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a trip through time and space 2
there right in front of us was the dome of a mosque but a distinctively shaped mosque which i knew was found in only one place in the world. a city in the middle east!! when we had boarded the train it was in north america and western north america at that. now here we were having been on the train hardly more than two and a half hours and here we were in the middle east I and everyone else in the party could hardly believe our eyes. while everybody was digesting this incredible fact i strolled over to the window and i heard a voice saying something. a low murmur at first, then i realized it was chanting. then it came closer. i saw an Islamic holy man walking across the platform.he stopped, and then proceeded to pray. i looked at the trains panel. Arabic was lit in white. i could not make out what was said but i could distinguish ALLAH AKBAR . when he had finished praying, i got out of the train and we engaged in conversation. the general subject of our conversation was the spiritual decline of the world and how it could be reversed. he quoted Al-Ghazali the polymath and philosopher who wrote THE ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS "desires make slaves out of kings and patience makes kings out of slaves" the conversation also took a turn toward technology and religion. he said there was no necessary conflict between science and religion. those who thought there was had misunderstood both. finally i got back on the train. his parting words were 'MAY ALLAH GRANT YOU SUCCESS ON YOUR SEARCH " after awhile the train began to slow down,then stop. then i heard the PING sound again. i looked at the panel. the Hebrew alphabet was lit-in green. i went to the window to see where we were. i saw falafel bread being exhibited in the windows of a bakery. i saw the dome of the rock and realized where i was. Jerusalem. on the station platform was a Jewish holy man in prayer. being a bit more familiar with Hebrew i could distinguish some words such as KADDISH KADDISH KADDISH ADONAI YOU SABAOTH and BARUCH HASHEM i got off the train and onto the platform. as soon as he had finished praying he turned to gaze out over the city. then he turned,looked at me,nodded and soon we were involved in conversation. this conversation took various turns, one of them being the materialism being widespread in the world, also technology and instead of being the panacea for all the worlds ills as had been claimed for it by some of its advocates, had actually made some of them worse. given humanity's propensity for conflict and violence it made wars even more lethal than they had been. he quoted Theodore Adorno :TECHNOLOGY IS MAKING GESTURES PRECISE AND BRUTAL AND WITH IT MEN. and martin Buber " FOR SIN IS JUST THIS, WHAT MAN BY HIS VERY NATURE CANNOT DO WITH HIS WHOLE BEING: IT IS POSSIBLE TO SILENCE THE CONFLICT BUT NOT TO UPROOT IT " i cannot repeat all of this dialogue. i can give the general tone of it. finally the time came for the train to leave he said MAY THE WISDOM OF ADONAI ILLUMINATE THE PATH BEFORE YOU. now i had no idea where this train would stop next, so when it once more began to slow down and then stop. i listened for the PING. there was none. i looked at the board. none of the alphabets were lit. i walked over to the window. here was another surprise. as far as the eye could see there was nothing but tombstones and mausoleums. the train had stopped by-a cemetery! but not the entire vista was taken up by death. there were some living people around. i fear this may be growing lengthy and will tell the rest of it in a shorter post. the greater part of it has already been told anyway
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