A Partial Diary of the Collective Buddha

[Artur Ferreira da Silva]

At 15:47 07-05-2002 -0800, Julie Smith wrote:

>I can't concentrate on all the important things you had to say because
>I'm thinking about this:
>
> > PS: it's interesting that your adress is @mosquitonet. Do you know
>waht is
> > a "mosquito" in Portuguese?
>
>In Alaska, the mosquito is our most prevalent and most persistent
>pest.... we groan just THINKING about them....
>
>....hoping for a nicer definition from the Portuguese....

Hello Julie:

To answer you I have been obliged to consult my dictionaries... The point
is that I did not know that "mosquito" was used in English (and I also
didn't know that mosquitoes were a so big problem in Alaska - sorry about
that). And I still find strange that the word "mosquito" is used in English
with the same sense that here...

The point is that in Portuguese and Spanish the common word is "mosca"
(fly or flesh-fly) - and "moscas" are not kind, but are not a big problem. And
then "mosquito" is a diminutive to refer to a "small «mosca»". Except near
water,
we don't have many mosquitoes and they are not really a danger. They will only
bite you from time to time...

 From that we sometimes call "mosquito" to a person that is around you and
sometimes will "bite" your thoughts a little (like myself in this list or
even you
but in a different sense ;-)

The other point is how to react to "mosquitoes" (the real ones, not people
that act
like "mosquitoes"...). In the Occidental culture we will normally try to
kill the mosquitoes,
or at least that is not condemned.

In the Orient, and in Buddhism namely, as they believe in the
transmigration of
souls, one will not kill mosquitoes - or any other animal - because one
could be
killing is own grand-grand-father... Mosquitoes - as all the other forms of
life - are
respected - like the earth where they live. For sure, a Buddhist will never
bomb
any place where there is (always) life. And people that act like mosquitoes
are
also not in danger...

Also because of that, in Buddhism there is a clear sense of the wholeness (the
Earth and all animals) and that sense of wholeness has nothing to do
with any God. To respect life, to love any form of life, in the Orient
will not imply that one has a certain faith or believes in a creator.
That's why the
atheist Taoists can live quietly in the middle of the religious Buddhists.

And Buddhists, by the way, have many Gods for different purposes and not one
that regulates everything, judges you and if he finds you guilt will also
punhish
you - eventually with a cruel dead penalty like in the Old Testament,
unacceptable
in Buddhism for all animals and in many civilized countries in what refers
to humans.

Now, dear Julie, can you see why the Dalai Lama wrote that it is very
difficult for
a Christian to understand Buddhism (and vice-versa). But now you can also see
how, even in the Occident, there are major cultural differences between
countries,
and namely between Europe and America.

Things that are current in the USA - like the dead penalty, the use of arms
by non-militaries, the use of force and war to solve any international
problems -
and that were also accepted in Europe some centuries ago - are no longer
accepted in many European countries.

The world is not divided in a dualist way between "us" and the others - the
"otherness" refers to many different realities and all those realities are
"us"
to themselves.

Warm regards to all the "others" out there

Artur

PS: I am afraid that your "collective Christ" is much more heretic than
your "collective Buddha". After all, Buddha is not a God but only someone
that become enlightened -and that can happens to a collective as
well...

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html