Tuesday, August 21, 2007
How to Stop Reincarnation
Chinese leaders are not what they were. In the good old days Mao Tse-Tung would happily starve millions to death in order to pay for his nuclear programme and organise the murder of intellectuals by head-stamping in Tiananmen Square. But, these days, the tyrannical fire barely smoulders in their breasts. They can't even organise a good religious persecution without the whole thing descending into farce. The Party bosses, for example, have just banned Buddhist monks from reincarnating in Tibet, this is, apparently 'an important move to institutionalise management of reincarnation.' Can't they see how stupid this is? The monks are obviously just going to sneak out and, like everybody else, get reincarnated in Goa, Big Sur or Notting Hill. Mao, a practical man, would have just stamped on the head of each successive reincarnation. What the Chinese need is some real anti-religious fanatic in charge. Now who might that be?
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
I saw some of Richard Dawkins' latest TV series last night. He seemed patient to the point of saintliness with the more egregious loonies, and sometimes he was curiously hesitant to pronounce his dread anathema "mumbo-jumbo" as the other party wittered on about DNA triangles or quantum healing.
ReplyDeleteIn this regard Dawkins might make a very good Dalai Lama, though sadly deficient in the sense of humour department compared to the present one. Also, I'm not sure how he'd fare when sealed in a darkened room for a month's meditation retreat. That would be a hard nut to crack compared to last night's softest-of the-soft targets. Could he do it? Would he ever be up for it?
Anyways, we know why the Chinese are doing what they're doing, just like all totalitarian scum. They'd love to crush Buddhism but they know they can't.
Amusing, hard to tell if they've pushed stupidity to another level, or are just insane.
ReplyDeleteI'm no Buddhist but do you have to die in the place of your reincarnation? so if you died on a sinking ship, reincarnation would be an endless chore.
ReplyDeleteis that why there's no Tibetan Space Agency?
ian russell wrote: I'm no Buddhist but do you have to die in the place of your reincarnation? so if you died on a sinking ship, reincarnation would be an endless chore.
ReplyDeleteAh, we are all on a sinking ship experiencing the samsaric pleasures of birth and rebirth.
I'm pretty sure that where you are reincarnated does not depend on where you die. If in your next life you are reborn as a kangaroo it's rather unlikely you'd end up in Shropshire, say, other than in a tin. Stands to reason, innit. I've no idea what happens to Vulcans, though.