Tuesday night, I lost one of my dearest friends, Erica Abbott, in a cycling accident here in our Brooklyn neighborhood. She was a profound dancer, a newly named Bodhisattva (think, Superhero), and my personal style icon- 6 inch leopard print peep toe wedges, yes ma’am ☺
Yesterday, we called our Sangha (spiritual community) together at the Three Jewels in Manhattan and sat ceremony for her throughout the day. The morning called us to meditation, as we reflected on her luminescence and her desire to serve others with every action, word, and thought. In the evening we performed a secret Buddhist ceremony of our lineage called Lama Chopa.
Erica and I met just year ago as we began our deep studies of Tibetan Buddhism, Esoteric Christianity, and all things mindful. It seems we were partnered from the start. I was lucky to see her several times a week. We served and reorganized the Three Jewels together, studied at the Sarva Yoga Academy, had numerous, dinners, bottles of wine on the floors of our apartments, walks with Banjo (her Brussels Griffon) around the neighborhood, yoga classes, L train rides… so much time I was gifted.
In her presence, conversations were never meaningless. We spoke of our shortcomings, the walls we were put in front of, how we can transform them, how we can serve better. In one of our most memorable conversations, we had slipped into discussion of time. We were learning about the traditional teachings of death and after life, and I remember her saying… “but all that doesn’t matter, That’s why I’m going to reach Enlightenment in THIS lifetime.”
In reflection, Erica was always the braver of the two of us. When I was too proud to verbalize what I was feeling- when I was striving to keep face, Erica was raw, completely candid about her experience with these deep teachings. She questioned, disagreed, but surrendered wholly to the will of her teachers, and the teachers all around her.
She forced me to teach her… forced me to understand better… and forced me to look at the shadows within myself… forced me to share. She is my angel in disguise, given to me to guide me through and accelerate my spiritual practice for myself and more importantly, for all who I am able to teach and share with.
In her passing, she has given me the clarity of our greatest lesson, the first step on the Path we studied hand in hand: Yes, this life is beautiful. There is so much to be enjoyed. We live in paradise, if only we see through what keeps us from it. Still, we never know which breath will be the last. We must all take clear action to changing our world, Now. We project our movie, our appearances, our impressions- I vow to make them the visions of a perfect world: Of safety, beauty, abundance, unconditional love, compassion, and Wisdom.
At the end of my Yoga classes, I often lead a dedication, sending this Perfect Universe (our Mandala) out into the world as a great seed of Love falling into the still lake of our United Soul-Mind, and causing ripples, to become waves. In seeing the love that surrounds Erica… the thousands of people who she has shaped and who in turn have shaped others, I am further resolved to bring myself to my Highest State of Being. In fact, I promise to. For you.
Erica, go. Realize your own Divinity. Enter fully- and come back to teach us again.
