A free online version: http://www.thedevilsdictionary.com/
On 6/24/2012 12:34 AM, Joe wrote:
Thank you! There are many "keepers" in there. I think you are someone who would like Ambrose Bierce's THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY, compiled about 1912 of serialized installments in newspapers of the time. He works his way through the alphabet and defines words as he sees them, using lots of wit and humorous supposed "quotations" from authorities, who, and which, he makes up. Dover has a copy for a dollar or two US, as I mentioned to Kris the other day (he obviously has a copy, because he quoted me right back a "definition" from there). You might also find it in its entirety online, although I don't think the book is in the public domain without copyright. Amazon prob. has a Kindle copy, if you have the free Kindle software on your PC, or own the tablet device. Anyway, I really recommend that little book. I can say it has grown on me, too, with the decades. And it continues to entertain. Just open it anywhere. To keep this post on-topic in a Zen forum, I'll quote one of Bierce's definitions from the book: "Nirvana, n. In the Buddhist religion, a pleasurable state of annihilation awarded to the wise, particularly to those wise enough to understand it." I don't think the translations of the Sutras were very good back then. And, almost no one had heard of "Zen" before D. T. Suzuki's ESSAYS began to popularize it in 1949 and afterwards. --Joe > Merle Lester <merlewiitpom@...> wrote: > Some really great thoughts here....
