Brother Asaiah steps out

 

Asaiah Bates, long time Homer resident and city councilman, has resigned his seat on the council.

 

A new member will have to be voted in by the council.  Present members or the mayor will make nominations.

 

Brother Asaiah, a student of tantra yoga and Tibetan Buddhism, says he expects to be headed for India on an open-ended visit with the Dali Lama.

 

He got onto the council at the urging of friends, and now says he can't continue to dedicate his time to it.  Brother Asaiah is more a philosophical than a political bent.

 

In his letter to the city council (see page two) he wrote, "The wheel of time and necessity soon closes the gap of absence and I have found in the cosmic scheme of things we are all flowing Pearls of great Price held upon the eternal strand of unwavering love...Thank you most dear friends for your enduring patience and tolerance in helping me to understand the ways of this material world."

 

Several years ago he offered his homestead here to the Tibetan lamas, now living in India.  "But they're not the kind of people to take something unless they need it," he says.  He will offer to donate his place to them again.

 

Brother Asaiah first came to Homer in 1959 to visit a branch of the Fountain of the World, and returned to clear land at the head of the Bay.  After 18 years in the communal group, he spent the past 8 years on his own, "working with all groups and individuals" to help them pursue their philosophical ends.

 

The trip to India, he says, is something he's had in mind for a long time.