"What, and give up the Dharma?" -- a joke

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tingdzin
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"What, and give up the Dharma?" -- a joke

Post by tingdzin »

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?"
Simon E.
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Re: "What, and give up the Dharma?" -- a joke

Post by Simon E. »

:applause:

Post of the year imo. ' Many a true word is spoken in jest '
:lol:
“You don’t know it. You just know about it. That is not the same thing.”

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
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lobster
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Re: "What, and give up the Dharma?" -- a joke

Post by lobster »

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

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!"

:popcorn:
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Grigoris
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Re: "What, and give up the Dharma?" -- a joke

Post by Grigoris »

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.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
Simon E.
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Re: "What, and give up the Dharma?" -- a joke

Post by Simon E. »

I should have attributed 'Many a true word etc '..its Shakespeare. :smile:
“You don’t know it. You just know about it. That is not the same thing.”

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
the seafarer
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Re: "What, and give up the Dharma?" -- a joke

Post by the seafarer »

lobster wrote: One day Bodhisattva Nasruddin and his friends decided to play a joke on the people in a village.


I love Nasruddin stories, they're full of wisdom and charm. On a side note, he was a Sufi master, not a Bodhisattva.
Last edited by the seafarer on Thu Jan 02, 2014 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ཁོང་ཁྲོ་སློང་མཁན་མེད་ན། བཟོད་པ་སུ་ལ་སྒོམ།

When there is no one to provoke anger, how shall we practice patience?
Simon E.
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Re: "What, and give up the Dharma?" -- a joke

Post by Simon E. »

Don't worry, ' Lobster 'assures his audience often that he is both. All that and a bag of chips.
“You don’t know it. You just know about it. That is not the same thing.”

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to me.
the seafarer
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Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2014 2:03 pm

Re: "What, and give up the Dharma?" -- a joke

Post by the seafarer »

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. :smile: 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.
ཁོང་ཁྲོ་སློང་མཁན་མེད་ན། བཟོད་པ་སུ་ལ་སྒོམ།

When there is no one to provoke anger, how shall we practice patience?
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