Good man, Vaj.
Vajradhara said:
Namaste Su,
are you one of those folks that believes that everyone is endowed with the same capacity for reason? common sense isn't nearly as common as it would appear to be
besides... why does something have to be "earth shaking" to be said by someone like the Dalai Lama?
LOL... yep.. just toss away the entire thing
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
that makes as much sense as a bag of hammers! he has a job, by the way, as the head of the government in exile. of course.. you also think that he should just go back to Tibet and procreate, raise cattle and other things which baffle me. why is it so hard for you to accept that some people are spiritual by nature and choose to live the life of a monk or nun? do you adovcate that the Pope go back to Poland, get a job and a wife and have some kids? do you see nothing of value in the traditions that these two people belong to?
as i've said before on this topic, you and i have fundamentally opposed points of view and i do not believe that we can reconcile them.
Good man, Vaj. Buddha bless you. (There are Buddhists using that invocation.)
I have to disagree with you again, that we can't dialogue. Well, perhaps not in those things you think you can't dialogue with me on.
But, good man, Vaj, in this vast universe of ideas and mental preferences, there are almost still infinite things we can dialogue on.
Like, how's your plan of making enough money so that you can set up a monastery for a community of monks where you would apply on retirement to live a reclusive life in the grounds of the monastery?
Getting anywhere yet?
If you can't dialogue with me on this matter which you mentioned somewhere else, namely, your retirement plans, then I am not sure that you are the good man you are for being a Buddhist.
We are all here using incognito names, but can't avoid getting personal even if we want to. But such is human contact, give a minute with a guy, and you and he become a community, and I mean a community, with emphasis on
commun.
That's why if Bush and Bin Laden get together and live in the same hole for a week, without any possibility of killing off each other -- I think Bin Laden can kill with his bare hands, but I don't know about Bush, he's more the talking kind than the real doing kind; I am sure they will get along pretty well, and figure out a way to get both their followers from on the one side committing terrorism and on the other side giving all the reasons why, vis-a-vis each other.
Here is an idea I have for you, another one, about retirement plans and prospects of taking up eremitic existence outside on the grounds of a Buddhist monastery.
I got a friend here who with a number of moneyed people are now in the process of building a columbarium, a new structure in our place. So he asked me to get a space or a cubbyhole for myself there. I said I have already bought my cemeterial lot from another memorial plan set-up.
My point is that even in the midst of the city with all its hustle and bustle, there is still the peace of the cemetery, there in a columbarium.
No need to retreat to the grounds of a monastery, Vaj. Hang around in the city, just make your home into some kind of a columbarium. You can still have all the peace, and quiet, and solitude of the forest or desert, and be a testimony to anyone and everyone who wants to learn from your school of Buddhism, if and when you want to allow yourself contacts with the outside world. Convenient for all of us.
And remember, Vaj, you have a treasury of learning which can profit a lot of people, like yours truly. Make yourself available to others, that's one way of doing the ministry of Buddha: to relieve the sufferings of mankind.
Susma Rio Sep