Monkey Minds

Man complains about Buddhas at Kansas City Zoo

The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Zoo gets a complaint about Buddha statues in an Asian-themed area.

David Engle, of the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kan., complained after visiting the zoo on Sunday. He says it’s “phenomenal to me” that the zoo would put up two smiling statues of Buddha when “We can’t have a cross or a nativity scene on public property.”

Engle, who says he is Christian, called the statues idolatry and “infuriating to God.”

Buddha is the name ascribed to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.

Zoo Director Randy Wisthoff says he has never heard complaints about the statues before.

He said they were bought a few years ago, along with concrete pagodas and a terra cotta warrior, to provide an Asian theme for the zoo’s Tiger Trail.

He plans to discuss the complaint with the zoo’s board.

———

Information from: The Kansas City Star,

http://www.kcstar.com

Carrie Bradshaw Will Be Thrilled!

Now devotees wearing shoes

can enter Bodh Gaya temple complex

 

IANS, November 20, 2008

Patna, India — The decades-old ban on entering the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya while wearing shoes has been lifted, an official said Thursday.The move was welcomed and lauded by Buddhist devotees, mostly Tibetans and tourists visiting Bodh Gaya temple, Buddhism’s holiest shrine.

However, shoes will not be allowed within the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.

The Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee (BGTMC) took the decision to lift the ban on entering the temples while wearing shoes.

“The BGTMC decided to lift the ban early this week in the wake of repeated demand made by devotees and tourists to allow them to enter the temple with shoes on,” said Nandji Dorjee, secretary, BGTMC.

Hundreds of Buddhist devotees and tourists, particularly foreigners, are now being allowed to enter the temple with shoes on, a big relief during winter and summer months.

Time and again, devotees and tourists complained to the officials about the discomfort they faced while walking bare feet within the temple complex.

“Bare foot entry to temple poses threat to health in chilly winter, particularly during early hours and hot summer season,” said another BGTMC official.

In winter, considered a tourist season, temperatures come down to as low as 2 – 4 degrees Celsius. During winter, bare feet entry to the temple to offer prayers was difficult.

The Tibetan Buddhists have been demanding the right to temple entry with boots on, as per their traditions. They do not see anything wrong in entering the temple with boots on.

In 2001 Ugyen Trinle Dorje, the teenaged chief of the Karmapa sect of Tibetan Buddhists defied the ban on temple entry with shoes on. Dorje entered the Mahabodhi temple sanctum with heavy boots, inviting loud protests from the neo-Buddhists.

The neo-Buddhists demanded the invoking of the penal clause in Mahabodhi temple management act, which says that a fine has to be imposed on anybody who entered the buddhist shrine with shoes on.

Then, Dorje made a bare feet entry to the temple to offer prayers.

The 1,500-year-old temple stands behind the sacred Bodhi tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment 2,550 years ago.

The Mahabodhi Temple, declared a World Heritage Site in 2002 by Unesco, is visited annually by thousands of tourists, especially from countries where there is a strong Buddhist community.

This article comes from The Buddhist Channel site

(http://www.buddhistchannel.tv)

Go to STORY

So Help Me, Me!

God received a legal reprieve when a judge tossed a lawsuit because the Almighty wasn’t properly served notice. Seems Heaven has an unlisted address.

Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers sought a restraining order against the Supreme Being for making “terrorist threats” as well as as for inciting death, destruction and disaster upon Earth’s inhabitants, according to an Associated Press report.

However, Douglas County District Court Judge Marlon Polk ruled that because the Divine Defendant cannot be served notice, the suit must be dismissed with prejudice.

Chambers, a law school grad who never took the bar exam, countered that if God is, in fact, all knowing then He’s aware of the suit and, thus, legally has been served. And, because the Lord is omnipresent, He has access to the court proceedings.

Chambers says he filed the liturgical litigation to prove a point that all persons, even the Holiest One, should have equal access to the courts.

However, one wonders if God legally can be sworn in as a defense witness as He must vow to Himself that He will be truthful when questioned (although, that should be a given).

Perhaps, God should follow the example of George Burns (and screen writer Larry Gelbart) who created such a scene in the movie Oh, God! when Burns as God, testified for John Denver’s character and swore to tell the whole truth “so help me, Me!”

