Dalai Lama - What surprises me most about humanity

[FBM]

Is it not a koan?

What is the sound of one koan koaning?

[Pappa]

It's easier than you might think, hades. I've done it several times, but not for 2 years. Several months each. A tent, fishing rod, hunting gun and a few bucks for gas to get there and back, the occasional can of beans, etc.

My point is that he could live that way because there was a local town economy where he could buy supplies. He's pretty specific, to the point of being rather dull, what he buys and how much it costs-- so he needed money and a place to buy things.

He wouldn't be living like that if everyone decided to head off into the woods and sit on a chair, thinking.

Hippie mooch!

Now I gotcha. Yeah, he said he did odd jobs or something while he was out there in order to sustain himself. I didn't. I either packed it in or hunted/fished/gathered until it was time to beat it back to "civilization."

I think it would still be feasible if everyone did it. Everyone has their own skills to barter, as few people can do everything themselves.

[Rum]

I have spent a lot of time with Buddhism, though the Tibetan version is really the most elaborate and ritual filled. It also has, as FBM says. large elements of woo. The Dalai Lama, I have noticed over the years, hardly mentions that stuff and sticks to this sort of homily these days.

Ultimately of course, however wise and true what he says is, it makes no difference how you go to the grave, peaceful and resigned or restless and unfulfilled. It was that realisation which led me to drop Buddhism as an interest in the end.

[rachelbean]

I like it, rationalised apathy.

To be honest both. The archaic revival and all that back to nature crap is a tacky tourist romanticised ignorance of things like crop failures and murderous winters and cholera and you know all that poisonous nature shit we've spent thousands of years trying to struggle against. As for the Daffy Llama, well done, you walk around looking smug in an orange sheet, spouting swami style tupenny guru bollocks like that other conman Maresh Varma, for the edification supercilious clowns who've romanticised another stage of backwardness, how the fuck does that help? Are your prayer-wheels carbon neutral ffs?

The golden age is in the future, not the fucking past and we're going to have to struggle really fucking hard to get there.

This sounds a lot like my rant after watching the finale of Battlestar Galactica

[Audley Strange]

I like it, rationalised apathy.

To be honest both. The archaic revival and all that back to nature crap is a tacky tourist romanticised ignorance of things like crop failures and murderous winters and cholera and you know all that poisonous nature shit we've spent thousands of years trying to struggle against. As for the Daffy Llama, well done, you walk around looking smug in an orange sheet, spouting swami style tupenny guru bollocks like that other conman Maresh Varma, for the edification supercilious clowns who've romanticised another stage of backwardness, how the fuck does that help? Are your prayer-wheels carbon neutral ffs?

The golden age is in the future, not the fucking past and we're going to have to struggle really fucking hard to get there.

This sounds a lot like my rant after watching the finale of Battlestar Galactica

I stopped watching it when it became apparent "gritty" replaced coherent narrative. Pity though, I do love me a bit of Dean Stockwell. Anyway G'kar was a better buddha than Gotama.

[Svartalf]

Roughing it? Not for me, I'm a urbanite through and through... food comes in markets, not on four legs or to be harvested from fields and bushes.

[hadespussercats]

[Where did you go?

Different times, different places. I can't remember the names of all the state and national parks, but they were in MS, AL and TN. One was for 2 months in NC, but that was a friend's property, not a park. And I got to sleep in a log cabin with a wood stove, so it doesn't really count, anyway, except for the solitude.

Thoreau had a cabin.

[hadespussercats]

It's easier than you might think, hades. I've done it several times, but not for 2 years. Several months each. A tent, fishing rod, hunting gun and a few bucks for gas to get there and back, the occasional can of beans, etc.

My point is that he could live that way because there was a local town economy where he could buy supplies. He's pretty specific, to the point of being rather dull, what he buys and how much it costs-- so he needed money and a place to buy things.

He wouldn't be living like that if everyone decided to head off into the woods and sit on a chair, thinking.

Hippie mooch!

Now I gotcha. Yeah, he said he did odd jobs or something while he was out there in order to sustain himself. I didn't. I either packed it in or hunted/fished/gathered until it was time to beat it back to "civilization."

I think it would still be feasible if everyone did it. Everyone has their own skills to barter, as few people can do everything themselves.

Did you see the hippies episode of South Park, a while back?

no, no... you see, we'd just start doing everything ourselves. Like there's be this one guy who bakes the bread...

You mean, like that bakery over there?

No, totally different, man. And there's be a few guys who'd break up fights, and watch out for thieves...

You mean, like the police?

no, man, you're just not getting it...

[charlou]

Did you see the hippies episode of South Park, a while back?

no, no... you see, we'd just start doing everything ourselves. Like there's be this one guy who bakes the bread...

You mean, like that bakery over there?

No, totally different, man. And there's be a few guys who'd break up fights, and watch out for thieves...

You mean, like the police?

no, man, you're just not getting it...

I was just going to comment along those lines ... should have known South Park would have already covered it.

[FBM]

[Where did you go?

Different times, different places. I can't remember the names of all the state and national parks, but they were in MS, AL and TN. One was for 2 months in NC, but that was a friend's property, not a park. And I got to sleep in a log cabin with a wood stove, so it doesn't really count, anyway, except for the solitude.

Thoreau had a cabin.

What a pussy. I bet he bathed, too.


(I was contrasting the cabin with the times I spent in a tent.)

[laklak]

I remember something Obscured By Clouds once said (probably not an accurate quote) - I once thought I was a Buddhist for about 4 hours, but I was tripping on acid.

[Rum]

I once thought I *was* Buddha, but I was tripping on acid...

[Audley Strange]

How much buddhahood does it take before you become a Buddha? Does that instant flash of incoherent illumination, dissolution of subject object categories then a lifelong descent into the mundane and the grave count? Or does it only count when loads of people think that makes you special?

Does the Buddha have cat nature?

[hadespussercats]

How much buddhahood does it take before you become a Buddha? Does that instant flash of incoherent illumination, dissolution of subject object categories then a lifelong descent into the mundane and the grave count? Or does it only count when loads of people think that makes you special?

Does the Buddha have cat nature?

My understanding is it's anyone who has achieved total illumination/nirvana. Doesn't matter if anyone else hears about it-- though if they don't no one would be calling you a buddha, would they?

[Audley Strange]

How much buddhahood does it take before you become a Buddha? Does that instant flash of incoherent illumination, dissolution of subject object categories then a lifelong descent into the mundane and the grave count? Or does it only count when loads of people think that makes you special?

Does the Buddha have cat nature?

My understanding is it's anyone who has achieved total illumination/nirvana. Doesn't matter if anyone else hears about it-- though if they don't no one would be calling you a buddha, would they?

And of course Buddha's truth is only true to Buddha, so I think we can then assume that since L.S.D. is a dissociative hallucinogen and that it seems to mimic the same kind of neurological agitation and serotonin rushes than people who can pull off transcendental meditation claim, that indeed Rum is a Buddha, yes?

You'll get a nice orange sheet in Debenham's for about 25 quid Rum.