[Buddha-l] Re: New trans. of poetry of the Sixth DL

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Sat, 2005-06-25 at 19:51 -0700, Hal Cooper wrote:

> This issue is very real though.  I have run into many people who just don't
> feel comfortable in the Asian Buddhist surroundings.

Have you run across Westerners who feel quite comfortable in Asian
Buddhist settings but feel queasy around Westerners who try to act like
Asians by dressing in Asian clothes, eating with East Asian utensils,
going by Sanskrit or Japanese names they can't pronounce correctly und
so weiter? If not, let me introduce myself. I think we could become
friends.

> Have you ever noticed that Westerners don't say "my temple" very often.

I can see you don't spend much time around Mormons.

By the way, Hal, according to Mort Saul, the people into whose lawns you
are supposed to burn questions marks are Unitarians. I don't know who
can afford the gasoline to burn anything into the manicured lawns of
Republicans these days.

Did any of you folks see the PBS program on the high school gal from
Lubbock, TX who was working to promote sex education, thereby causing a
great deal of hand-wringing from her Republican parents and her local
minister. One of the great lines in the program was the minister's:
"Liberalism and Christianity mix like oil and water. Christianity is the
most intolerant religion in the world. When I hear you talk, I'm afraid
I hear a lot of tolerance." It was obvious from his facial expression
(which featured bleached teeth and peroxided hair) that the minister was
pretty alarmed at this young girl's dangerous tendencies toward
toleration. He had another great line to the effect that teaching
teenagers how to use condoms is the moral equivalent of handing them a
gun and letting them go through the school killing people. Jesus, Sam,
if any of these folks leak out of Texas into America, we could have a
mess to clean up. (Bumper sticker recently spotted on a Texan van that
somehow got past the border patrol into New Mexico: "The best method of
safe sex is in your hands.")
 
I'd say more, but I have to go iron my dhoti, eat my tofu and wash my
chopsticks before sitting on the floor to do my Buddhist meditation.

-- 
Dharmachari Dayamati (pronounce THAT if you can!)
Albuquerque, New Mexico