Buddhas For Barack

My God can beat your God. 

Vote Democrat and you’re a godless pagan.

How would Jesus vote? (Probably not for Romans)

John McCain campaigns in Iowa today trying to drum up votes in the state that kicked off Barack Obama’s presidential aspirations.

While Sarah Palin’s personal exorcist already expelled any incantations which witches may have snuck past the Secret Service, John McCain still remains vulnerable to all those left-winged Wiccans brewing October Surprises.

Thank goodness that theology trumps thaumaturgy on the campaign trail. Before McCain’s folksy talk in Davenport about the evils of his opponent with the non-Christian name, a minister delivered an invocation to send any politically incorrect deities packing:

“There are plenty of people around the world who are praying to their god, be they Hindu, Buddah [sic], or Allah, that (McCain’s) opponent wins. I pray that you step forward and honor your own name.” Ends with “in Jesus’ name.”  quote

 

Buddhas and Bramas for Barack! Allah for anyone with a Muslim sounding name. Never mind that the Hindu god Ganesha is an elephant, the symbol of the GOP, or that Buddha was not a god at all but an enlightened human (and not even that confusing father-son-spirit trilogy of Christianity). And never mind that the Judeo-Christian “God” delivers little political pandering aside from all that the Ten Commandment and “love thy neighbor as thy self” business — with no caveats if those neighbors display bumper stickers different from yours.

No, those “other gods” supporting Barack Obama be damned. And who cares that the Jewish Adoni, the Christian Father and the Muslim Allah are technically one in the same. The one true GOD of GOP has spoken and must be obeyed.

With GOP rallies sounding more like witch-hunts and Klan-hate fests, one wonders why any God would be interested in politics at all. Perhaps S/He confronts more concerns than mortgage bailouts (greed, after all, is one of those deadly sins) such as genocide in Darfur, AIDs in Africa, poverty, global warming and extinction of nearly one-fourth of the creatures S/He created. If politicos want Holy endorsements, maybe they need to respect God’s own position planks more.

Many teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist leader Dalai Lama (bless him in his recovery from surgery) talk about the proper role of leadership. However, two reflect the wranglings of this tiresome election:

 

Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

and 

It seems that when men become desperate they consult their gods. And when the gods become desperate, they tell lies!

 

© 2008 winkingbuddha.com

 

 

Jane Six Pack

You know what? It’s time that normal Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency.”  

— Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican Vice President nominee

For this I went eight years to college?

Let’s see. If a regular “Joe or Jane Six Pack” is qualified to hold the most powerful government leadership position in the world, then why do any of us need a college education?  If citizens want president or veep who has downed a pack of Pabst to have his/her finger on the nuclear button so be it, at least we’d blow up belching.

Perhaps the biggest bailout of the US economy would be that parents need no longer work hard and go into debt for their children to achieve a college education. Cancel all those boring lectures and substitute tutorials the Animal House-John Belushi way.

Joe and Jane Six Pack need representation. Politicos need to listen and understand the concerns of us average folks they represent. Candidate should even enjoy a brew with regular citizens now and then. Often times the real Joe and Jane Six Pack have simple yet wiser views of the world. But would I want my kid’s hockey coach to be commander-in-chief?

Our Founding Fathers were lander owners, farmers, tinkers, business operators, printers, lawyers and the like. Yet they were common men with uncommon minds. If not college educated, they educated themselves by actually reading “everything” — the classics, history, philosophy, literature, science, poetry as well as the local broadsheets. They shared brews in the local pubs, but I doubt that their conversations centered on the hooters of the barmaids.

We don’t need a Joe or Jane Six Pack to lead this country.  Instead, we need the common men or women, with the uncommon minds who realize the nation’s true greatness and recognize their own limitations.  Not some idiots who become so fermented on their own bromides that they drive our democracy off the edge of its ever teetering precipice.

No Signs of the Times?

What happened to all the political yard signs?  

At first I thought that Hurricane Ike blew them away. Still with only a month left until the election, I see very few yard signs or even bumper stickers for any of the candidates — presidential, Congressional, Republican, Democrat or otherwise. 

