The Kawasakis gave a dharne (feeding monastics) yesterday to dispel the bad luck of Friday the 13th. There were 6 monks and 3 nuns and us. Thankfully, the chanting was relatively brief. The big highlight was that there was a monk from Bhutan. I have never met a Bhutanese before. He was lovely and very tall. The really big treat was that he did a bit of chanting in Bhutanese. I have never heard it spoken. It sounds a little like some Chinese dialect, but very different at the same time.
Had a very interesting discussion with Weston, an American here doing his masters in Buddhist studies. We started with my saying how uncomfortable I am around most monks and how the ritual and trappings seem to have buried the belief and how misogynistic Buddhism has become. We ended up by trying to identify if human beings have a natural moral compass or if the compass is established by the society we live in. The old nature or nurture argument but as applied to metaphysics. Nice to be able to exercise my mental muscles for a change.
No comments:
Post a Comment