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STUPID THINGS PEOPLE SAY ABOUT BUDDHISM
federica
Seeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
dkode mentioned in another thread, that when he tells others he's following Buddhism, some people turn round and ask him whether he still has any possessions...
BF came up with a suitable response of 'ask them if, as christians, they've become disciples...'
Someone I knew, some time ago was telling a bunch of folks down at the pub that a buddhist monk had died, because someone put a scorpion in his bowl, and as they can't turn charity down, when he tried to eat it he got stung and died...I called him a total prat, but given that I had no knowledge of anything remotely buddhist at the time, said nothing more... I know now, of course what I would say to him. And I'd still call him a prat.....
What stoooopid, daft, brainless and just plain ridiculous things have come your way, regarding Buddhism? And how did you respond? Or how would you like to have responded? Or would you like someone to come up with a suitable response in case you get it again.....?
BF came up with a suitable response of 'ask them if, as christians, they've become disciples...'
Someone I knew, some time ago was telling a bunch of folks down at the pub that a buddhist monk had died, because someone put a scorpion in his bowl, and as they can't turn charity down, when he tried to eat it he got stung and died...I called him a total prat, but given that I had no knowledge of anything remotely buddhist at the time, said nothing more... I know now, of course what I would say to him. And I'd still call him a prat.....
What stoooopid, daft, brainless and just plain ridiculous things have come your way, regarding Buddhism? And how did you respond? Or how would you like to have responded? Or would you like someone to come up with a suitable response in case you get it again.....?
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Comments
Found that a little amusing
Also heard:
"Are you ever going to set yourself on fire?"
"If Buddha is all about self-restraint, why is he so fat?"
"Aren't you those guys who hand out flyers at the airport?"
I love the last one, arent you one of the guys who hands out flyers at the airport.
that reminds me of that movie airplane
funny schtuff
In Mongolia, we were traveling by car back from the Gobi and stopped about halfway in the town of Choir (pronounced Cho-year) for lunch in a seedy little restaurant (though probably the best in town). A middle aged woman was standing there sucking on a cigarette and obviously more than a little inebriated. She scanned us up and down and then muttered something to our interpreter. He said, "She thinks you look like Christian monks" (apparently a reference to the crossed dorje on my T-shirt). I gave her such a look that she kind of slunk off.
Another monk I know was riding the subway in New York City once when a fire breathing "Christian" (also a woman) approached him with death in her eyes. She demanded, "Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your lord and saviour?!" He just said, "Yes," which so completely threw her that she couldn't say anything!
Palzang
priceless! :rockon:
Priceless.
-bf
Brigid
I told him that although it wasn't obligatory, practise was aimed at levitation.... I obviously meant this as a tongue-in-cheek remark, (hence my joking with Yogamama the other day!) which his friend understood, and laughed at - but he sincerely believed I was serious.... It took me a while to explain that I wasn't serious.... but there's an awful lot of people out there who are, shall we say.... ever so slightly - gullible....,!?:hair:
I am sooooo happy to see your posts, be they flippant, serious, informative, or just raw vision. However, if I were whimsically explaining levitation to be an optional goal of meditation, I don't think I'd call my act of explaining "tongue-in-cheek," but rather "fanciful." That's because I do not think it's a joking matter, but a matter of something much deeper, namely the numinous, or mysterious realm of Being, which cannot be circumscribed by neat borders or limits. The sheer gravity and immensity of this "naughty world" would overwhelm us were there not these special channels to plug into.
Alles will schweben. Da gehn wir umher wie Beschwerer,
legen auf alles uns selbst, vom Gewichte entzückt;
o was sind wir den Dingen für zehrende Lehrer,
weil ihnen ewige Kindheit glückt... Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, II:14
All things want to float. And we go about like weights,
lay our self upon everything, delighted with gravity;
O what wearing teachers we are for things,
while they succeed at eternal childhood.
