Following President Obama’s miraculous healing speech at the memorial service in Tucson, I’m reminded of some words of Ecclesiastes. I’m not a traditional religious person, but like the President’s closing words about jumping puddles in heaven, I can believe in the emotional truth and poetry without having the faith.
Image taken from Al Rodger’s masterful return Requiem diary on Kos.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh.
As part of this open thread, please allow yourself to smile again below the flip.
To that end, with the help of this laughing Buddha, I’m inspired by a rather wonderful diary from Pluto, published on Kos last Saturday, but buried by the terrible news from Tucson. It was called Jewish Buddha Says: If there is no self, whose arthritis is this? – you can get a flavour of the humour (or flavor of the humor as my Xenophobic chrome spell checker keeps on insisting) from the title. Pluto calls it his “Special saved files from my new-age Jewish family emails. Zen for the chicken soup soul.”
I won’t steal too many of his very funny and enlightening Jubu tao phrases.
Here’s a sample:
Be here now.
Be someplace else later.
Is that so complicated?
Or…
There is no escaping karma.
In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited.
And whose fault was that?
And
Wherever you go, there you are.
Your luggage is another story.
For a short while, before Fogiv posting his devastating breaking news diary, I went to a few Tao Buddist phrase sites, and started coming up with my own. It’s a great game, rather like the Strummerson T-Shirt diary a few months back.
Here are a few I came up with:
If you light a lamp for somebody,
it will also brighten your own path.
And your energy bill will be cheaper.
And:
We cannot see our reflection in running water.
It is only in still water that we can see…
Who the hell put my toothbrush in the toilet?
Or how about?
The path of the enlightened one leaves no track
It is like the path of birds in the sky.
Unless they get sucked into jet engines
Perhaps….
The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
Increase your credit card limit.
And definitely
He who asks a question is a fool for a minute;
he who does not remains a fool forever,
but then again nobody will know about it
It’s a great game. Maybe there’s a Michigan, Vermont, Californian, Canadian or even Latino version of Zen
Do give it a go. Or say anything you want really
UPDATE: OK. Come the end of the weekend I’ll be conducting a POLL to decide of the TEN BEST new ZenBlurbs will win MYSTERY TOP PRIZE. (Of course I might just choose ten of my own).
Get ruminative and juicy Moosers!
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