Tuesday 19th November 2013, 11.30am, Gare du Nord.
I am sat in front of an absolutely fascinating body.
A guy came up to me presenting me with €5 “pour manger”, which I tried to refuse but he was insistent. Then an ‘English’ guy, who had such a thick European accent, just came up to me telling me not to take the risk; that I should put shoes on. He then asked if I take money, I said no, and he said ‘don’t be silly’ and made money appear in my hands. He went his way, and I saw that he had given me some twenty five pence and twenty cents.
This spot is great. This mysterious device: it has a screen at the front of it, that plays back what the world was like three seconds ago. People see it occasionally, especially when it begins to light up. It stops them in their tracks to notice the actions that they made some seconds ago. It offers a moment of surrealness, that acts almost the same as turning a kriya, and people receive their very slight spiritual awakenings.
Then, very very occasionally (I am told that it happens once an hour, but I doubt that it is this rigid), the body comes alive. All its lights come on, smoke puffs out everywhere, we’re entranced by Millennium Dome-like music, the head pushes up with hydraulics, and a ball starts to move around in its guts. It looks like a dodgy 1970s contraption that you’d find in the Science Museum in London, but it feels like an emanation of Avalokiteshwara. Soft, beautiful, loving kindness vibrating out to the bust of our very humanity.
The air is cold, crisp and sweet here. My feet are bare, for what feels like the first time properly since two months ago. Things feel very calm inside of me, and I feel I have had a momentous change throughout me since I last stopped with my feet bare. It is an ultimate trust in a guiding spirit, and in all of the elements working together to make everything be brilliant. Satnam.
Devotional breath, Embodied revolution 