THE
BLUE BOX (Recycled Ideas)
by Don Cox
Back to the index
I expect you all remember when the Swami was here last summer
to do my roof. There were a few communication difficulties,
he claimed we were on different planes. This has nothing
to do with what airline you choose, it's the Californian
way of saying there's a difference in outlook. We never
did have a complete meeting of minds, try as we might. I
guess Zen and the Manitou are not on the same world line,
as the Swami would say.
To refresh your memory, the Swami used to be one of us,
a neat guy called Steve. He went to India for a course of
study and became the Swami Prem Samerpan. Since then he
has lived and worked in California, making a living and
tending to his karma. As I understand it, your karma is
who you are and how you view the world, and your dogma is
what you believe. When you are at ease with yourself and
your life, then your dogma is riding with you in the front
seat of your karma. This is known as being at one with the
world, and has nothing to do with having one for the road.
I hope that's all clear.
After we had reviewed the year's events, and had looked
over last summer's roofing job, we explored some of the
more personal aspects of life. "My karma is improving",
said the Swami, "it's a constant learning process,
but I am finally at one with the world around me."
I was glad to hear that, and said that I unfortunately couldn't
make a similar claim. I said that I was probably still at
several with the world. He sighed and said I was evidently
having trouble with a few of the basic concepts.
We went on from there, the Swami told me that although
he is at one with the world around him , he has to continue
his struggle to be one with human kind. This is not the
same as being one OF human kind. I questioned him closely
on this. I wanted to know how being "one with"
was different from being "one of", but after a
number of hours of explanation I still didn't get it. I
guess I'm not too well adapted, or maybe I'm just prepositionally
challenged.
Spiritual awareness can come from unusual places, there
may be great unknown gurus living quietly amongst us. We
never recognize them until some adept like the Swami arrives
to point them out. This was brought home to me forcefully
last night when we went out to the local hamburger stand
for a bite to eat. The short order cook there is Roland
Lalonde, and he does good fries and burgers. I've known
him for years, but I never realized he was a towering spiritual
leader until the Swami looked at him with immense respect
and said, "Make me one with everything."
Bluebox ©2001 Don Cox
Website ©2001 OttawaWEB
