A Tit for a Tat (30)

Tit: Where did he go?
Tat: Thailand.
Tit: What for?
Tat: A fishing vacation.
Tit: And he considers himself a devout Buddhist?
Tat: (Shrugs) He ought to visit www.fishinghurts.com
Tit: And he should ask his Buddhist teacher if the Buddha ever fished!
Tat: Hah! Imagine the Buddha relishing at a tug at his line! How un-Buddha-ly! How un-Buddhist!  

Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/07/whos-who

A Tit for a Tat (29)

Tit: Is that who I think it is?
Tat: Who? Where?
Tit: (Pointing at someone in a crowd) That person!
Tat: I don’t know who I’m supposed to look for, and who ‘that person’ is supposed to look like! Everyone in the crowd looks like someone else!

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/07/a-fishing-buddhist
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/07/pain-of-vanity

A Tit for a Tat (28)

Tit: It’s good to be tall because there would be no need to wear high heels (to look taller).
Tat: It’s not good to be tall because there would be less opportunity to wear high heels (or one might look too tall).
Tit: But don’t you know it’s painful to wear high heels?
Tat: But don’t you know there’s no real need to wear high heels?

Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/07/are-you-eating-impure-meat

A Tit for a Tat (27)

Tit: Hey, you’re eating meat?
Tat: Well, it’s ‘pure meat’.
Tit: What do you mean?
Tat: Meat that is permissible by the Buddha’s guidelines, that I didn’t see, hear or suspect to be from animals killed for me.
Tit: Where did you get it from? Random alms food?
Tat: The fast food restaurant.
Tit: Okay, you definitely didn’t see or hear any animal killed for you.
Tat: Of course I didn’t!
Tit: But don’t you suspect some animals were killed for you?
Tat: Well, I didn’t ask for any animals to be killed for me.
Tit: Who were they killed for then? Not me for sure – because I’m vegan.
Tat: Er… they were killed for meat-buyers.
Tit: Doesn’t that include you?
Tat: Er… yes, but I really didn’t ask for any animals to be killed for me.
Tit: Who asked? Not me for sure – because I’m vegan.
Tat: Er…
Tit: Someone has to demand them to be killed.
Tat: Er… meat-buyers I guess… collectively, by their buying.
Tit: If so, you can’t say you don’t suspect animals to be killed for you, even if it’s indirectly!
Tat: Gasp!
Tit: Your impure meat was defiled by denying the truth that you support the demand of killing!
Tat: Argh!

Related Article:
The Invisible Conveyor Belt of Meat & Murder: http://4ui.com/eart/214eart1.htm

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/07/pain-of-vanity
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/we-are-abnormal

On the hottest day
At the busiest hour
With the tightest jeans
And the darkest top
In the crowdiest train
With the stuffiest air-con
Moving at the slowest speed
Flanked by the smelliest

Waiting for the lengthiest time for a seat
Before getting the warmest one
Which took the longest time to cool
Only to reach the destination in the shortest span
Out of the crampiest station
On the busiest street
Entering the dirtiest lift
But finally up to the coziest apartment

The grumpiest person for the last half hour
Who couldn’t escape the slightest suffering that karma intended
What did this person do to deserve this
That s/he hadn’t the faintest idea of?
If only the mind was at its strongest when it was most needed
Not aware enough of mind games played on oneself
S/he had yet again fallen for its trickiest trick
Of losing mindfulness

On some days, I discover small snacks or Buddhist mementos on my work desk. And I would know that some colleague(s) have gone on a trip somewhere, and returned with some souvenirs to share, putting these little treats on the desks of all colleagues the day before – on my day off. And I wouldn’t know who to thank most of the time. The best I can do with the sense of gratitude that bubbles up to the surface is to let it manifest as smiles to as many colleagues as I can when I bump into them later. The giver could be any one of them! The problem is, this sense of gratefulness tends to wear out in time… before the next phantom giver strikes, reminding me of the gratitude I should have.

If you reflect mindfully, whether you recognise it or not, we live in a world of invisible givers. That we thrive at all is dependent on an unseen network of givers – service providers and goods manufacturers whom we seldom get to see and acknowledge with thanks in person. When was the last time you felt gratitude for the newspaper deliveryman, the recyclables collector, the faceless writers of your favourite columns… ? Since we do not know who these unseen folks are, while we really owe one another for all kinds od acts of kindness, it makes perfect sense to be kind in return to as many as we can. This is the rationale for practising universal compassion, as reflected in the last catch-all aspect of the Fourfold Gratitude (parents, society, Triple Gem and ‘all sentient beings’). Hey, even an ant could have been a dear benefactor in a past life!

