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e-Buddha for e-Angel
by Cecilia Yu

This month of "e-buddha for e-angel", Angel was confronted with a series of 11th century Tibetan buddhist teachings which made her finely layered, slightly wavy but no-artificial-chemical-added hair, ripped-curled in disgust.

Angel wrote an email to her e-guru. Lawrence Goldchaser is the translator to Angel's e-Buddha. He was a former taxation lawyer and a veritable US of A Trustafarian, who saw the light and discovered the wealth he could accumulate by copyrighting all of eBuddha's teachings to his own name!

Dear E-buddha,

I know that perhaps I was not exactly practising "love" or "Compassion" when I punched out Lawrence Goldchaser but honestly he really is the colour of Green copyright nose snot! Your wonderful teachings just deserves to be available to every human being and no human being should have to suffer the experience of asking Evil Satan Goldchaser, before they are allowed to photocopy 1 page of your genuine words of wisdom!

If I was Catholic, Goldchaser would be the absolute unequivocal proof that Satan was here on earth and doing good work ! Oh, e-buddha, Lawrence used to go to the Republican convention every year to swap "Knock-knock jokes" with like-minded individuals! He copyrights your teachings on wisdom, vastness of space and the importance of generosity with his logo: (c) Lawrence "mine,mine,mine" Goldchaser!

Sorry, I know we are suppose to care about "republicans and taxation lawyers too" but hey, this guy is not exactly my idea of a cute Teddy bear that an ex-boyfriend might, on occassion, buy me to say "Sorry". Well, shortly after I have thrown them out of his home, confiscated his entire DVD collections, added interest and inflation on his half of the phone bill he owed me, and speed-dialed my lawyer to get an intervention& restraining order to forbid his collections of 80's red-braces and mal-tailored suits from coming anywhere near 10km radius of my home or anywhere i might be !

I am in Kathmandu, being my usual self and going to Buddhism class everyday. I hope you are well teaching all around the world, e-Buddha.

The puppy I was playing with at the village, died 2 days ago! This world is unfair!I got up to go to class and discovered a whole 25 verses of Buddist texts about women being "sluts & dirty"! I had a fit and have changed every single word in those text, in protest ! OOps!

The Head Monk said that it is suppose to free one from the attachment to the body but also not fall into the extremes of forgetting the purity of the divine body blah, blah, blah....there was something about the fact that at the time the ancient text was written with monks in mind and to curb them from their own desires! BLah.

I said," But there are no monks here in this classroom and there are 50/50 men & women! Look, that pregnant mother-to-be does not wish to be called a "slut" by default & implications!" Then he said,"Yes, that is true. I do not think this is about putting women down but it is what the text says. Well the important thing is to remember that we are looking at our own body as impure to alleviate attachment and desire and then we look at the bodies of others to be the same as us, human and suffering. Also we should not forget the purity of the divine body."

.....so I've just inserted the names of Lawrence Goldchaser in place of the bit where they go "women are filthy etc..."

I just go "Goldchaser (the spawn of satan) & some of my ex-boyfriends are filthy etc..."

If monks can project onto women in order to meditate on their own bodily impurity and suffering from desire, I think its okay for me to project onto evil Goldchaser! :-) I am just following their logic! Wouldn't it be nice if monks just didn't project onto women's body in order to curb their own desires? Then there would be no "filthy women verses" at all! Though, perhaps "Lawrence" , might still be....evil?

Well. Please pray for puppy! I am deeply annoyed by the injustice of one innocent puppy dying for no reason while Goldchaser is still copyrighting "Buddhism" at various elite, Republican get-togethers.

YEs, I know, love and compassion, even for Republican tax lawyers.:-) I will try to meditate on that, I promise, theoretically, even Lawrence have the nature of Peace, which is Buddha nature! But you know, that is very hard to see when he frequently says things like,"I don't give money to that (poor, beggar woman in Nepal) because I do not like her demeanor!" WEll, that would teach her to be "poor", "a woman", a "beggar" & Nepali! How dare she offend MR Goldchaser! tut..tut!

Yes, I know...love and compassion....love and compassion...

The Stupa is beautiful though and they've been lighting candles on it everynight this week!

Hope you are well, and teaching. That's all the news in Nepal, apart from the fact that this year, Pashmina patterns come in beautiful silk Red & Gold Paisley designs and oh, the Nepali Parliament has been disbanded and no one can agree about what to do next! And the chinese channels are the number one most popular channel on Cable TV and Nepal seems to be quite happy with the Chinese... lucky I am chinese and love red & gold paisley pashmina scarf then!

Thank you for being my teacher through good and bad, love & hatred, pain and happiness etc.. e-Angel.

General Background: Angel is a chinese "Bridgette Jones" style character on a Buddhist PHilosophy trip, following a Tibetan guru for. "E-Buddha" is a collection of her emails, compiled from all the myriads of adventures and misadventures Angel encounters, jumping from London to Kathmandu to India to San francisco etc. Most of all its about Angel's experience of friendship with people in a world where 11th century Tibetan style male institution hierachy still prevails meets western excesses. " Along the way, she deals with everything from bad fashion, silk brocades, riots in Kathmadnu, amoebic dysentry all the way to Tantric sexual harassment; with incisive humour and an uncompromising modern pragmatism.
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Musings
 
 

Art is not so much expressing oneself, as it is discovering oneself.
- Anawanitia

The only thing better than singing is more singing.
- Ella Fitzgerald

Stop. Breathe. Allow yourself the luxury of doing nothing for a moment, or an hour, or even a day. It is in emptiness that inspiration will appear.
- Carole Katchen

I don't see why we ever think of what others think of what we do - no matter who they are. Isn't it enough just to express yourself?
- Georgia O'Keeffe

AFFIRMATION GALLERY



Art Editor,
Meggie Pina,
shares her art & Inspiration in her Affirmation Gallery

     
Poetry

Fried Sugar Throat

Peel me like a pear
I don't care
wear me anyway you want
as long as I'm soft
drawn open
a fried sugar throat
a resting bone
breath like strawberry
and a sore sore throat
so sore I rub it
I love it

Do whatever you want
I don't care
as long as I'm soft
tasting tangerine
caught like a thief
whispering vines
in between teeth

My hands wander
my eyes wander
my heart wanders
I'm fine as long as you
let me go on about with
this sweetness
a fried sugar throat
going sweeter
with every turn

Peel me like a pear
I don't care
spin me round
see what you create
little jewel box handler
wear me anyway you want
I don't care
as long as I'm soft
sore and sweet.

by Catherine De Gear

 
     
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