Gratitude/89

Monday 30 April 2007

Most weekends this semester, I’ve been hanging out with Poornima Shah, who took my theology course in the fall of 2005. We’ll meet downtown at Gelateria, or at Kayak’s near Wash U, or 6 North Coffee near SLU, or at Coffee Oasis in the Central West End to discuss politics (Palestine, Israel, and U.S. policy), spirituality (teachings from the saints and sages of India), and life at SLU (and the need to focus when there’s so much to do). One of the driving forces behind The One World project, a Med Scholar, and a major in political science, Poornima has walked with me for the last year and a half, inspiring and challenging me as she goes.

I recently asked her if she’d like to join me in the practice of daily meditation and she readily agreed. I meditate along the lines of Sri Eknath Easwaran, with whom I had the privilege of doing a retreat in January 1991. Sometimes, I’ll send Poornima an email with quotations like the following from Sarada Devi, the wife of Sri Ramakrishna, the influential 19th century Bengali mystic: “I tell you one thing: if you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others. Rather learn to see your own faults. Learn to see the whole world as your own. No one is a stranger my child: this whole world is your own.”

Last week, after her morning meditation, Poornima sent me the following reflection:
I love when you close your eyes
and you can see the Red.
I think I have a new lover
- if breeze were a man,
I would fall head over heels,
his touch has the same effect on me
as Krishna’s flute had on the Gopis.

With her passion and compassion, her ability to recognize the goodness in others, and her hunger for justice, Poornima has been one of my teachers since October 2005. She is a blessing to the SLU campus.