Thursday 22 January 2009

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

Houston, Texas

After a decent rest I headed towards the local temple on 34th Street. Not fully sure of my direction I asked a couple of young black dudes, Where is Ella Blvd?”
“It’s down that way”, as one of them pointed. He sorted a rather large comb fixed in the side of his hair. He was curious and asked, “what’s that you got on?” I suppose he was referring to my robes and the earthen marking on my forehead.
“Well, Im a monk.”
“What’s that.”
“It’s a person who leads a rather simple life based on spirituality.” I answered.
“Simple Life!” he repeated as he carried on walking shaking his head in the manner of some disbelief.

Finally I did make it south bound on Ella Blvd (I imagine named aftert he renowned jazz singer) and to the temple which is under construction. A second building of substantial size was the venue for the meeting of devotional hearts. A small group of us executed the task of dealing with administrative business for our North American center. Experience tells that spontaneous religion devoid of order doesn’t quite fulfill the demands of a growing public disinterested in organized religion. Even the path of spirituality requires some organization. Many of us were radical hippies before we joined and had some aversion towards “structure”. Sooner or later we realized that if you want to get things done then self –discipline must be applied. Usually self –transformation is preceded by self-discipline.

4 Km

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