Another Monk
Toronto, Ontario
At the airport arrivals section, I saw a young Oriental monk waiting for his pick up person. I was also anticipating to see my driver. My first glance at him, I thought, "He has his mission and I have mine." I realized that this was a wrong attitude. He was obviously Buddhist and obviously with a different institution, but still here was an opportunity to make friends. I felt it was my duty to communicate first. I was the older of the two and he was likely a newcomer to the country, so I made the move.
I approached him. There was a simultaneous spontaneous pranam gesture that came from the two of us, followed by a handshake. It turns out that he is new,is from China and that he's Buddhist. I had enough time to tell him about my place in the world with respect to our mission originating from India. He was gracious and a good listener (as I believe I was for him).
Our encounter was brief as he pulled out his cell phone to answer and then readied himself for his ride. It was a pleasant goodbye. We didn't have the time to talk of world issues. Just having the monks meet was good enough for now. There is so much in common. Superficial barriers should never bar 'brahmins' from coming together. it is the job of community heads or leaders to pump up the level of spirituality in the world, and sometimes we need to do it together.
4 Km
No comments:
Post a Comment