Recently, the graduating class of a small Midwestern US university had comedienne Jim Carrey for their commencement address. The campus all meditates and some practice Ayurveda, hence a few of the “inside” jokes about head direction, vata and such. “Dead baseball players” is a Field of Dreams reference – it was shot nearby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V80-gPkpH6M
Some quotes:
“Now fear is going to be a player in life, but you get to decide how much. You can spend your whole life imagining ghosts, worrying about the pathway to the future, but all it will ever be is what’s happening here, the decisions in that we make in this moment, which are based in either love or fear. So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect, so we never dare to ask the universe for it. I’m saying, I’m the proof that you can ask the universe for it — please! (applause) And if it doesn’t happen for you right away, it’s only because the universe is so busy fulfilling my order. It’s party size!”
“My father could have been a great comedian but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him, and so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an account. When I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job, and our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you could fail at what you don’t love, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”
“My father used to brag that I wasn’t a ham — I was the whole pig.”
“Everything you gain in life will rot and fall apart, and all that will be left of you is what was in your heart.”
“Like many of you, I was concerned about going out into the world and doing something bigger than myself, until someone smarter than myself made me realize that there is nothing bigger than myself. My soul is not contained within the limits of my body. My body is contained within the limitlessness of my soul — one unified field of nothing dancing for no particular reason, except maybe to comfort and entertain itself. (applause) As that shift happens in you, you won’t be feeling the world you’ll be felt by it — you will be embraced by it. Now, I’m always at the beginning. I have a reset button called presence and I ride that button constantly.”
Valedictorian Donna Jones followed his talk. She joked about having Jim Carrey as an opening act.
Last Updated on April 27, 2018 by
A few other quotes…
“I cannot be contained because I’m the container.”
“I used to believe that who I was ended at the edge of my skin, that I had been given this little vehicle called a body from which to experience creation, and though I couldn’t have asked for a sportier model, (laughter) it was after all a loaner and would have to be returned. Then, I learned that everything outside the vehicle was a part of me, too, and now I drive a convertible. Top down wind in my hair! (laughter)”
When he got his degree, he made a joke about “good thing I don’t have an ego.”