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zyzylyAfter our walk and lunch today, we drove into the Fruitridge area so Malida could stop at the Laotian food store there. They have all sorts of things she likes, and she stocks up.
A friend of mine used to live not too far from there. He was a quiet guy named Fernando. He hardly ever said anything, but one night when I was driving him home, he said, "If you see Buddha in the road, run him down." I didn't know what he meant, and asked him to explain, but he didn't. A few years later I saw that he had died young--in his 30s.
This was before Google, so If I wanted to find out more, I would have had to research it the old-fashioned way. Which I didn't do. But I did remember it. During my theological studies, years later, I took a course on Christian mysticism and read a book called "The Cloud of Unknowing". The take-away for me at the time was, if you think you understand God, then you don't understand God. As I pondered that, I came to understand what Fernando meant, although I'm not so sure he understood it. It might have just been something mysterious to say.
In any case, I though of him today as I drove down Fruitridge Blvd.
I got a new iPhone yesterday. My old phone was on its last legs and was sucking up data. I got the iPhone 6. It has an interesting feature that recognizes your fingerprint when you press the button, so it knows it's you. The sales guy was having trouble getting it to start up for me, and told me to try it when I got home. I did, and it didn't, so I called support, who told me I had to take it to the Apple store. She suggested that I do a restore first. I did, and now the phone doesn't work at all. Neat.
Three words I use every day:
1. Okay
2. Coffee
3. So
I know, not very creative.
The other thing I bought yesterday was one of those fitness bands that measures how many steps you take every day and so on. If my phone worked, it would synch with the phone to keep track of what I do everyday. I have become so sedentary and overweight that I feel like I am moving toward the point where I won't be able to turn it around. We walk about 3 days a week, but our walks have been shrinking in size lately.
So I bought this thing thinking it would motivate me to do more, and would give me a better sense of what I am doing currently. We took a walk this morning, and I thought we went pretty far, but it was only 3500 steps, which was less than half of what the thing suggested as a goal (and in this very moment I decide I would always call it "the thing").
Later in the afternoon, the screen of the thing turned red, because I was just sitting there. I told Malida I was going out to walk some more. She noted that she always suggests I go out to walk, and wondered why I don't listen to her but will listen to a black plastic thing. haha! Anyway, I went out and knocked out the rest of the steps for my daily goal.
Motivation on the walking path.
A friend of mine used to live not too far from there. He was a quiet guy named Fernando. He hardly ever said anything, but one night when I was driving him home, he said, "If you see Buddha in the road, run him down." I didn't know what he meant, and asked him to explain, but he didn't. A few years later I saw that he had died young--in his 30s.
This was before Google, so If I wanted to find out more, I would have had to research it the old-fashioned way. Which I didn't do. But I did remember it. During my theological studies, years later, I took a course on Christian mysticism and read a book called "The Cloud of Unknowing". The take-away for me at the time was, if you think you understand God, then you don't understand God. As I pondered that, I came to understand what Fernando meant, although I'm not so sure he understood it. It might have just been something mysterious to say.
In any case, I though of him today as I drove down Fruitridge Blvd.
I got a new iPhone yesterday. My old phone was on its last legs and was sucking up data. I got the iPhone 6. It has an interesting feature that recognizes your fingerprint when you press the button, so it knows it's you. The sales guy was having trouble getting it to start up for me, and told me to try it when I got home. I did, and it didn't, so I called support, who told me I had to take it to the Apple store. She suggested that I do a restore first. I did, and now the phone doesn't work at all. Neat.
Three words I use every day:
1. Okay
2. Coffee
3. So
I know, not very creative.
The other thing I bought yesterday was one of those fitness bands that measures how many steps you take every day and so on. If my phone worked, it would synch with the phone to keep track of what I do everyday. I have become so sedentary and overweight that I feel like I am moving toward the point where I won't be able to turn it around. We walk about 3 days a week, but our walks have been shrinking in size lately.
So I bought this thing thinking it would motivate me to do more, and would give me a better sense of what I am doing currently. We took a walk this morning, and I thought we went pretty far, but it was only 3500 steps, which was less than half of what the thing suggested as a goal (and in this very moment I decide I would always call it "the thing").
Later in the afternoon, the screen of the thing turned red, because I was just sitting there. I told Malida I was going out to walk some more. She noted that she always suggests I go out to walk, and wondered why I don't listen to her but will listen to a black plastic thing. haha! Anyway, I went out and knocked out the rest of the steps for my daily goal.
Motivation on the walking path.
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no subject
Date: 2015-01-19 04:41 am (UTC)And personally, I think the fingerprint feature is obnoxious.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-19 05:22 am (UTC)That's good to know about the fingerprint feature, but I think the phone is a dud anyway.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-19 05:23 am (UTC)Wikipedia's version is reasonably good:
Killing the Buddha[edit]
If you meet the Buddha, kill him. (逢佛殺佛)
—Linji
Thinking about the Buddha as an entity or deity is delusion, not awakening. One must destroy the preconception of the Buddha as separate and external before one can become internally as their own Buddha. Zen master Shunryu Suzuki wrote in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind during an introduction to Zazen,
Kill the Buddha if the Buddha exists somewhere else. Kill the Buddha, because you should resume your own Buddha nature.
One is only able to see a Buddha as he exists in separation from Buddha, the mind of the practitioner is thus still holding onto apparent duality.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-19 05:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-19 03:09 pm (UTC)Randomdreams explained the Buddha statement. It would have bugged me at the time until I found out what he meant.
Glad you are walking. I need to do that(without the dog, she's a sniffer).
no subject
Date: 2015-01-19 05:11 pm (UTC)Meanwhile I mostly wonder if I would really use it or just another thing I'd have on my wrist/body.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-20 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-20 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-20 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-20 03:57 am (UTC)He may not have known or understood what it meant, either.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-20 04:39 am (UTC)It's on his bookshelf now. We didn't run him over.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-20 04:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-21 07:41 am (UTC)I remember learning the expression in school, but I didn't realise until now that it was actually from a koan.