I will never forget that solemn half-day of walking around commando in a saffron robe.
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
I will never forget that solemn half-day of walking around commando in a saffron robe.
Stately and dignified presence, for sure! And with your head shaven, I can see a lot of my father’s “look” in you when he was acting in those old TV series and movies! Cool!
I don’t know why Korean Buddhists say this, but “May you attain Buddhahood” is a common valediction at Korean temples. The reason I don’t know why Korean Buddhists say this is that, in Mahayana Buddhism, you’ve already attained Buddhahood, like it or not: you already fully participate in reality. That’s the great Mahayana insight: nirvana is samsara: perfection is incarnated in the imperfect, right this moment, so really, there’s nothing to attain. This is classic Heart Sutra stuff.
I may have asked you this before, but I’m old and senile, and I repeat myself: what’s it been like to switch from a Mahayana country like Japan to a Theravada/Hinayana* country like Thailand? Am I right in assuming you weren’t a practicing Buddhist in Japan? Does Thai Buddhism tend to draw you in more—get you more involved in the religious goings-on? And if this is so, do you feel yourself becoming more explicitly Buddhist in a way that you might not have been while in Japan?
I’ve heard rumors that there’s something warmer and more inviting about Theravada, both as a practice and as a community. Robert Buswell, one of the foremost Western exponents of Korean Mahayana (specifically, Seon/Zen) Buddhism, started off in the Thai tradition and still says he considers himself “a closet Theravadin.”
On a more practical note, I hope you’ll enjoy your head’s newfound aerodynamic properties while you can.
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*Many argue that “Hinayana” is a derogatory term used by Mahayana adherents. This isn’t necessarily so if the “vehicle” metaphor is properly understood. I think part of the problem may actually be the awkward English translation of Hinayana as “Lesser Vehicle,” which does sound derogatory, no two ways about it, especially when compared to Mahayana, i.e., the Greater Vehicle. But “Big Raft” and “Little Raft”—those terms sound more apropos. The rafts may be different in size, but they’re also different in design and purpose, neither one being better or worse than the other.