Busking and Beggars
I love to play the Pipe and Tabor. I've been playing it for about 20 years. I play at weekends - usually outside Embankment Station.
Why do I play music in the street?
I created the monthly Mindfulness-Joy Silk-Painting Workshops as a way to reduce stress and build resilience after the isolation that so many people had felt during the pandemic. Then when the war started in Ukraine I made them free for refugees and unwaged people, I have to busk regularly to raise the funds required.
I usually play outside Embankment Station on Saturday and Sunday - and if I can't earn enough at the weekend, then I need to go out on other days as well. On weekdays I tend to go to other locations but at the weekend I usually begin by playing outside or near to Embankment Station.
I have people booked into the coming workshop and I can't let those people down. I have a few bills to pay from the last workshop too, so there is some pressure. I don't just busk for fun because I love to bring down good energy and share the love - although that is also true. I busk because I need to earn the funds. My company Ultimate Stress Solutions is a Community Interest Company. I also have some other 'corners' to the business which I need to work on to increase income. And I need to learn more about how to get Grants. But when push comes to shove, if I need the funds for an upcoming workshop, I will go busking and thank God that I have this way of earning the funds I need.
Beggar Versus Busker
On Saturday 10th August - just a few days ago - there was the latest Palestine Solidarity March in London and after it I went to busk as usual. It was before 7pm so the Flower Booth was open. At that time I don't stand outside the station because it would disturb the lady in the Flower Booth, so I played just outside the park, about 20 yards up the road.
After about an hour a lady came over and said that she lives in the flats nearby. She found the shrill sound of the Pipe and Tabor irritating and asked if I would move. By this time the Flower Booth had closed and no other buskers had set up outside the station so I moved there.
After some time a beggar came and sat opposite to me. I know him and as with all beggars who may be sitting nearby I offer to share with them. Each time I get £5.00 I give them a pound. I'd not been there long when someone came and gave me a £20.00 note. I put it in my bag and did not share with the beggar. I share pound coins, not paper money. It is so rare that I ever get £20.00 - not even once a month - that I was delighted and full of gratitude. I did not want to share it.
But the beggar had seen it and wanted some. I had already given him a pound and had earned three more. I said that when I got the next two pounds I would give him another.
I felt annoyed that he clearly felt somehow entitled to a piece of my good fortune. He drones 'Spare some Change' in a depressed monotone, even when nobody is passing by. At times he gets frustrated that nobody is paying him any attention and he shouts it. What is he doing to the consciousness of the world? At the same time I am playing and playing my socks off, trying not even to think about money, just to focus on making a positive difference to the people who pass by. I am consciously attempting to offer love and good energy.
I share the one pound in five just because I care about the beggars. I sympathise and I know how hard life can be for them, but that didn't mean I was ready to share an unexpected gift from someone who clearly appreciated and enjoyed what I was doing.
The Beggar began to get agitated and angry. He argued that I don't keep my word. Why should I keep the whole twenty and not share that with him. He said I wasn't honest and I was cheating him. He said he is homeless. He needs to beg and I am stopping him from getting anything. (This is not true because some people have sympathy for the beggars and give them money when they don't give me. It works both ways.) But the Beggar wasn't interested to listen.
He shouted at passers by that I was cheating him. I had somewhere to sleep. I had a bed to go home to. He had none. He needed £20.00 to get a place in a hostel. Otherwise he would be stuck sleeping on the street. I had to move.
The beggar was working himself up with his own argument and getting really angry. He came over and started shouting "Move, Move'' in my face. He told the people who were gathering that I was fake. I pretend to care about people but wasn't interested in him or anyone else in this country. I run a 'college for foreigners.' I am not interested in helping English people.
I said on the contrary, I don't run a college. I hold monthly workshops in a Church Hall and they are free for anyone who has no money - homeless people as well as refugees. He knows this very well because I have invited him more than once. That's why I have to play my music and earn the funds I need for the workshops. I'm not here every day, only at weekends. And I share what I can with him - only because of kindness, not because I have to. I've been playing here for many years. There's no reason why I should share any of what I earn. In my view he was being unreasonable and I was being as fair as I could. But I am never going to give in to bullies. I would not be moving.
