Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
in this rat-infested apartment
genkaku
Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
One of my all-time favorite reminders is this: "If a man punches you in the stomach, you don't ask if he lives in a rat-infested apartment." This may not have the smooth and soothing feel of something called "Buddhism," but I nonetheless think it is a spot-on Buddhist reminder.
When life punches you in the stomach, "compassion" and "wisdom" and "Buddhism" and sneaky paradoxical chitchat are not the first thought into anyone's head. The first reaction is "ouch!" Second, perhaps, is "escape!" Only later does the rat-infested apartment of philosophy and religion come into play and spawn, perhaps, the notion that we can talk or explain our pains to death.
Until the next time a man (or life) punches you in the stomach....
Buddhist practice is pretty good where the desire arises to stop being a stupid punching bag.
Just noodling.
When life punches you in the stomach, "compassion" and "wisdom" and "Buddhism" and sneaky paradoxical chitchat are not the first thought into anyone's head. The first reaction is "ouch!" Second, perhaps, is "escape!" Only later does the rat-infested apartment of philosophy and religion come into play and spawn, perhaps, the notion that we can talk or explain our pains to death.
Until the next time a man (or life) punches you in the stomach....
Buddhist practice is pretty good where the desire arises to stop being a stupid punching bag.
Just noodling.
4
Comments