Mitra, the Buddhist monk and the exact definition of the word mentsh, is my very first…
PERSON OF THE WEEK!
What does he win? Well, nothing. But he gets this entry dedicated to him… But he doesn’t read my blog… So basically, I’m just giving him good press before a lot of strangers…
And to what does he owe this great and prestigious honour?
Mitra is one of the loveliest people I have ever met. Not only does he have this ready, bright, wide smile so filled with good humour that you would follow him anywhere, but he showed me such an act of kindness today that actually makes me reconsider my decision not to become a JuBu.
Today, Mitra took notes and gave me his fullest attention throughout the entire of my dull, inspiration-less performance. Fasting and freaked out about the mean little prof sitting right next to me, I focused on his calm presence like a lifeline. But then I found out the true beauty of this guy…
He was fasting with me this morning! That is, knowing that I would be giving an hour’s talk without water, he didn’t bring his usual water bottle with him today. He said he had left it at home because he didn’t want to distract me with the sight of water. He felt that it would be unfeeling to drink in my presence on Yom Kippur.
So, we probably would expect a monk to be disciplined and understanding, and a Buddhist to be compassionate and mindful. However, this is a special case. Mitra shines with some sort of unexplainable inner light (yes, I am actually getting a kind of spiritual high off this guy), and has always made think there may be something to this Buddhism thing (which would be pretty stereotypical for me, as nearly a third of all non-Asian Buddhists in North America are Jews, many of them grad students under 30).
For kindness and sympathy, Mitra the Monk fully deserves to be my first…
PERSON OF THE WEEK!
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