Hi Dan,
Of all the stories I've ever read, and of all the words on philosophy (ZMM &
LILA excluded of course) I've tried to decipher, and of all the books
explaining Buddhism I've ever tried to interpret, your story of the misspelled
sign is my all-time favorite. It still comes to mind and makes me laugh.
Laugh at myself of course. Probably not often enough. It is a gem!!! Puts
everything into perspective. I'm laughing now at just the thought of it...
For those of you who missed it:
------(cut - paste)-------
From: Dan Glover <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 02:01:51 -0500
Subject: Re: [MD] (no subject)
Driving down the road one day, in a hurry as usual, I caught sight of a sign
just as I passed it. Curious, I made a u-turn and went back. The sign said:
Buddist Temple and just below that was a little hand-painted note that said:
All Are Welcome. So I drove into the compound. I parked the car in the parking
lot and walked into the temple.
Your sign is misspelled, I told the young man at the counter. He laughed a loud
belly laugh. I thought maybe he hadn't understood me. I explained that there
should be an "h" in Buddhist. He laughed again, this time falling to the floor
and rolling around as he grabbed his sides with his hands as if his ribs hurt
from laughing so hard.
About this time an older man appeared from behind some curtains, apparently
drawn by the laughter. Thinking that the older man was in charge, I approached
him. He wore a long orange robe and he looked quite regal from a distance but
as he got closer I could see many tattered rips in his robe that had been
carefully repaired and I could see his nose hair needed trimming. The man
looked very old.
Hey mister, I said, I thought you should know that your sign out on the road is
misspelled. It should read B-U-D-D-H-I-S-T, not Buddist. He looked at me a long
time without saying a word. I thought perhaps he didn't speak English. I looked
over my shoulder for the younger man who could perhaps translate for me but he
had disappeared.
When I looked back towards the old man, he had turned around and was walking
back through the curtain from where he'd first appeared. He waved a hand over
his shoulder as if motioning me to follow. So I did. We walked down a long
hallway, made a turn to the left, and then a turn to the right, and emerged
outside close to where I parked. The old man motioned me to get in my car, so I
did. Then he waved goodbye. So I drove off.
On my way out of the compound, I stopped, pulled down the Buddist Temple sign,
and threw it in the weeds that grew by the road.
___
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