A Chink in Your Armor (satire)

I grew up in a small town called Aldergrove.

In that town in the late 1960s, everyone knew your business, except my family was Japanese. Within earshot, the racists who resented us would mutter, "Dirty Jap!"

Little did they know, few of the Japanese Canadian were disloyal to Canada, which shows you how little they knew us!

Once in high school, one of the more ignorant white kids might mistake me for Chinese, and call me "Chink". This amused me so much that I quickly retorted, "That is because I am a chink in your armor!"

Indeed, the Asian immigrants of Canada fit in the chinks in the multicultural chain mail coat of the white majority, though sometimes a racist incident may shake off the flakes of Canadian society.

Thankfully, my memories of high school are rather selective, for there are stories that lay buried in my subconscious to inspire a few of my articles on this blog.

Though I may tell these small-town stories in metaphorically symbolic terms using mytho-poetic language while shielding the guilty from embarrassment to protect the innocent from harm.

Oh, there shall be no naming of names, but in order for me to come to terms with the demons of my past, this marks the beginning of that journey through a small-town world that I thought I had forgotten.

Having a chink in your armor means that if the lance of Truth meets its mark, the ignorance about Japanese Canadians will fall away.

For I am but a Canadian born Japanese who may have some truth telling to give life to future stories on his blog.

Divine Wealth

Divine Wealth: "Fearlessness (Abhayam):Among the Divine qualities, Fearlessness stands foremost. Fear is an effect of ignorance. Identification with the body causes fear. Blind attachment to the body, wife, children, house, property etc. is the cause of fear.The sage who has realised the Self is absolutely fearless.
'He who knows the Bliss of Brahman (God) from which words as well as mind turn powerless, fears nothing.' -Taittiriya Upanishad

Fear can be removed by constant thinking of the immortal and all-blissful nature of the Self. If you lead a life of honesty and truthfulness, if you devoutly observe the precepts of the scriptures without doubting, if you lead a life of right conduct, and if you remember God always, you will become fearless."

It is through worship that the mind is focused on good that results from such devotion.

One becomes open-minded and one's heart is softened until a tiny raw edge of fearlessness appears to devour any fears you have. Fearlessness is ravenous in its pursuit of fear, because fear pollutes the stillness of the mind, and prevents the mind from hearing the voice of God.

Once fear is no more, fearlessness moderates bravery by leading one to be hypervigilant against even one thought of cowardice, which is the fear that wants you to retreat from a challenge because you feel unworthy of meeting it.

In having met your challenges, you uncover divine wealth which is worth more than gold itself. For the diamond mind which arises spontaneously due to meditation shines brilliantly and is the result of facing all challenges in life fearlessly.

Even if you are not a Buddhist or a Hindu, then the wealth uncovered by the diamond mind will never fade away as long as you practice meditation.

Such is divine wealth, lasting longer than all riches and material possession. She who realizes its true value early in life shall live a long life!

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Originally written February 29, 2004 8:17 PM