[Buddha-l] Can't Touch This!

[jkirk]

> > This sounds to me like an injuction to get beyond relying on props such
as
> > texts and images.
>
...................... What the injunction against
> touching books clearly offers is a two-fold prophecy: 1) the advent of
> the Internet in general and buddha-l in particular will make books
> unnecessary, and 2) in the dying days of an empire to the west of the
> Atlantic ocean an emperor will come to power who never touches books but
> has the empress read children's versions of Bible stories to him.
>
> --
> Richard Hayes
===============================
Let us continue this story into the future. If the emperor's ruling caste is
not dethroned in the next federal election, we might be tempted to resort to
magic in our despair at ever again having the conditions in the body politic
for the pursuit of all the beneficial goals of buddhadharma -- helping the
poor, the sick and the indigent, ending war, improving public education,
helping the environment to recover from 8 years of imperial degradation. But
beyond that dream of a different near future is a potential nightmare: the
declines of oil and gas, and how these declines will inevitably affect
everyone, including Buddhist practice, and the various cultural expressions
they adhere to. (Soon computers will only be run by government agencies --
the energy to run personal PCs will be gone along with B-L.)
The predicted direness could conceivably enable practice to take more of a
social/community orientation than it has done so far, allowing for notable
exceptions, of couse. With this in mind, I recommend reading the article at
this link, and also getting the author's book.
_The Long Emergency_ by J.H. Kunstler. Article link to Rolling Stone mag
(I'm glad it got printed there as they have a huge circulation):

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7203633?rnd=1112114329587&ha
s-player=true&version=6.0.12.872

If this link breaks, just reconstitute it and paste into a browser.

Joanna