Theos-Talk Archives (May 2005 Message tt00527)

In the mid-1990s, a seminar was held at Adyar on the theme "Ancient 
Wisdom in the World Religions". I had been asked to chair the 
presentation of a well-known member of the Indian Section of the TS 
on Theosophy and Buddhism.

Unfortunately, he got the "graveyard shift": Sunday, 2:00pm. As 
lunch in the Bhojanasala (the Indian style canteen) had finished by 
1:30pm, when we arrived at Blavatsky Bungalow's lecture hall shortly 
before 2:00pm, the first two or three rows of chairs had a number of 
members practicing the "gravitational chin pull meditation": they 
were sound asleep.

I really didn't know what to do about it, so I just introduced the 
speaker. His opening remarks were: "The last words of Lord Buddha to 
his disciples were: KEEP AWAKE, KEEP AWAKE!" When he said these last 
words in a moderately loud voice, I could see a number of our 
members literally jumping off their seats and remaining alert and 
awake till the end of his presentation.

As the Zen masters say, awakening comes when you least expect.


pedro