Swamis Huey, Dewey and Louie
by Guy Spiro

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I have written before about having been taught to meditate as a young boy by Huey, Dewey and Louie. Yes, I am talking about Donald Duck’s nephews. One summer day, when I was probably eight years old, I went to a local store to buy some comic books. Among them, probably to make my Grandma feel better about what I was spending her money on (along with my superhero titles), was a Disney comic that had a very unusual story. In it the diminutive ducks went out to play and came upon a flying saucer. After meeting the alien inside, they discovered to their horror that he could control them. He could make them do whatever he wanted by getting into their minds. They found that the only way they could stop him from doing it was the think no thoughts. There they were, walking around with empty bubbles over their heads.

Fascinated by the idea of thinking no thoughts, I decided to see if I could do it. With a bit of practice, I got quite good at it. After a few weeks, being a kid, I forgot about it. At seventeen, I picked up my first yoga book and my metaphysical life began. Learning about meditation, the memory of my first initiation flooded back. To this day it is central to my practice and what I recommend to any who ask.

When one has the experience of silence of the mind, what may first be noticed is that awareness remains. When the mind is silent, the awareness that remains is the first brush we have with who we really are. This realization is the awakening to consciousness above the level of mind. I see this as the first great initiation.

It is the condition of most of humanity to be lost at the level of mind, and to identify with it. This is the root of most of our suffering. The mind, emotions and personality more or less masquerade as us, and not only the others in our lives, but we, ourselves, buy it. As long as we remain enslaved by our thoughts and feelings and physical cravings, we can never be free, and are blown about by these things like leaves in the wind. The body, the emotions and the mind are tools, or perhaps it is better to think of them as vehicles, for us to experience life on the physical plane. What has happened is we have forgotten who and what we really are.

Practice living at your proper level. We can decide what to think, how to feel and what to do. We have only to awaken. Huey, Dewey and Louie pointed out the same way as the avatars of the ages before them.