[Buddha-l] buddha-l gathering

[Piya Tan]

BTW Friday, 27 November was St Josaphat Day.

The Catholics had canonized the Buddha and worshipped him annually until
they realize we are doing the same, too, but more often..

Piya



On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 5:49 AM, Blezer, H.W.A. <
H.W.A.Blezer at hum.leidenuniv.nl> wrote:

> It is definitely a good thing that Richard finally clarified who was
> the fourth Buddha-l mystery veteran, at the Antwerp gathering. It
> indeed was the Buddha herself, in the form of Saint Josaphat, presumed
> to be present as a pile of dry bones in a silver reliquary, in the St.
> Andrieskerk (emphasis is on "dries").
>
> Pious local Catholics had barely finished cleaning & polishing the
> silverware when we arrived (and, alas, subsequently have had to
> conceal it from sight, to prevent further soiling). A donation by
> wealthy tenured Buddha-l members to the mentioned church for these
> exact purposes (do mention the XXXVI Saints!) will facilitate future
> display in a glass container -- surely of immeasurable benefit to
> later generations of pilgrims!
>
> Unlike the other veterans, I went speechless for most of the day --
> that's what relics do to born Catholics (we don't believe we are born
> again) -- and, hey, since Stefan and Erik were there, it was not
> necessary to say much anyway. So, I didn't; at least not anything that
> made much sense (would that count as "muni" as well??).
>
> I therefore traveled more or less incognito. But Richard seems to have
> sensed the presence of something left unspoken or implied (according
> to some ancient religious doctors, in Buddhist realms, beings are only
> visible to those of one's own class or above).
>
> Instead, I have devoted myself to the more simple practice of
> generating merit. Such as finding *seriously* pink paper cups for
> impromptu libations to the gathered buddhas of the four directions
> (unfortunately, the cups were way too large to cover up the quite
> modestly sculpted nudity of the Antwerp Manneke Peace, at the Tibet
> Instituut in Schoten -- I have a sneeking suspicion that a foresighted
> individual there may have wanted to anticipate on those obnoxiously
> politically hypercorrect individuals who insist on referring to the
> Buddha by female gender).
>
> In that lovely retro Belgian Jazz Café called Muze, which Richard
> mentioned, we were also joined by good local folk & sprite, in varying
> stages of inebriation. I am not sure whether they too once were words
> on Buddha-l (in the beginning there was ...) -- how could one tell if
> their speech was thus affected by locally brewed spirits. But for all
> I know, they may well be the folks on our list who are responsible for
> that occasional, garbled message.
>
> For the next venue, I recommend tar and feathers, as a dressing code,
> or at least carrying an 'serious' umbrella and paper cups.
>
> Namo Josaphato,
>
>
> Henk
>
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:28:37 +0100
> From: Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] buddha-l gathering
> To: Buddhist discussion forum <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
> Message-ID: <CB13D379-CA09-40A2-877D-DB28073D0B79 at unm.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
> On Nov 28, 2009, at 7:41 AM, Richard Hayes wrote:
>
> > I know this is short notice, but four buddha-l veterans are meeting in
> > the Antwerp train station today at 11:00 am, and we'd be delighted if
> > the rest of you could join us. Erik Hoogcarspel and I are easily
> > recognized, since we actually do look like the words we write on
> > buddha-l. He looks like a verb, and I look like an adjective.
>
> As far as I can tell, only four buddha-l people showed up for the
> buddha-l pilgrimage in Antwerpen/Anvers/Antwerp.
>
> <snip>
>
> I'm not sure where the next gathering of buddha-l denizens will be.
> Perhaps Singapore. Hope to see you all there, properly dressed for the
> occasion.
>
> yours in denizenship,
> Richard
>
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