Dharma Wheel

Here is a little humor for those who are appalled at self-promoting "roshi"s, "lama"s, "tulku"s, and "emanation"s, amazed at the perceived disposability of samayas, distressed at the reduction of terms like kensho, satori, and rigpa to concepts that can be argued about, and sad about the general desacralization of the sublime:

A man walked into a doctor's office and rolled up his sleeve to show the doctor an arm completely covered in a hideous rash.
"My god," the doctor said. "What happened to you?"
"Nothing happened," the man replied. "My arm has been like this for a long time, but it's starting to bother me."
After a series of questions, the doctor finally asked, "what do you do for a living?"
The man said, "I work at the circus. I give enemas to the elephants when they are constipated. I take a soapy sponge and thrust it up the elephants' rears."
"That's it!"the doctor said. "I guarantee if you stop giving enemas to elephants, your arm will get better."
The man answered, "What? And give up show business?"

Post of the year imo. ' Many a true word is spoken in jest '

Luckily the holy elephant is doing well. The sacred is independent of show business, though of course it must sometimes join the circus . . .

One day Bodhisattva Nasruddin and his friends decided to play a joke on the people in a village. So Nasruddin drew a crowd, and told them about a gold mine in a certain place. When everybody ran to get their hands on the gold, Nasruddin started running with them. When asked by his friends why he was following them, he said "So many people believed it, that I think it may be true!"

Personally I dunno how funny the opening joke was. Well, the joke was funny but its comparison to Buddhism and dharma activities... I am waiting for the sequel where it talks about all the thousands of legit and hard working teachers and students doing their very best to remain true to the Dharma. Then I may consider laughing. 'til then, I do believe that the situation it is a cause for tears of sorrow.

I should have attributed 'Many a true word etc '..its Shakespeare.

Don't worry, ' Lobster 'assures his audience often that he is both. All that and a bag of chips.

Simon E. wrote:Don't worry, ' Lobster 'assures his audience often that he is both. All that and a bag of chips.

May well be, I won't argue with that. But I find it more respectful and stimulating to attribute correctly which spiritual tradition a wise man belonged to. Let me explain - someone who is not familiar with Nasruddin this way may simply assume he is just another Boddhisattva from the Buddhist tradition.

I feel this encourages the shallow assumption that if something's wise then it must be Buddhist (just as if it's witty, it must be Oscar Wilde).

I think we all benefit from remembering that pure wisdom transcends this or that religion/philosophy. In particular in a time when a lot of people think they know a lot about Islam (and usually with feelings of disesteem), I think it's highly beneficial to remember that great masters aren't the sole monopoly of Buddhism.

I may be Buddhist, but I have lots of respect for Sufism.