Thursday 4 September 2008

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Sun. Aug. 31/ 08 - Dublin, Ireland

At approximately 5am I was in the middle of my morning reflective walk near the seaside on Fairview when a small white sports car pulled over. Two young fellows emerged from their machine and were curious. "You're Buddhist?" asked one of them.
"No, Hare Krishna!"
"Oh yeah, I've got a book 'Prayers by ..."
I finished what he couldn't "Queen Kunti"
"Yeah!"
We really talked it up for a while covering topics of anarchy, evolution, civilian life versus monastic life, and Christianity. The two guys were highly critical of Catholicism and the Christian churches in general, but I cautioned them gently, "You will find merit in any community and that if we draw from what each group has been able to achieve that is beneficial then we can also learn." I was informed that the divorce rate is lower in Ireland than in many other countries in the world. If so, it must have to do with the Church's emphasis on family, which is not bad. Basically I was trying to discourage cynicism, which is generally not advantageous for human evolution. I offered the two guys my take on evolution. I believe that we are all apes and haven't evolved to the human level so there is no proof to Darwinism. As we were caught in a laugh a fox crossed the road near our location of conversation and we all took it as a good sign.

The daytime with sunshine, finally, welcomed another Chariot Festival near St. Stephen's Green Park, just as the same event was held the day before in Belfast, which I also attended. They were good.

13km

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