Mon, May 18th 2015

Monday, May 18^th, 2015
Toronto, Ontario

Are You Real?


It’s a Canadian holiday in honour of Queen Victoria.  During her reign, this British colony became a nation unto itself.  Young men, in particular, usually send off fireworks into the evening sky.  It’s questionable how much sentiment behind this is patriotic, but many people go out for the blast. 

For Eklavya and I, the quiet of the day became opportune for a walk, and my chance to show him choice trails.  We were not the only folk that ventured along Mud Creek, hundreds were out to see green, to capture May’s scent, and do what the human body likes to do.  The two of us ambled along one ravine, and then embarked upon a second.  We wanted to descend on one particular stairs, but which was in disrepair, and hence, the city put a barrier at the entrance.  We were a trite disappointed.  We stood there.

Luckily, a neighbouring woman happened to be walking by, and so I asked, “What’s happening?  Can’t we go down?”  With a joyous demeanor, she said, “Don’t worry, the neighbours laid out some tree stumps so you can leap over the barrier.  We want our kids to have access and fun and not wait for the city to come and fix it.”  We thanked her.  We proceeded forwarded and went on in conversation to do with future mission projects, and all the while observing nature’s esthetics.  Eka even took advantage of the season’s wild mustards growing along the way, and filling his chaddar (monk’s shawl) with the fragrant and tasty greens.  As monks we felt we were doing monastic things such as taking to the simple art of walking, immersed in spiritual topics while foraging a bit in the forest.  We thought ourselves to be ‘real’.  And then we diverted to an earlier, brief encounter we had in the morning, in our thoughts.  As we had detrained from a trip beginning from Windsor, outside the train terminal a street beggar who had seen us asked Eka and I, “Are you real monks?  Cuz they’re not,” pointing to the two Buddhist monks, indicating that they were panhandling.  Perhaps he was envious because their collections were doing good.  Now, I’m not making judgment regarding those monks, but what did come to our attention was a question, “Are you genuine?  Are you sincere?  Are you doing from the heart?”

That was of value. 

May the Source be with you!


9 km