Cartoon of the Day

For the life of me, I don't see how any decent person can vote Republican anymore.

Zen and the Art of Landscape

Not much to say about this. Take a look here for a brief introduction of Zen gardening in the person of Zen priest Shunmyo Masuno. I'd like to make this a continuing project of this blog, occasionally posting pictures of beautiful landscapes infused, consciously or not, with the Zen Buddhist sensibility.

Letting Go of the Past

A hard, but necessary, thing to do for awakening to occur. A story:

     Two Zen monks, Tanzan Ekido, who were walking along a country road that had become extremely muddy after heavy rains. Near a village, they came upon a young woman who was trying to cross the road, but the mud was so deep it would have ruined the silk kimono she was wearing. Tanzan at once picked her up and carried her to the other side.
     The monks walked on in silence. Five hours later, as they were approaching the lodging temple, Ekido couldn't restrain himself any longer. "Why did you carry that girl across the road?" he asked. "We monks are not supposed to do things like that."
     "I put the girl down hours ago," Tanzan replied." Are you still carrying her?"

This is akin to Buddha's comment, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." Why carry the burden of anger, judgement, resentment, fear, etc. around like the woman Ekido carried around in his mind long after Tanzan had put her down? I resolve to ferret out these burdens, these hot coals, and let them drop.

Hot Man of the Day

Palin

So the wicked witch of the north finally gave in to reality and declared her non-candidacy of prez. I think we really dodged a bullet here. What could have been worse than months of her narcissistic, extremist, whiny, bullshit? I can't recall anyone who was less qualified to be president (well, maybe Pat Robertson). Good riddance!

Recruitment?

A collection of suggestive recruitment posters from the past. Sure, they weren't consciously gay, but they certainly contain a real undertone that I'm sure was picked up by gays at the time. I'm reminded of E.M. Forster's discussion of this topic, where gays have a secret understanding of the world - both the surface and the hidden, gay sensibility.  Check it out.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

So it's a rainy day and I'm on a classic music kick. Here's a mash-up I came across on YouTube. Enjoy!