Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Fill the Space

Toronto, Ontario

Someone sent me a quote from "Sri Narada Purana", 1.7.54: "There is no death like infamy, there is no enemy like anger, there is no sin like criticizing others, there is no intoxicating liquor like delusion."

Here we have wisdom capsulized in phrases. These words stayed with me for the entire day. So instructive! They say everything about what not to do, or what to avoid.

If our life has a full seating capacity of negativity, then where is the sitting room for optimism? You can only cram so much in the course of a day, or the course of life.

By the end of the day, I had some serious miles/kilometres to cover on foot. I would be embarrassed to rest with only 2 km under my belt. I requested a visitor to the temple to accompany me down a ravine and as we walked and spoke we came to a major blockade in the path. For the darkness it was hard to see the usual passage through the trees. Perhaps erosion off a cliff forced the park authorities to create this huge barrier of dirt.

My friend and I were forced to turn back through the winding path of the old Don Valley Brickworks. We use, I believe, our full capacity of trail space. He spoke about his childhood - an abusive situation. He could only talk of how he is enduring pain and how that pain occupies so much of his time in dwelling on it.

I suggested to him that life offers only so many breaths, that it is short and we need to fill it up with as much good stuff as possible. I suggested he come to terms with forgiving his abuser as he must be so troubled in his own life. I encouraged him to look ahead and to his belief in higher consciousness. Fill the day with positive Krishna energy. Do not be dead, or be your own worst enemy, or angry or critical or deluded. Leave a sitting space for God.

At the other end of a pond were 60 people, with one third playing ukuleles, singing a spiritualist song. It was beautiful. It was positive. My friend and I stood with them and tried to sing along.

"Will the circle be unbroken, by and by, Lord, by and by? There's a better home awaiting, in the sky, Lord, in the sky."

10 Km