Someone working in the station, hearing the noise, came out to ask what was going on. The beggar argued with him that this was his place. He had every right to be here and I did not. I was an illegal busker because I have no licence to busk here. Passers by stopped and someone asked him if he was legal? They were solidly behind me and I actually began to feel sorry for the beggar. Beggars are in such a vulnerable position.
I argued politely that he came after me and had seen that I was busking there when he came. There were other places he could beg. If ever I go to a busking spot and another musician is there I don't begin playing in competition close by. I ask how long they will be there and I come back later. We musicians respect each other and take turns. At the same time as talking I was mentally standing back and meditating, using mindfulness to observe the argument and attempt to see what emotions were driving it and praying to know what the right reaction would be. I was focussing on prayers. What was the best thing to do here?
The station man said to him that it was pointless to argue with me because I play there regularly and I am not going to move. (Later he said he really likes my music. It always cheers him up when he hears it.)
After the beggar had gone angrily back to sitting on the other side of the entrance, I continued to play but I was reflecting on the situation and I reasoned that the beggar had a point when he said I didn't share the £20.00, so when I had two more physical pounds I took the 'pound now due' according to my system of sharing what I get (from the latest £5.00 in coins I had just earned) and added another four pounds. (That was one for each of the £5.00 in the £20.00 he was upset about.)
He was still angry and said he did not want my money. He needed to earn enough to go to a hostel that night but he would get it himself. He did not want my money. I went on busking and continued to pray. I was reflecting on love and oneness.
After a few minutes had passed, I fished out the £20.00 note from my bag. I went across. He shouted at me to get away from him. He said he wanted nothing to do with me I was just trying to 'Look Good.'
I crouched down and quietly said, 'No. I don't 'try to look good' I try to be good. And for that reason I want to give him the entire £20.00 so he could not be so stressed and he could head over to the hostel and get an early night. I was sorry that I had been giving him so much stress but I actually did need to earn more money tonight. If he was able to go to the hostel now, happily and peacefully, I could continue busking happily and peacefully too. Would that be ok? He was surprised and apologised for being in such a bad mood before. He told me some of the things that had happened that day which had added up to cause him to be so irritable and stressed.
I asked his name - and he told me. (It starts with W and I will not forget it). The atmosphere between us had totally changed. There was no more animosity, no more anger and a genuine sense of oneness and happiness - almost a fragile friendship.
I was reflecting on the way that Israel and many in the West don't see Palestinians as real human beings. In a similar way many in our society don't see beggars as real people. But they are. We all need to be shown respect.
We all have the power to make this world happier and more peaceful - if we can notice the times when conflict arises in our lives and mentally step back from the situation, watch our breath and make it gentle, deal with any stress that we may be feeling and relax, notice what is going on emotionally and pray for guidance while making sure we are not adding any fuel to the fire with words which may be angry or belittling.
The world is a reflection of us all. If we can act in a way that creates more love and oneness, we really do change the world for the better.
My son worries that there can be beggars (or other potentially hostile people) who I may meet on the streets who have serious anger / mental health problems. He knows that knife crime is real. So do I. But I have to trust that the God who I love and feel when I am playing, feeling His Beautiful Energy flowing through me as I play, is real.. I know 'He' has the Power not only to give me the skill to share joy through my music but also to protect me.
We all die. We will all leave this world one day. But what matters to me is what we do here and now while we are alive. In my view our purpose is to grow as close as possible to our Creator, to. grow in His Love, Peace and Wisdom-Light and share all the blessings we receive with those who we meet along the way.
Now to end with some spiritual insight.
Oneness
How can you never have any fear?
Only by having
Oneness, oneness, oneness.
Sri Chinmoy
Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees , no 14106 part 15 1999
God only believes in constant oneness,
Cheerful oneness,
Self-giving oneness-establishment
From us.
Sri Chinmoy
Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees , no 9728 part 10 1998
This is such an important quality which I am working on - I have spent a bit of time reading more on Oneness from Sri Chinmoy's Library Site.
4.
Oneness, oneness, oneness! If we think of oneness before we do something, if we can maintain this feeling of oneness while we are acting and also at the end of our action, then there will always be peace. From the beginning to the end, we have to sing the song of oneness.
Sri Chinmoy,
Lifting Up The World With a Oneness-Heart, 1988
April 24
God has created only one impossibility in His entire creation, and that impossibility is that one cannot hate mankind if one really loves God.
