Buddhas in my pocket

It’s always delightful to receive news of someone having a go at a metta walk and being part of the Indra’s Net of handing on of Buddhas.

Meg’s story:
‘I’ve been out on a Metta Walk with two Buddhas donated for the  ‘Buddhas in my Pocket’ pilgrimage.
She who was Sarah and whose new Buddhist name is Akasalila passed them to me.
I’ve been meaning to take a Metta Walk for a while and finally made time today to do this in the city of Hereford.
I walked up from the River Wye, noticing how many people looked tired, stressed, and worried, eyes downcast. Only one young man accepted eye contact.
The town centre has a wide pedestrianised area called High Town, surrounded by shops, and with a beautiful medieval black and white Old House to one side, and an equally beautiful life size bronze statue of a Hereford bull on a big circular stone plinth next to it. I settled on one of the two benches between the Old House and the Bull.
I appreciated the reminder that a Buddha might not be even be handed over so I just waited and watched people of all ages crossing and sometimes re-crossing the space, carrying on wishing well to all beings (including the dogs and pigeons).
After a short while an old man approached on a mobility scooter and drew up to my left, at the corner of the Old House.

I looked at him and we made eye contact and I smiled at him.
He drove over in a friendly way and our conversation began about the price of things. He’d been to buy batteries and found them pricey.  His unkempt appearance did not hinder us connecting and I enjoyed talking to him.

He asked what bus I was waiting for and I replied that I wasn’t waiting for a bus. He was curious then and wanted to know what I was doing.

I said that a friend had given me small presents to give away, and would he like one? “Is this religious?”  he asked and I answered ” Yes, Buddhist. “

“What’s that?”  he asked. I brought the two Buddhas out and he took both.

He was happy to have a photo taken of them in his palm after I explained that it would help those who donated them see where they ended up.

He dropped the Buddhas into his pocket and we carried on talking. We exchanged names and he asked where I was from. I was born in Maidstone and we had an animated discussion about this. He has lived in Hereford all his life. His phone rang and he had to go to meet someone so we said goodbye and off he went.
I was amazed how simple and lovely it was to be able to give him the Buddhas in my pocket! I feel very grateful for the opportunity to do this.’

Buddhas donated by Michelle, Melbourne and Vajrajyoti and Akasasri NZ

I was curious about the tall, young man who was walking the Wicken Fens nature reserve trail at the same time as my friend and I.
There was something about how present in the landscape he seemed to be.
And he was alone.
Alone and very mindfully present to his environment.
Sometimes we passed him standing very still by the water or peering silently across the massive sea of reed beds.
As we emerged from a bird hide he was there again, camera out and looking up into a tree.
We began to talk and it was in this way that I met an odontologist for the first time- a scientist studying dragonflies.
His eyes were shiny and alert and he just seemed very happy.
As we chatted, my friend and I learned that this young man had as a young boy discovered his passion for being in and observing nature.
He went on to engineer his education path to lead to a current dream job living in Vietnam observing and recording dragonflies in the lush forests. He had found two new species and was in the official process of naming them. Now he was briefly back in the UK for a wedding and on his spare day was delighting in the dragonflies of the Fens.
A wonderful benefit of meeting someone ‘living’ their passion is that they usually happily share some of that passion with you.
We learnt so much about dragonflies. We continued our walk,occasionally still crossing paths with him. In one twenty minute gap we had not seen a dragonfly at all whilst he had had spotted 6 different species!
And at one point, like in some kids’ adventure storybook, he pulled out a telescopic poled net out of his back pack and gently caught one to show us its stunning teal patterned body up close.
When he next passed us as we sat having lunch, I took a plunge and invited him to choose a buddha from the small pack of 3 buddhas I was carrying with me.
He had been in Buddhist temples often in Vietnam and he chose a Ratnasambhava buddha because he was attracted to the posture.
With this buddha, one hand is stretched out upturned in the gesture of generosity.       It also represents abundance.
This young man had really been so generous with sharing his time and passion with us so I wasn’t surprised he connected with the qualities of this buddha. He seemed really pleased with it and said that it ‘ made my day’.

But he made our day, made our day different to what it would have been, without the spontaneous, interesting connection that can happen when moving towards strangers with curiosity.

buddha donated by Leicestershire Tiratna study group