘hang out in’. If ‘gentle tenacity’ isn’t too much of an oxymoron, Tomas showed us, in so many loving and kind examples, how we can make fun of our own follies and enjoy the lives we think we’re living all the more so by holding to the thought system that reminds us that separation never happened… and we can afford to enjoy an internal (and eternal) inner laugh about how silly our preoccupations are – no matter how seemingly serious. The candor that Tomas and Nouk shared about their personal lives that reminded us of our shared transpersonal LIFE was, IS and forever will be a joyous example of spirit.
If our shared spirit (way beyond what our little who-ville, persona-attached, need machine-obsessed minds could possibly fathom) IS eternally, then that same spirit we all share (and the idea we call Tomas was such a great fun reminder of) IS too, so thank you, Tomas, for a life in this holographic dream well spent in sharing what we all are, what we have always been and will always be (beyond time, space and all the other silly notions we seem to get caught up in.)
Will we miss Tomas’ form? Of course. But even as a few tears arise as we recall our dear friend, the sustainable smile breaks into outrageously joyous laughter remembering that (like the Joe Hill song lyrics go) “He did not die.”
Eternal smilezenhugs! :-)
