I drift like a wave on the ocean
Aimless as the restless wind.I’ve no desire
But the absence of desire.
I’m sustained and nourished
By the breasts of the Great Mother.Lao Tzu
From an early age Colin was deeply interested in spiritual and philosophical matters. This was accompanied by a strong desire to be of service. It was clear to him that all human beings were brothers and sisters, all children of the same Creator. It was this love of the spirit and service that took him into the ministry and in the end took him out of it.
That deep interest drew him to study both Western and Eastern philosophy, in particular Taoism, Zen, Advaita Vedanta and Sufism.
Early in 1990 he went to India in search of “someone who knew.” Later that year he met the Indian Advaita master, Ramesh Balsekar and shortly afterward the French Advaita master Dr. Jean Klein. He was fortunate to study with Dr. Klein for a number of years before his death and for nineteen years with Ramesh before he died.
Colin and Ramesh, Mumbai, 1994
Colin was born in England during the Second World War and immigrated to Canada. In 1967 he was a graduate student at Boston University School of Theology, the alma mater of Martin Luther King Jr. At university he was one of five theological students to grant sanctuary to a young soldier, Raymond Kroll, whose unit was being shipped to Vietnam.
Being from Canada, he was, with the assistance of his family, able to help resistors and deserters get across the border into Canada. It was a kind of modern underground railroad.
In 1969, while still in seminary he accepted a position as minister to the Universalist Church of the Mediator in Providence, Rhode Island. The church was a beautiful complex, built around 1870 with a two story wing of classrooms, an auditorium with a large balcony, and downstairs a full basketball court, a stage, two bowling alleys and a kitchen large enough to feed a thousand people.
It was located in an area that, with the building of highway 95, had become a black ghetto. Before long the church was open every day. An “Alternative School” was developed in the daytime and a “Drop-in Centre” for teenagers in the evenings.
He was constantly harassed by the police. One evening a police officer in plain clothes broke into his apartment and told him, “the only thing we hate more than niggers is white nigger lovers.” Shortly afterwards he was arrested on false charges, imprisoned and beaten before being released the following day.
One afternoon towards the end of his third year the church was destroyed by fire. Incendiary bombs had been strategically placed and ignited.
He said of that time, “These events shook me deeply. When I arrived in America as a student, Kennedy was the new president and it was a time of great hope and possibility. Then came the assassination of the President, and later his brother and Martin Luther King, Jr, which showed me the underbelly of a nation, which despite its ideals and promise, was at times a violent and dangerous place, something I’d not encountered before.”
In 1973 he returned to Canada and worked on Vancouver’s skid row before moving to Vancouver Island where he served two rural parishes. He left the ministry in 1981.
In 1985 he went to Hawaii where he ran a spiritual retreat centre and taught meditation and Tai Chi. Following that he worked for ten years as a psychotherapist subcontracted to the State of Hawaii, with families of abused children.
He returned to Canada in 1997 and worked as a psychotherapist. He has also done such esoteric things as work as a magician’s assistant, a mountain guide, a tree planter, a photographer, a taxi driver and a restorer of classical cars, all before retiring in the Comox Valley. Since then he devotes his time to writing, photography and playing soccer. He also teaches Self Inquiry at a local college and offers satsang.
Colin’s understanding of the nature of peace led him to write a number of books on the subject. “Something to Ponder” and “Understanding the simplicity of life” are about peace on a personal level. “Uncommon Reason,” a novel, has been called a political/spiritual thriller in which he offers alternatives through the actions of a sufi sage living in the hills of Lebanon and an enlightened philosophy professor who becomes the leader of one of the worlds most powerful nations.
His books have won a number of awards over the last few years.
Click to view newspaper clippings of the sanctuary and Church of the Mediator
copyright 2011 Colin Mallard