During my suburban safaris, I observed a single generic sign espousing the need for “Democratic Change.”  I saw one Obama bumper sticker in my rear view mirror. But other than that — nada — as if the election suddenly became a figment of our collective imagination — or, more likely, nightmares!

If this signless situation only occurred in post-Ike districts, I would understand. But a friend who resides in the progressive Northwest also bemoaned the lack of bumper stickers for Obama. One Daily Kos blogger lamented that his local Obama headquarters lacked any yard signs for distribution. And, the dearth of political paraphernalia not only dogs Democrats. I’ve yet to see a McCain-Palin sign or sticker in our red collar community where Tom DeLay once gerrymandered himself into our district.

What gives? Are the US voters totally burnt out on the election only hours from the finish line?  Did the interminable and insufferable primary season with its 24/7 cable news rantings cause candidate ennui?  

Or with the the energy crisis, Wall Street meltdown, foreclosures, natural disasters, has our country’s hope simply slithered away?

Or, perhaps all this tedious blathering about “Change” has left all of us all bored totally out of our freaking minds!!!

“Lost: The Sequel”

Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Ike pummeled the upper Texas coast, upwards of 400 of its residents cannot be located, according to today’s Houston Chronicle. Hopefully, many of the missing still may be without the power to contact worried family. Or some evacuees chose not to return. Or those who could afford to jet to Aspen or Paris to ride out the storm took a relaxing side trip before returning.

Or, as many family, friends and officials fear, maybe they were swept away into the Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Bay or buried in the new sand drifts carved by Ike. 

The Chronicle reported that the body of Gail Ettenger, 58, a Bolivar resident who attempted to ride out the storm, washed up 12 days later in a debris pile in Chambers County — 10 miles inland from her home.

As Ike hit land, the Coast Guard rescued about 100 Bolivar residents who remained behind, thinking the storm would take a southerly course. But as the hurricane intensified at least 150 people were still stranded on the peninsula, the Coast Guard reported.

They most likely weren’t the only beach dwellers taken by surprise by Ike’s furious path. Newscasts predicted ike to be a “minor” Category 2, a “weakling” many had ridden out without hassle before. But Ike pumped up into a Cat 3 packing Cat 4 storm surges when it punched in. Those who gambled may have lost everything.

Abandoned and overturned cars along marshes, debris fields and flood waters may harbor more ominous clues. Were the vehicles merely pushed by the surge from the safety of their garages, or were they transporting late evacuees who met the floods head on?

Many of the doomed areas rely on limited volunteer fire departments to spearhead rescues and they are literally swamped (no pun) with search and rescue — or recovery — efforts.  The professional local first responders also find resources exhausted.  Even so, the Chronicle reports that the Galveston County Sheriff’s office denied assistance from the respected non-profit Texas EquuSearch SAR teams from coming in to help locate some of the 200 lost souls in that county alone, even though many of the missings’ relatives requested such assistance. EquuSearch, by the way, has spearheaded search-and-rescue operations for missing persons internationally.

Who knows how many of the transient populations that live in Galveston and coastal compounds cannot be accounted for since no one possibly cares about them?

Yes, who really cares about them all — the transients and the other 400 missing souls? How come the national news hasn’t jumped on this story like a pit bull with lipstick?

Is it that the missing or dead are invisible — wiped out to sea or buried in tsunami-like debris piles or buried in unmarked graves underneath sand dunes? If we had those visibly shocking bloated bodies floating in what were once yards and streets of post-Katrina New Orleans, maybe Anderson Cooper would focus a camera on one as he motored by embedded with SAR teams? 

Perhaps Ike chose to leave no bodies, at least none we can find at present. Maybe no floating corpses exist. Maybe they will never be found. 

Nevertheless, their story needs to be told. They must not be forgotten because I see no reports on national news about the Lost 400.  I hear no debated words condemning the continuing ignominious and ignoramusful response of the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to another natural disaster. That the Department of Homeland Security fails to make the disappearance of 400 US residents a top priority should send shivers of terror down our collective spines.

Unfortunately, these Lost 400 are invisible. No one talks about them on the network or cable news. Friends outside the area do not ask about the future of the Lost 400. That’s why I think we need to make a TV series about those still missing from Hurricane Ike. Let’s make it a sequel of the popular, Emmy-winning TV drama Lost.  We can call it Lost: The 400 about a bunch of people from all walks of life who, instead of crash landing in an airplane on a deserted island, are swept away from a populated island into parts unknown.