Sri Chinmoy, Meditations: food for the soul, Aum Centre, New York, 1970
1973. Oneness-satisfaction
Submission,
No!
Domination,
No!
Oneness-perfection,
Oneness-satisfaction,
Yes, yes!
Sri Chinmoy, Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 20, Agni Press, 198
Question: Guru, how is beauty manifested through oneness?
Sri Chinmoy: Oneness itself is beauty. There cannot be any beauty higher or more illumining and fulfilling than oneness. Just because the world is lacking in oneness, the world is suffering. When there is oneness, beauty is automatically there. God has the universal Consciousness at His disposal; that is why He is all Beauty. When there is inseparable oneness, that oneness itself is beauty. It is the self-revealing light of the divine within us.
Sri Chinmoy, A galaxy of beauty's stars, Agni Press, 1974
Only oneness within
And oneness without
Can save this world.
Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, no 37774, part 38, 2004
15. Charity
Charity needs a beggar,
But who wants to play
The role of a beggar?
Nobody.
Oneness-necessity needs realit
And
Reality needs oneness-necessity.
Not charity,
But oneness-necessity
Is reality's divinity
Oneness-necessity
Is what God wants from us.
Sri Chinmoy, Beauty-Drops, 1975
This following one is one that I have memorised and held in my heart for over 30 years.
1418. Oneness is the only need
Oneness is the only need.
We can establish oneness
Only when we become
The soulful life of peace
And
The fruitful heart of love.
Sri Chinmoy, Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 15, Agni Press, 1981
Spiritual Names
When Sri Chinmoy gave his students their Soul Name or Spiritual Name he said that this was not 'who they are' but the qualities that their soul has come into the world to learn.
DurgaMata is the spiritual Name which he gave me and it has three qualities - Power to fight for God's Victory. Weapons to defeat evil and Compassion to embrace the whole world.
I call on the Power aspect when I feel that someone is attacking me unfairly. I regard my Pipe and Tabor as 'Weapons to bring joyful energy and so defeat evil. Compassion is something I am working on. I am aware that compassion is often fake. It is just human attachment. But it is something I can work on.
I love the way that Sri Chinmoy has spoken of oneness and true compassion being similar to feeling that everyone and everything around us is a part of our own existence. If we hurt our foot, we reach down to it spontaneously. Our hand goes there to tend it without any sense of separation or superiority. That is oneness, That is Compassion. We should care for each other - and our planet - in a similar way. We are part of each other. We have to help. It is a spontaneous reaction. Their pain is our pain. There is no separation
In the following essay Sri Chinmoy points out that we can't actually practise true compassion unless we have made some genuine spiritual progress. This is something I am working on, inspired by my beautiful Soul's Name.
Compassion
In the ordinary, unaspiring life, compassion is a very tricky word. We say 'compassion' when we mean to say 'attachment'. In the human world there is no compassion; it is all unconscious attachment. When people who live in the physical world say that they are showing compassion to someone because he is weak and he needs guidance, this is not true. It is only attachment, and from this attachment they expect an aggrandisement of their own ego. Consciously and deliberately, or sometimes unconsciously, they are trying to feed their ego.
In the human world, we can sympathise with someone and feel that we can become one with him because we are ignorant. I am ignorant; you are ignorant; so easily I can become one with your ignorance. But to say that we are showing compassion here is foolishness. The body cannot show compassion. The physical consciousness cannot show compassion. It is only the soul that can offer compassion to the physical, the vital and the mental. Only then do we see real compassion. At that time compassion is the only reality.
Outer compassion comes from inner illumination. If one is inwardly illumined, then automatically his illumination will take the form of compassion in the outer life. First comes inner illumination; then comes the manifestation of this inner illumination in the outer life. This is compassion. If one says that he is offering compassion before he is inwardly illumined, he is only deceiving himself. What he calls compassion is only his unconscious way of showing attachment towards the earth-consciousness.
In the divine world, we offer compassion because we have reached the highest. From the top of the tree we are coming down to meet the root of the tree. But if we stay at the foot of the tree and somebody else also stays at the foot of the tree, who is going to show compassion to whom?
Sri Chinmoy
Life-Tree Leaves