What do I do when I receive an anonymous gift on my desk? I re-gift it anonymously to another colleague, who might appreciate more of what he or she got. May it be a nice bonus surprise added to one they already received. Who knows? The recipient might be the giver! What goes around comes around, and gifts can karmically grow too. We are all givers and re-gifters in this web of life… but mostly invisible ones. But do let the gratitude be as visible as possible, to substantially show. One good turn deserves another… and another! Just as we receive kindness via the web of life, may we radiate viral webs of kindness in return.

Related Articles:
A Random Act of Toilet Kindness
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thedailyenlightenment-realisation/message/198
Do We Really Give Any Gifts?
http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/do-you-really-give-any-gifts

A Tit for a Tat (26)

Tit: In case you don’t know, he’s not ‘normal’, in the sense that he suffers from a mental disorder.
Tat: I see… that explains some of his less than normal behaviour.
Tit: Do be more patient than normal with him.
Tat: Yes, it’s would only be normal for me to be so, since he is just being ‘normal’ in his own way.
Tit: Well, as long as we are not yet fully enlightened, we are all abnormal in some way.

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/07/are-you-eating-impure-meat
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/unnecessary-distraction

‘Who Is It?’ is one of Michael Jackson’s lesser known hits. With news of his tragic early demise, the song suddenly came to mind. It’s the song I would remember MJ by, because I often wondered who the shapeshifting and occasionally physically veiled MJ really was, just as he wonders who the girl he’s with really is in the song’s video. Perhaps as an unintended and thus ironic parallel, the girl continually changes her appearance in secret, just as MJ is believed by many to have done.

MJ in the video has quiet despair over realising he doesn’t really know who his lover is. Maybe this mirrors his existential crisis over how he’s supposed to look like outside and be inside? The girl in the video changes her name many times too. In Buddhism, we speak of name and form, which represents mind and matter – that mentally conceived and that materially existing – both of which are in constant change. Perhaps MJ needed to make peace with change, without being fixated too much on anything, be it his body or his experiences. There is no fixed self anyway; just free and open Buddha-nature that’s always there.

In the video of his more famous songs, ‘Black or White’, which was launched shortly after his complexion ’suddenly’ became fair, we see many ‘colourful’ shapeshifting faces, which morph into one after another. (See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkXzy1b7Rhc) Perhaps this reflected MJ’s open acceptance of people of all appearances (or races and cultures) while he found it hard to accept any one of his own faces for good? Sadly, I think MJ was too attached to ‘perfecting’ his form, while his worldwide fans never really found his looks unacceptable in the first place. And it was he who sang thus…

I said if  you’re thinkin’ of being my baby
it don’t matter if you’re black or white
I said if  you’re thinkin’ of being my brother
it don’t matter if you’re black or white

I tweeted this the other day – ‘Leaving his illusory Never Never Land, may the King of Pop reach Pure Land (or at least get closer). Amituofo!’ May he discover his Buddha-nature soon, that beyond name and form, that beyond change.

A Tit for a Tat (25)

Tit: The guy behind is giving unneeded commentary on the movie to his friend!
Tat: If it’s unneeded, there’s no need for you to listen. Just be mindful of the movie!
Tit: He’s not doing justice to other movie-goers by distracting them!
Tat: You’re not doing justice to the movie by being distracted by him!
Tit: But what he’s doing is really wrong!
Tat: If so, it would be really right for you to tell him off!
Tit: Why don’t you tell him off instead?
Tat: Shhh… I’m not distracted by him; you are.  Now stop distracting me from the movie!

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/we-are-abnormal
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/problems-with-generalisation

A Tit for a Tat (24)

Tit: You never listen!
Tat: Never?
Tit: Never!
Tat: Not even now?

- Silence -

Tit: It’s not that you never listen, but you never listen enough!
Tat: Never?
Tit: Never!
Tat: Not even now?

Next aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/unnecessary-distraction
Previous aT4aT: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/06/procrastination-of-happiness-with-attachment