I often wonder when I am walking or driving past an unhoused individual, what do they do all day? I mean, it seems like such as waste of time/a waste of life to just be sitting on a bus bench or the ground or the… Sitting and doing nothing.
 
There’s a field behind where I live. I often look on and onto it watching the various aspects of nature that live there. Over the past couple of years, coyotes have overtaken the space. There’s a really big problems with coyotes all over the L.A. landscape.

One upon a time, I would look out to the field and there would be this whole community of feral cats. There were raccoons, sometimes walking with their whole family waking through the space in tow. There were tons of squirrels. There were even some skunks.
 
Back in the day, in the long ago and the far-far away, one of my neighbors had this feeding spot. Each night they would lay out some food and the whole of the all would come to feed. The racoons, the skunks, and the cats. All eating there in perfect harmony. It was really a sight. I used to love watching that take place. Then, came the coyotes. First there was just one or two. Now, each night, they go into their whole howling symphony. I don’t know how many there are, but there are a lot. Gone are all of the other forms of wildlife. Eaten, I suppose. Sad, I believe.
 
Anyway, I looked out onto the field this AM. There I saw this coyote just laid out, basking in the sun. I don’t know why, but the same question came to my mind, like the one I have about the unhoused.
 
I get it, this is just a wild animal doing what it does. It doesn’t have to make a living, pay the bills, and all of that kind of stuff. So, it just lays there catching some rays. That seems all kind of natural. But??? What does it all mean in terms of life? The unhoused just sit there in the sun just the same. For them, it seems like such a waste of life. For a coyote, a different story.
 
If you’ve ever been to India, and you go to the temples and to the holy sites, you will see tons of sadhus spending their entire life locked in meditation. That’s what they do. They meditate. That’s their vocation. That’s their calling. And, they are worshiped for doing it.
 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for meditation. But, ever since I was a young man, when I first traveled to India, I questioned, what does that really equal? All that meditating?
 
I fully understand that through all of the scripture of all of the formalized Eastern religions, a person who is living their life defined by meditation is proclaimed to be living the most high of all lives. But, what does it really equal? They’re a really good meditator. Okay… They can sit unmoving for hours. They are chasing enlightenment, just like the Buddha and the other so-called saints. Okay… But, what does it really equal?  Why are they considered so much more holy and whole simply because they define their life by accomplishing nothing?
 
The unhoused individual, the coyote sitting in the sun, the sadhu meditating, who is holier? Who is more, and why?