[Buddha-l] crazy wisdom

[ralf.steckel at online.ms]

-begin snip
> I have no idea what the answer to your question is (and I look forward
> to hearing from someone who does know), but I am reminded of a great
> line by Samu Sunim, who once described Chogyam Trungpa as the only
> Buddhist teacher wild enough to tame Americans.
                                                        **** ********
> 
> -- 
> Richard
-end snip

Dear Richard,

just my non-academical five cents to this topic...

We in Germany are very grateful to the US Americans because they and the Allies did a great job by liberating Germany from the terror of the Nazi dictatorship. We are also very grateful to the US Americans because they brought back some joy of daily life for those Germans, who had to get their families through World War II. (sorry that i have to repeat the so often quoted sentence from the GIs who gave chewing gum and cigarettes and care packets to the German people in the post war area - but this is 'really' something that is *burned* in the common subconsciousness German people, who had the luck to grow up in the western half of post war Germany)

I for myself have never been in the US so I'm not the one to give a comment about US American society today - i have only informations about the contemporary US by more or less good authority from some members of my family, friends and working colleagues, who have been there and 'serious' political magazines - if there still are any in Germany.

Nevertheless a lot of todays German people are concerned about the rise of military, technical, social and information control world wide due to the tougher and tougher competition for enviromental, social and economical ressources world wide also and especially in the US.

There may be a difference in the magnitude of the toughness of this competition in the US and in Europe. But the tendency to more social, political and economic control is the same in Europe and Germany. And although in Germany not only people sympathizing with the goals of the student movement of the Sixties but also very conservative people are concerned about the situation in the US there is in Germany still gratefullness to *all* Allies and the US Americans because they gave us the chance to establish some political, social and economic standards.

Best whishes,

Ralf

PS: As an enthusiast of Agave plants -native mostly in Mexico and in the South of the US- I *really* would like to see the Agave collection of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona and that of the Huntington Botanical Garden. But as long as smoking in the US is valued almost as a crime against political and 'healthy' correctness, i keep on visiting European Agave collections.