WW: Compassion in the pit of Hell

(The world is still talking about the 40+ degree weather we on the North Coast experienced this week. I've lived places where that kind of heat wasn't unheard of, but to see it fry my green and temperate homeland was terrifying. [And uncomfortable; few homes here have air conditioners.]

The above photo was snapped beside a local bike path. It's a basin of water for the dogs that are often walked on this trail, presumably placed by the neighbour who lives behind the gate that's out of frame on the right.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

Our Worst Nightmare

This week I learned two things:

1. that something called "the Buddha-like mindset" is trending among young people in China and Japan, and
2. it's largely condemned

The phrase "Buddha-like mindset" – or Chinese and Japanese phrases so translated – refers to a tendency among those nations' youth to eschew lifestyles dedicated to amassing status symbols and winning the approval of others. It dovetails with a new tiger-free parental attitude that Simon Fraser anthro prof Jie Yang sums up as "there are not that many kids who will really amount to much, so why give them an exhausting childhood?"

Instead, these mostly male kids are said to grow up shiftless and solipsistic, never making it in the work world, devoting their lives instead to their hobbies, pets, and interests.

Most alarming to cultural gatekeepers, they're also swearing off women. Insofar as courtship is the most grueling of society's approval rackets, these young-to-middle-aged men buy back their sovereignty and peace of spirit by simply Bartlebying that mofo.

All of which is a precise description of me. Or has become, any road.

Of course, as Wikipedia points out, "Although it is inspired by the Buddhist guidance to become satisfied through giving up anything tied to avarice, it is not a Buddhist principle." It is, however, predicated on conventional Zen teaching. To wit, as another source in the WP article puts it: "It's OK to have, and it's OK not to have; no competition, no fight, no winning or losing."

But in fact, in a twist partly reminiscent of Western "lifestyle Buddhism", few adherents actually follow Buddha-like mindset into any spiritual practice. (China's Communist ruling class is turning back flips over it all the same, officially for ideological reasons, but more likely for political and economic ones.)

And really, in the end, it's not surprising that the lions of these Asian societies are greeting this improbable teenage fad with consternation.

Just imagine the atomic tantrums we'd pitch in the Christian West if our kids suddenly started emulating Christ.

While simultaneously rejecting the authority of the Church.

I dare to venture this would be the single worst nightmare we've ever faced.

(Photo courtesy of Ian Stauffer and Unsplash.com)

WW: Slime python

(This is Ariolimax columbianus, the Pacific banana slug. With a maximum length just south of ten inches, it's the second-largest slug species on the planet, though this individual is only about 7.)

Father's Day Meditation

"About the worst kind of person I can imagine is a man who's mean to his dog."

My dad.


(Photo courtesy of Fred Marriage and Wikimedia Commons.)

WW: Whelk eggs

(Almost certainly the invasive Ocinebrellus inornatus, or Japanese oyster drill. I'm told the pink ones have died before hatching.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

Good Cartoonist: The Naked Pastor

I'm just catching up with David Hayward, a cartoonist who has published under the provocative nom de guerre of The Naked Pastor for at least 10 years. His work, which draws on the inconsistencies of Christian practice, is refreshingly unblinking. It's also entirely transferable to Zen, and perhaps one or two other religions.

But what makes David's thoughts truly unique is his insight into the fundamental potholes encountered along everyone's road to enlightenment

Witness above illustration.

In this panel, ostensibly fingering Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church [godhatesfags.com - yes, really], we see a scowling human brandishing a sign that reads I HATE. Religious affiliation autocorrects this to GOD HATES, as indeed it always does, from which it's a short jump to GOD HATES FAGS, because malevolence can't exist without a target.

Ha-ha! Take that, Christians!

But wait… We're not done?

Nope. Could the sign now – just two hops in – say GOD HATES FRED PHELPS? Why yes, it seems to. And in case we thought we'd found a back-door out of this embarrassing development – maybe God just hates Fred Phelps because Fred promotes self-righteous Christianity – nope again. GOD HATES FRED PHELPS WHO HATES FAGS.

Well, crap. Turns out we (I mean God) hate Fred Phelps only because Fred annoys us. Now see here, sign person! You're clearly part of that big ill-defined group of people who are destroying humanity and making these the most immoral times in all history, from which we can never be saved!

Which is apparently exactly the case, because now we're carrying a sign that says GOD HATES EVERYONE. (Hold up… how did we end up carrying the sign?? I thought this was about Christians!)

OK, we've done it now. Unless we're psychopaths we can't help but realise, whether we admit it or not, that going around with a metaphorical bomb vest on is the off-ramp to Hell. And that means, of course, that GOD HATES ME.

Which, since those two are really the same person, means I HATE MYSELF.

Basically, that's all I am now: I HATE.

That is, GOD HATES.

And now He needs someone to hate. Let's see who's available…

And you're going to keep going around and around like that until you get down off the basswood horse and step off the carousel. Simply changing horses won't do it, nor will riding on the parental benches. (Side note: are there still carousels out there, with gilt and mirrors and calliopes and parental benches? Or are they all passed on to the Allegorical Hereafter?)

It's these cartoons that raise David above other internal critics of hypocritical churchmanship. Aside from the fact that most of his Jesus cartoons work just fine if you make them Buddha cartoons, he occasionally reminds us outright that he's not necessarily talking about Christians at all.

Which probably means that at this very minute one of us is out there printing GOD HATES DAVID HAYWARD on a sign.


(Cartoon from Feedly.)

WW: Memorial

(This rhododendron grows just outside my mother's kitchen window. Since she moved here 6 years ago it has never bloomed – a fact she drew to my attention just last year.

But this spring it brought on four small white blossoms [one of them out of frame]. Rhododendrons grow riotously on the North Coast, and there are a great many of every colour in this neighbourhood, including the stunning pink native ones. But white heads are rarest. Especially such delicate ones.

As you can tell by its sallow leaves this plant isn't happy, which is undoubtedly why it hasn't bloomed before. I don't know what's bothering it – several other rhododendrons in the immediate vicinity are doing great – but when the bloom falls I'll feed it and see if that helps.

As my mom died three months ago, I'm especially drawn to these timid white blossoms – the colour of mourning in Japan.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

Shells

the world is my cloister
except when it's my oyster
for then I cannot roister
because it's so much moister


(Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com and a generous photographer.)

WW: Bike in the jungle

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.