For me, levitation is a state of mind. Lying in bed at night, after turning off the lights, I often like to feel myself being lighter than air and floating up a few inches over the bed to rest there. It's a wonderful bio-feedback, at least, and an energizing "otherworldly" experience. It may only last a few seconds, but it's a little bit of much-needed ecstasy.
And ecstasy? Well, Federica, that's what we're made for. And there's some real weightlessness involved in ecstasy. In fact, really to exist is to be ecstatic, since there is so little difference, really, between being "beside" oneself and being "outside" onself. To ex-ist is to be projected into a realm that is not oneself and that is outside oneself. It is the Great Adventure. But we forget and forget andrecall only too seldom and then regret.
For myself, I find levitation to be not only suspension in space, but also suspension in time, much like being in a suspended state hanging out behind my computer keyboard writing in space-time. Or, if you're doing so on your laptop on a jet, you are really flying through both space and time. At any rate, just as I would include driving, flying, going on a roller coaster, or other ways of travelling on my list of "things" I partake of, I would also, for myself, include being levitated, and for these reasons: 1) self-induced feelings of floating with my eyes closed seem very real to me; 2) a. countless dreams thoughout my life in which I was floating through the air b. (In many of these dreams I was even embarrassed by the fact that I was floating up above the other members of my class in the school building, and wished not to.) 3) When I am overcome by happy thoughts and sensations my head feels very light and my shoulders feel ready to take off, but the sense of propriety or duties compel me to stay (as in 2)b. above) 4) And lastly, and most importantly, the belief in a Divinely-Given Right to be free of the chains of this world highlights a poetic truth Nietzsche would have called a defiance of the Spirit of Gravity.
Ecstasy is the highest form of love, for when it is complete there is no separation between subject and object. All Is Loved, Love is All.
Usully people hit me with the preconception that you must banish all possessions in a type of:
'You can't be a buddhist unless you give up everything!' logic.
My default response is usually a smile and almost inperceptable bow (I don't want to freak people out too much!)
BUT
if I was more of a wiseguy I'd probably persue the line of arguement that giving away all of your things in an attempt to become englightened is just a reverse-style materialism. Using things by giving them away in order to buy yourself happiness (it being as temporary and fleeting as the happiness connected to materialism).
It's very similar to when people say they hate something and then ramble on about it as much as though they love it! Attachment is not only attributed to the positive!
I'm going to use that if I ever get hit with the "Have you given up all your material possessions?" question. I do like to freak people out.
Brigid
2 days ago my classmates started singing Hari Krishna to me, they were puzzled when I told them that Buddhists weren't Hindus. Everyone knows were all the same right!!!!
Oh, and I was asked about Easter. Yep, why didn't I celebrate it like all the others. When I explained I was Buddhist, I was asked, "What church is that"? :rockon: "Its the EVIL one!!!!! :grr:
My $0.02:ausflag:
I responded with "No, I'm human!"
But I don't know if that was because I'm a Buddhist...
-bf
did you reply by asking them why they don't live in Israel or Palestine? after all that's where Christ is from.
regards.:zombie:
That's what my ex-girlfriend said... and that was 20 years ago. Thanks for reminding me BF, now I'm just gonna cry.
cheers! not.
regards,
Xray
Of course I do. I get that confused look from them.:pirate:
Unfortunately I heard this from someone in my own family, and I'm sure everything I said in response to this statement went in one ear and right out the other.
When someone says something like that, I just walk away and don't say anything. The last time I've heard someone in my family say something's wrong with another culture, I just accused them of ignorance, and the discussion ended right there. I'm tired of reminding people "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
Of course you could always ask them why God would be so vain as to need worship.
Excellent point.
If you don't worship me, I'm going to throw a hissy and send you to hell!
Now... that's love.
-bf
I usually throw Voltaires' deathbed quote at people like that; when asked if he thought God would forgive him, he said "Of course. That's his job..."
**Update** I've just thought of another witticism of Voltaires' - "God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh".
Brigid