Identifying the Enemy
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Sing Lung Wong and I took to the bush at Camp George Forbes. There is a trail but it's been obscured by winter dynamics. It's covered with fall leaves and winter weather sent down twigs, branches and even trees. It had become a natural obstacle course.
We like it that way. It makes for a natural work-out.
While I love the forest, there's something about it that doesn't like me - poison ivy. I spotted it, stayed my distance from it and even pointed it out to our troupe at a stop-over at the Niagara River's whirlpool, where its' gorge suddenly twists to take a whole different direction. The place is awesome as a vista wonder.
On our return journey I found myself in spots and by evening I discovered symptoms of a rash. How mystical this plant poison ivy is. I don't even have to touch it. Somehow, through an indirect way I contacted it's juices. Maybe it was a handshake by someone who was in contact with the culprit or when I pressed for soap in the public washroom the previous user may have been in touch with this three-leafed character? I don't know. But I've got it.
The great saint Prahlad voiced a message about adversaries and he wasn't referring to people or plants. He laid the finger on the actual enemy. In the book Bhagavatam he expressed it and made it clear. "The enemy is not lust, anger, greed, madness, envy or illusion. The antagonist is the mind."
7 KM
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