Jerry Katz on Nonduality

Peculiar Stories
Mora Fields
Trade paperback, 92 pages
$6.95
Ages 6-10 and up

Mora Fields wrote the childrens book Peculiar Stories - http://ostreetpublishing.com – Mora talks on Nonduality Street podcast about what inspired her to write the book and the nondual teachings contained within them. We also meet one of the most memorable characters in nondual spiritual literature, Uncle E, a free spirit in touch with the fundamental vibration of life and which he tries to transmit to his niece. Click here to listen. (You may have to reload the page to get the complete podcast to play.)

Here is an excerpt from Peculiar Stories, by Mora Fields

Intergalactic Beans

Uncle E has this one habit that drives me crazy.

He has a lot of strange habits, like hibernating in his

house for a whole week sometimes, and skipping down the

street (even though he’s actually a grownup), and shaking

Braggs Liquid Aminos sauce on almost everything he

eats. But these are habits I’ve gotten used to and they don’t

bother me.

The one that drives me crazy is this thing about

winking.

He winks at people. At me, and at other people he

knows, and even at strangers on the street. He doesn’t do

it a lot, but he does it at weird times when you wouldn’t

expect someone to wink at you (if you ever would). I don’t

mind when he winks at me, or at people he knows, but

when he winks at total strangers, it sometimes gets him

in trouble.

I asked him one time why he winked at me, and he said

it was sort of a secret signal. “Yeah, right,” I said. “What is

that supposed to mean?”

“You know,” he said.

“Come on, Uncle E, what kind of signal?”

“I know you know. But in case you have temporarily

forgotten, I’ll go ahead and remind you.

“So, what if some alien bean from another planet landed

here? What if it looked just like regular people, so you

couldn’t tell it was actually a bean from outer space? But

once it gets here it goes all over the world and discovers

that there are actually quite a few beans here from its own

planet. There is this kind of radiation stuff all these beans

give off , and whenever they run into one of their own kind

they can feel this radiation stuff , and then they use a secret

signal to show they recognize each other. Like maybe a

hand signal. Or hopping on one foot. Or winking.”

“Right. I’m an alien bean and you’re an alien bean, so

you wink at me?”

“That was just an example,” he said. “What it is, I wink

at people when they remind me about myself.”

“Remind you about what about yourself?”

“Remind me that I am really not who I pretend I am

and that I’m only wearing a costume. You know, an Uncle

E costume. So here we are, thinking we’re grownups,

kids, surfers, rock stars, Chinese, Swedish, smart, dumb,

whatever—when those things aren’t who we are at all. We

just wear those ideas about who we are, like costumes.

Underneath, we’re really all the same. We’re from the same

tribe of beans from the same faraway planet.”

“But I’m a girl, Uncle E. I’m not the same as a BOY!”

“Well of course you are. Your ideas might be different.

The way you’re made is different.… Duh! And the way you

act is diff erent, too, partly because you’ve learned to act

those ways, and partly because you were born with your

own special design. But underneath all that, the real part

of us, that’s the same. The problem is, sometimes we forget

that this is just a costume game and we start thinking the

costumes are real. So, when I see someone who reminds

me I’m not diff erent from them, and that I’m playing a

game, I wink at them to thank them for reminding me.”

Well, this made me feel kind of good, because I figured

Uncle E thought we’re from the same planet. And even

though I didn’t really get what planet we were supposed to

be from, I liked that he thought we were from the same

one. As a matter of fact, I always secretly liked it when

he winked at me since it made me feel like we were in on

something together, whatever it was.

But still, winking at strangers is risky. And Uncle E has

gotten himself in trouble this way.

One person he winked at—a really big, raggedy-looking

guy with a motorcycle helmet—grabbed Uncle E by the

shirt. Apparently he didn’t approve of winking, and he

said, “Hey, buddy, if it wasn’t for your daughter here, I’d

break your nose.” I was kinda glad the guy thought I was

his daughter, even though it did scare me a little. “I’m sure

glad you were here,” was what Uncle E said afterwards.

And then there was the day he winked at Sofia.

We were on our way to the beach, down by the train

tracks, when we passed a lady going the other way. She

was kind of tall and wearing this long dress with a hood

that I found out later is called a “djellaba.” She looked

preoccupied, which means she was busy thinking about

something important and serious instead of looking at the

scenery. Uncle E winked at her, and then she stopped and

said, in a pretty unfriendly voice, if you ask me, “Get a

life.” And she walked off , real huff y. I guess she was in a

bad mood.

Uncle E just shrugged. It looked like she didn’t know

about the beans-from-another-planet thing, so he might

have made a mistake when he winked at her in the fi rst

place. She probably thought he was some kind of dweeb,

which I was wondering about, too. I kind of wished that I

had stayed home to do the homework I was supposed to

be doing anyhow.

But later when we were running around in the ocean

waves up to our knees, and seeing who could get the longest

piece of seaweed, who came walking in our direction but

this same huffy lady, with her djellaba blowing behind her

in the breeze like a queen cape. Only she didn’t look so

huffy any more, she just looked kind of friendly. So what

did she do, she winked right at Uncle E, and then right at

me, too.

Read the rest of the chapter and and order Peculiar Stories at http://ostreetpublishing.com/dialog/peculiar-stories/