And he's a laborer with a year 6 education...
Having been raised a JW and now a Buddhist my personal faith has evolved into a mix of the eastern and western philosophies...easy on the sin factor heavy on empathy and understanding, or the attempt to do both. Do Buddhists believe Buddha was God? In a word...no...he was a prophet and an immensely wise one somewhat in line with Jesus.
Anywho...sitting on the bus on Monday arvo after my big emotional unwrapping with my bf the day before. And you begin to wonder to yoursef "do i give up on this one? move on...try somewhere else? " I've always been a friendly sort of girl, I like to chat to people and am not put out when people talk to me. You can learn a hell of alot from strangers I always say. I get chatting to this older guy named Brian. And he asks if he can sit and talk to me on the bus as we are both going into the city. We get talking about what we do for a living I say I'm an academic and he starts chatting to me about how he only went to year 6 and then got a laboring job, which he has been doing to one degree or another ever since.
He asks if I have a boyfriend and I reply that I do...not adding that I"ve been mulling it over in my mind all day trying to come to terms with his fears and needs for patience and time, and the fact that it may not work out either way. He starts telling me about this relationship he had at 35...20 years ago and how he got frightened and let the woman go. And how out of everything in his ife it is that which he regrets most. So we talked about how sometimes especially as a younger person you make decisions without realising that they can and WILL affect the rest of your life. That was his last relationship. He said he tried to find her again, but by the time he did she was married with a couple of children.
Now this is someone who from a more wordly standpoint would not be regarded as "knowing very much" but in very simple and direct terms he spelled out to me my entire dilemma. That perhaps giving up is simply not the answer and that when doors open to you they may not open the way you would like and the view might not be what you thought it would. But in the words of John Lennon...another modern day prophet..."Love is the answer...that much I know for sure". To give love without expectation (see previous post) allows you to be still...the eye of the storm rather than THE storm itself...and accept and let things unfold one way or another...but the right way...and in its own good time.
It also makes me realise that faith and the power of the Almighty whatever form you may think that takes is a very real, very direct, very simple one. Like Jesus himself when he was on earth he wasn't concerned with who was doing what to whom but in the things that we need most, love for self, love for neighbor, patience, kindness, empathy and concern. Some might think me a sinner, I do not, and I don't consider whether or not any of my fellow man are. It truly does come down to what is in your heart nd sometimes you get answers from the most unlikely places.
Jesus IS here and he wears dirty workman's boots....
Cheers