[Buddha-l] Silence ?

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Richard P. Hayes schreef:

>Recent events provoked a memory of a Buddhist conference I attended in
>1986 at which Ven. Mahaghosananda was one of the many speakers. The
>person who introduced this distinguished monk told of the time when he
>had headed a delegation of Cambodian bhikkhus who had gained audience
>with Pope John-Paul II. The bhikkus were instructed to walk very slowly
>toward the Pope and to stop at a respectful distance and then to kiss
>his papal ring when it was offered. Ven. Mahaghosananda listed carefully
>to the instructions and was then taken into the room to meet the Pope.
>The bhikkhu took a couple of slow steps, and then he ran across the
>stage and gave the Pope a big hug. Witnesses saw tears came to the eyes
>of both men.
>
>  
>
If have heard and read more stories of this type, it's like there's a 
mystical brotherhood  or something like that and the Pope and all 
church- and sanghaleaders are members. I think this is a fairytale. Most 
hierophants are just grumpy old coservative men with medical problems. 
Of course if you're like that it's very nice if you're allowed to walk 
around in extravagant clothes and people bow to you for that. And you 
can terrorise everone around you and forbid things like sex which you 
cannot do yourself anymore. So that's what all these grumpy old men do, 
whether they're muslim buddhist, catholic or whatever.
I don't see why two grown up men who've never seen or thought of each 
other before and don't know each other nor are family would burst into 
tears and hug. The only reason I can think of is that they both were sad 
about being part of a circus they cannot turn of for a moment and they 
may had a dream about walking together hand in hand along the beach of a 
remote beach in the Pacifics.
This time I see a crowd with crocodiletears mourning over the loss of 
someone whose picture they've seen maybe ten times in their life and who 
they call 'a father', just because they want to be part of the event. No 
one recognizes that this is a savage ritual of an institution that once 
burned innocent and learned people at the stake and only twenty years 
ago agreed that the earth revolves around the sun.
The crowd never gave the pope a moment of their thoughts before, but now 
they emulate missing him because  everything is in the media and it has 
become a global happening which they want to be a part of. Just because 
it's gonna be big. Nothing is real, the new unhappy strawberry fields of 
the media!

>The audience at the conference where this story was told burst into
>laughter as everyone imagined this diminutive Asian monk in the
>capacious embrace of the Polish pontiff. And then Ven. Mahaghosananda
>beamed at us and said "Yes! I gave the Pope a hug, and then the Pope
>gave us $50,000."
>
>That story has always warmed my heart, because it shows two men great
>enough to ignore the stifling protocols governing their meeting, and
>because it shows a Pope magnanimous enough to make the gesture of giving
>Church money to the bhikkhu-sangha.
>  
>
Well the Pope really didn't spare it out of his mouth didn't he. Easy 
charity! What did he to the poor people who really needded the money and 
who gave it to him in the first place?

>My fear (a realistic one, I suspect) is that the next pope will be just
>as relentlessly conservative as Pope John-Paul II but with only a
>fraction of the charm and humanity. 
>  
>
If this is our only problem I would consider us very lukcy.

erik