After 12 years as a tech support specialist for an Internet Service
Provider, I can say that yes it is difficult to communicate via email in a
manner that won't offend someone out there, especially when "communicating"
to a large group of people, as on a mailing list like this one.
As someone who comes from both a tech background (my father is a rocket
scientist with NASA) and a southern gothic background (my mother sat with
Clark Gable at the opening night of "Gone With the Wind") I have been amused
by the recent spate of "techno vs. spiritual" postings.... recognizing them
a greatly similar to some of the discussions over the lace tablecloth of the
dinner table as I grew up. Personally I resolved the issue by seeing ghosts
in every material object... but that is my own weirdness...
The one solution I have found over the years is a well-developed sense of
humor.... punctuated in my emails by a lot of "smilies"... ;*} (<===sinister
smiley with a wink in this case)... I can't take myself or anyone else too
seriously. Thoughts and ideas just clouds passing swiftly over the vast sky
of consciousness.
I suppose that is what drew me to Ch'an/Zen in the first place: all those
old Chinese jokes in the form of KOAN collections...
Now, as a Zen practitioner in Arizona, I wear a cowboy hat and sing "home on
the range".... instead of a six-shooter (as many people still do around
here!) I carry a shakuhachi around, what could be funnier/sillier than that?
(of course the shak was originally as much a weapon as a musical instrument
for some of the kumoso monks... "speak softly and carry a big stick indeed!)
Repeat after me: the great mantra that cures all suffering:
HA HA HA!!!!
Have fun everyone!
Brett Breitwieser (brett@bigskyranch.us)
Big Sky Ranch of Arizuma: http://bigskyranch.us <http://bigskyranch.us>
Pahana's Pithouse: http://pahana.us <http://pahana.us>
Solar Station: http://solarstation.us
"Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,
and the deer and the antelope play.
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
and the skies are not cloudy all day..."
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 06 2004 - 14:09:35 PST