One of the questions I get asked most often when I tell people that I study Buddhism in grad school is whether or not I'm a Buddhist. I don't like this question because I've never come up with an adequate answer. Folks usually seem to be disappointed that I'm not meditating for umpteen hours a day and this usually grinds the conversation to a halt. That's not a problem for me because I don't normally like to talk in detail about what I actually do as a graduate student for fear of boring my conversational partner to death. Actually learning some of what might be termed the canonical languages of Buddhism such as Sanskrit and Tibetan don't seem to count for much unless I am on a cushion somewhere with slitted eyes thinking hard about nothing. I've had discussions with true blue Western Buddhists about how all of the work that goes into translation and reading and thinking about the history of Buddhism entitles me to call myself a Buddhist or not. I have other terms I'd prefer to be called, but I can't reveal them until I get my own little tax-free church up and running. More on that later.
I have to vet folks carefully to see if they can handle the minutiae that my work actually involves. I've often had discussions with a previous roommate of mine who was also a grad student about how he thought that studying Buddhism was much sexier than what he was studying (let's say, medieval history somewhere east of the Fertile Crescent). However, unless I start hanging out with lamas in caves and subsisting on nettles (and those of you who know me know how likely THAT is), I'm afraid the sex factor for the general populace will remain low.
6.30.2005
6.22.2005
Adventures in Cajun Buddhism
Howdy everyone. This blog might give people a chance to see what I'm up to as I finally get to spend a year outside the U.S. since I'm a horrible correspondent. It may be awfully exciting, given the political situation in Nepal. Then again, reports back on my days spent in the National Archives in Kathmandu (or as S. refers to it, Kat-daddy-man-du) combing through manuscripts might induce a deep narcoleptic state in you, my dear reader.
I've been kicking around the idea of writing a blog for a while, and since I was encouraged recently to keep a journal about my upcoming year in Nepal on a Fulbright AND encouraged by my friend, Y.'s attempt to found her own patch of land in cyberspace (does anyone use this word any more?), I thought I'd take a shot at it since it was free, and I might learn something. Besides, the pun in the title was too good to resist, even though my French is execrable. I found it amusing, especially since I only started basing my identity on being a Cajun after I moved to the Northeast about 4 1/2 years ago.
La Roue de la Loi is the French translation for the dharmacakra (or dharmachakra), the Wheel of the Law (or Teaching or whatever, it's mulitvocal and best left in the original Sanskrit) that the Buddha was said to have set into motion when he first preached after his Enlightenment at Sarnath oh so many years ago. Laissez les bon temps roulez is, of course, the rallying cry for crawfish to be boiled and beer to be ingested at alarming rates from where I come from. At least for that part of the population that descended from the folks that got out of Lafayette and the surrounding environs because, as Steve Earle said, there ain't nobody hirin' back in Lafeyette. Anyway, part of the inspiration for this my first post is from a member of my academic cohort, Ryan and the subtitle of his blog. There, I have acknowledged and properly credited my sources as a good grad student should.
I've been kicking around the idea of writing a blog for a while, and since I was encouraged recently to keep a journal about my upcoming year in Nepal on a Fulbright AND encouraged by my friend, Y.'s attempt to found her own patch of land in cyberspace (does anyone use this word any more?), I thought I'd take a shot at it since it was free, and I might learn something. Besides, the pun in the title was too good to resist, even though my French is execrable. I found it amusing, especially since I only started basing my identity on being a Cajun after I moved to the Northeast about 4 1/2 years ago.
La Roue de la Loi is the French translation for the dharmacakra (or dharmachakra), the Wheel of the Law (or Teaching or whatever, it's mulitvocal and best left in the original Sanskrit) that the Buddha was said to have set into motion when he first preached after his Enlightenment at Sarnath oh so many years ago. Laissez les bon temps roulez is, of course, the rallying cry for crawfish to be boiled and beer to be ingested at alarming rates from where I come from. At least for that part of the population that descended from the folks that got out of Lafayette and the surrounding environs because, as Steve Earle said, there ain't nobody hirin' back in Lafeyette. Anyway, part of the inspiration for this my first post is from a member of my academic cohort, Ryan and the subtitle of his blog. There, I have acknowledged and properly credited my sources as a good grad student should.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