Maybe if we knew their names, faces, relationships, families, hopes and dreams as we do the fictional TV characters, the fan site blogs would pop up to help locate them, their plight would be discussed around water coolers at work, and the 24/7 TV news cycle would yak them up — of course, only as long as the ratings remain respectable.

© 2008 winkingbuddha.com

Enlighten Up, Already! River Oaks Update

Yesterday, I discussed the serious problems Houstonians face in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, specifically the endless wait for up to 500,000 customers to get any semblance of power restored.

After reading today’s Houston Chronicle, I realize that not only do the poor folks in Galveston and surrounding small towns suffer, but that Houston’s swankier residents also endured hardships due to this hurricane.

So, let me summarize two harrowing stories that appeared in today’s Houston Chronicle:

Ike’s Aftermath: Let Them eat…osso buco?

and Being Powerless Doesn’t Stop The Party

The rich are different from you and me. Their affluent abodes never take on affluence during storms. Many of Houston’s poshest pads accessorize their curbside appeal with invisible buried power lines invulnerable to tempests and the resulting inconvenience of blackouts.

However, some of the humbler River Oaks denizens found that Hurricane Ike failed to distinguish zip codes. Those whose electricity grows on tree poles evacuated to more welcoming climes, jetting to Paris, Aspen or New York (in summer, how gauche!). Those who lacked private aircraft sought out refuge in Four Seasons or Five Diamond lodgings around the Lone Star state. One socialite, already safely in Austin on “philanthropic business” found her suitcase(s) contained only “a cocktail dress, diamond earrings and running shorts and a t-shirt.” Hopefully, she also included some Jimmy Choos to complete that ensemble.

Houston’s movers and shakers weren’t spared moving and shaking from Hurricane Ike. The Houston Chronicle reports that “the prized Bentley of one major player was smashed by a tumbling tree.”

Thus, no one escapes hurricane or karmic forces. All are twisted in the enduring loop of samsara (suffering). Some of us just spend it shoveling sewage from our living rooms and others sweat over gala party rescheduling snafus at the toniest Tony’s restaurant.

Enlighten Up, Already!

 

Enlightenment leads Buddhists to Nirvana.  However, here in the post-Hurricane Ike Houston area more than one-half million of us wait not for enlightenment but for any sliver of illumination to lead us to the bathroom after sundown.

The Galveston area is without essential utilities such as electricity, potable water, sewage (except that which is in streets and homes). The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston’s largest medical facility as well as its largest employer, is shut, perhaps for months (I know, I tried unsuccessfully to get a prescription renewed from my doctor there). Texas A&M University’s marine branch will be land locked at College Station for at least a semester. Neighboring communities are in the same boat –literally with incongruous the sailing vessels in streets and yards.

In Houston, CenterPoint Energy, the regulated power company that handles power grids (or in our case, gridlocks), reports that more than 500,000 of residents are still without electricity, two weeks after Hurricane Ike attacked. According to a local TV report, CenterPoint may not have power restored to all its customers until November, so deep frying that Thanksgiving turkey outside may become a nutritional necessity rather than a Texas epicurean tradition.

By the way, CenterPoint Energy, one of the nation’s largest regulated energy utilities, is the step sibling of Reliant Energy, a deregulated electricity seller and wholesaler.  In other words, Reliant Energy is what you get when you flip your switch. CenterPoint gets Reliant Energy there. Therefore, I assume that neither Reliant Stadium — home of the Houston Texans so-called football team — nor Reliant Center — big profit-making convention center — both named for that unregulated power family ever worried about food rotting in their concession stands.

Zen teaches that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. However, in Houston the journey toward our post-Ike re-enlightment sometimes falls several steps behind.

Fractured trees abound in every Houston neighborhood. One clean-up team, pruning broken limbs to assist a CenterPoint fix-it crew, accidently severed a functional electric line. The hot wire fell on to the roof of a house which immediately caught fire, thus bringing long-lost illumination temporarily to the neighborhood until the fire department doused the blaze. On the plus side, that house escaped any storm surge flooding during Hurricane Ike.