[Buddha-l] So much for that.

[Richard Hayes]

On Jan 1, 2010, at 1:37 PM, Jim Peavler wrote:

> The announcement of the death of Buddha-l was apparently premature.

It has been said, probably falsely, that the purpose of holding a wake was to make sure a corpse was really dead and not just passed out from too much drink. (This was especially important in the day of goblets with high lead content, since lead and alcohol could have the effect of rendering a person unconscious for several days.)

I think our idea to hold a wake to make sure buddha-l was really dead and not just playing 'possum was a wise one. Now that the corpse has sprung back to life and joined in the dancing, you and I can go drink ourselves into a stupor and perhaps debate on whether the fifth precept is really the teaching of the Buddha or an interpolation by some presbyterians from Kansas. Abstaining from intoxicants sounds to me like Protestant Buddhism if there ever was such a thing.

Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes
rhayes at unm.edu