Joel Weddington
"A Very Human Mission" is a fiction novel about an alien who accepts a dare from a member of his group to be born on Earth and help human suffering. Impulsive and overconfident, he chooses to enter a traumatic childhood and encounters ongoing adversity that threaten his mission and even his life. Struggling to overcome personal conflicts and life challenges for many years, he finally gains wisdom about himself and humanity.
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The final days of the Rosedales
Moving beyond his robotic behavior, Brad meets the final challenge of fully accepting his humanity. He decides that because he has reached a contented state the mission has been accomplished. He believes from his studies that he could pass on to a higher plane of existence, one with more evolved spiritual evolution. A terrible tragedy takes place – Elly dies in a plane crash returning from Japan. Brad is lost, but makes a final effort to spend his remaining years in service to the good of others. He donates the Elly’s life insurance check to a charity for poor children, and takes a volunteer job doing medical exams in homeless…
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The man who’s wife called him a robot
Elly watched Brad head for his upstairs office for the second time one Saturday. First after breakfast, now after lunch. “You’re a robot,” she called out, as she cleared the dishes from their lovely lunch of whole-grain pasta stewed with fresh-cut vegetables and a side of steamed brown rice. She worked hard to keep him healthy, and she deserved a little attention. Not today. Butt back in his chair, he refreshed the computer screen and continued entering data for the third medical report of the day. Pushing sixty, preparing for retirement, he thought of Mo dying alone in his beat-up trailer, or Natalie waiting for the next government so she…
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Oman decides to challenge Brad (Numan) on Earth
The natives on the big blue planet, mostly Elders, would check in on their members who were foolhardy enough to go on a human mission. When they saw that Numan as Brad Rosedale, had succeeded in becoming a doctor, it was big news at The Gathering. Oman was especially intrigued and projected an energetic thought ball, “I’m going to be born on Earth and challenge Numan in his mission.” Everyone in the group was intensely amused, even the Elders paused and let sparks of laughter-energy ripple through their bodies. There was some discussion, and two Elders immediately offered to collaborate. They didn’t need to run Oman through the preparation protocol…
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Discoveries about the ultimate reality
In one fluid motion, Cassy shoved her chair back, sprang her lanky frame to its full height, raised her arms above her shoulders, and shouted: “This table is real!” Then she bent forward and swung her forearms down. Bang! The table shook and everyone jumped in their seats. The outburst made Brad’s stomach churn. What did I say to cause that? His medical experience forced him to look at her arms for signs of an injury. No evidence of broken bones. But that must have hurt. Returning to her chair, Cassy looked around at the dozen startled faces. Her eyes were burning like fiery coals, and a tight frown had…
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Enlightenment and the Dark Night of the Soul
Elly’s support for Brad was unconditional, even after he turned the temple trip into a competitive sport. The monks had beaten him at every form of spiritual practice, which made him bitter. “They played me,” he said, as they prepared for the 10 hour flight back to California. “They set me up for the hardest practices, and then laughed at me when I failed.” “Honey, nobody was trying to win anything. And they weren’t laughing at you. They are actually happy! You should try it. How can you expect to beat monks who practice every day for years? They didn’t go to medical school, you wouldn’t expect them to come…
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Throwing oneself to God
The monks were in constant motion, chanting scriptures, maintaining the temple grounds, and doing Gyo. The Master did not believe in being idle. He would explain that Gyo was the practice of “throwing oneself to God,” and would purify the spirit. Eventually it would bring Enlightenment which was the goal of all monks. When foreigners came, they mostly did basic forms of Gyo, like walking around the temple grounds lighting candles, or sitting in the hall chanting for world peace. The more energetic ones might do the Hyaku Gyo, walking back and forth between two engraved marble posts 100 times, while chanting blessings, which took about 2 hours. Brad had…
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Wanderers to a Buddhist Temple
The naked monk, holding nothing but a plastic bucket, stepped into the small pool at the foot of the little waterfall. Brad could hear him gasp as the shock of the icy water went through his body. Following the path of the flashlight held by another monk, he waded in and sat down, the water up to chest level. Then he began chanting the Heart Sutra. “Kan ji zai bo sa gyo- jin han-nya ha ra mi ta ji…” As he chanted, he pulled the bucket through the freezing water and splashed it onto his face and chest, again and again. his voice tremulous, shouting as if to fight off…
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Wanderers and the Law of Squares
Brad found himself with some free time after giving up his calling to be a health care reform activist. Patient referrals were steady, but not overly busy, and with occasional time to reflect, the old riddle “to become square, square yourself” came back to haunt him. A dream came where he was with the 3 beings who had appeared in a vision when he was 14. There were images of a barren and alien landscape, like another planet. He looked down at himself and saw that his body was blue like theirs. In the dream, he felt lighter, and faster than a human should. They were playing a 3-dimensional game,…
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Getting disability by threatening a bullet in the head
“Tell Dr. Rosedale next time I see him walkin’ cross the parkin’ lot, he’s gonna get a bullet in his damn head,” said a voice on the phone at the medical clinic in Oakland, California. The medical assistant taking the call panicked. ”Who is this? What are you saying?” she said. She spun around in her chair to look for a supervisor or anyone who could take over. “Never mind who it is! Shit, just tell ‘him he done somebody wrong.” The voiced hung up. His search for Enlightenment over, Brad believed his spiritual awakening made his life’s mission secure. All he had to do was go to work and…
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An Enlightened Guru on the Ganga
John adjusted his glasses and pinched his beard. “Oh yeah, there’s some real good gurus all up and down the river. I’m going to a different one every day. But nobody can make me meditate like Andrew Cohen does, that’s why I’m here at his retreat.” “I need to see a spiritual teacher I can talk to,” said Brad. I have a hundred questions, and Andrew couldn’t give me an answer to the first one!” “Oh!” John replied. “If you want someone who will answer questions, go see ShantiMayi. She might not give the answer that you want to hear though!” John laughed, and a pained expression came across his…