Toronto, Ontario
On my meditation beads, going southbound on Yonge Street, at one street juncture a group of four young people also arrived at the street corner when the light turned red. One of the girls from that group tried to convince the other three to (what you call) jaywalk, and cross the street on a red light. The others were apprehensive. She said, "Let's go!" One of them stepped forward, but her boyfriend pulled her back. They were confused. I offered some advice.
"Can I suggest that you just be patient?" They turned their heads towards me and listened further. "There are three ways to live in this world." The lights now turned green. All of us moved forward, proceeding to step up onto the curb after crossing. They appeared to have listened to me, and they were quiet. As I said, "The first way to live is to be very thoughtful. The second way is to be very passionate and to give little forethought before taking action. And, the third way is to just be downright lazy." The three perspectives on life, as we learn from the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, seemed to grab the attention of the three young women and one young man.
"Which of these three ways is superior?" I quizzed them. One of them responded with, "The first one!"
"Right," I said, "to be thoughtful."
The changing colours of the lights are there for a reason. If we are not thoughtful, there are usually unfortunate repercussions for our lack of thoughtfulness.
From there on, the one girl who was initially so focussed on crossing on the red light, decided to walk next to me and she went on inquiring about my vocation, who I represent and so on. In this way, we walked several blocks in conversation.
I believe she became more thoughtful.
9 Km
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