Conversing with a monk.

The city is always busy, filled with people rushing to somewhere. I was one of those people today. Until a lady stopped me in my tracks, this lady was a monk. She first asked if I was from Melbourne, so I told the truth and said yes. She then handed me a book and told me that it was about dealing with stress. Recently, stress is not what I'm worried about, but I did not want her to be perceived as careless, but rather mindful, so I insisted that school was becoming stressful with exams coming (even though I don't have any mid-year exams).

We spoke for what seemed like an hour. It's uncanny how a conversation drifts from one topic to another so rapidly. It's an odd feeling standing in the middle of the city and watching people rush right by me. Like I'm just not there, I'm not part of the current flow of people wavering across the crossings, or onto the trams. Out of my own curiosity I asked the lady "What made you become a monk? Is it an overnight decision? Were you raised to be a monk?"

From what I understood monks are very earthly people. In-touch with their hearts, in-touch with the world, in-touch with god. And thats where it ends. Then I raised the topic to 'materialism' and how it had seemed to be the poison of the world. Money now comes bundled with happiness, or that is what the people rushing around the monk and I seemed to think.

She said "All we really need is food, not money." She was unemployed. She resided at a temple that gave her a home, food and all they asked for in return is to give away books of karma, stress, God, life and death...and a petty donation. I replied "We're surviving fine, there is no way in a country like this, we can die. We do not have needs...only wants."

I also told her that I was Christian, that I believed in God, that certain events have made me the way I am. Events that have formed a relationship with God himself, and also led me to a journey of self-discovery. Proving I knew nothing of her religious beliefs I asked if monks believed in God. She smiled and told me to look at the sun. It was a uncalled request, but I did it anyway. There it was, the sun. Bright, and the world just spins around it every year. "In every language it has different name, but there is only one sun. Just like God. He has many different names, but there is only one God."

We exchanged phone numbers, I thanked her for our meeting and I was caught back in the current of people...going somewhere.