--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "martyboi" <martyboi@...> wrote: > > > Here's what I observed. > > I saw him in a local burrito place with his wife. He is a very noticeably > healthy in person...that is he appears to have a lot personal vitality the > way an athlete might. > > I watched him go up to the soda fountain to get a drink. He arrived at the > fountain at the same time as a very sour-faced old curmudgeon. > > When he saw the old fellow, he opened up into a very broad and natural smile, > stepped back, and let him fill up first. Unfortunately, the old guy walked > away grumbling to himself as if determined to be even more sour. > > There was a lot of "power" in that smile as it was very real and genuine, it > actually sort of rolled across the entire restaurant. > > I felt sorry for that old guy, as that smile felt like a gift refused. > RESPONSE: Another interpretation of this event is possible other than the one you have given.
First off: His "personal vitality" is a big plus for me. But here's where a different perspective enters innot that yours is not the correct one; but it does not necessarily exclude the possibility of the following read-out: that the "sour-faced curmudgeon" felt condescension and a certain arbitrariness in this exhibition of charity on the apart of Adyashantinot necessarily consciously, but somewhere in his being he acted in the benefit of knowing that someone had just given way to him on the basis of an assumed sense of "being awakened" and him the old guy, not being awakened. The universe itself, then, acted through the "sour-faced curmudgeon" by demonstrating to Adyashanti that he was too contrived, too affected, too pre-determined in his response to the contesting of positions at the soda fountain. Had Adyashanti *discovered* in the moment what was the appropriate (cosmically suave and aesthetically right) response to the situation [or *context* within which to act out his impulse], perhaps the "old fellow" would have not doubled-downed on his sourpuss-ness. As for the smile, it sounds great"real and genuine" as you say. But even the obligatory smile from the enlightened man may have robbed even Adyashanti of a more spontaneous, subtle, and truthful experience. I don't disagree then with what you say here. I only provide an alternate explanation in order not to categorically rule out the possibility that the curmudgeon may have, unwittingly, acted more authentically than did Adyashanti. It is more likely you are right; nevertheless I don't want it to seem that the old guy is refused a hearing. And I have given him one. And, if I may say it, a hearing to the pre-enlightened [or de-enlightened!] Adyashantito which the sour-faced curmudgeon may not have reactedeven if Adyashanti performed essentially the same overt act.
