Where have all the Zen Lunatics gone? I know you are out there. We need more raving lunatics poking fun and farting at the consensus reality that has the world stuck in conformity and mindless dronality (I think I just made up a word)
We need more Han Shans. He was a raving Zen Lunatic or Taoist Hermit, whichever you want him to be, in the Tang dynasty in China. With his wild hair, tattered clothing and head gear made from birch bark, he wandered the woods and mountains mumbling and talking to the wind. He would often visit Zen temples until they drove him out because of his unpredictable and irreverant behavior. He was a great poet as well.
We need more Han Shans. To me, Han Shan was a man of pure faith in the Dharma. Totally free like the wind...wandering about...free from concern for himself. He was also a man of no means and yet had the whole universe at his disposal. Yes, we need more Zen Lunatics like Han Shan.
Yes, something to aspire to...or at least grow into...I know as I age I feel my inner Lunatic cracking through the surface from time to time. Soon, I know it will engulf me, but until then I will just buy new hats and smile. I am allergic to birch bark.
Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen
thanks to ZenHG for inspiring this post.
Oh we are still around...just laying low, twiddling our thumbs.
ReplyDeleteThanks for twiddling them to the Broken Bokken.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear from you!
Anybody else out there?
It seems that just about every week a group of people based out of local Unitarian church (Northampton, MA), are out 'protesting something'. Signs, homemade placards, handouts, they brave the crappy weather, closed faces of passers-by, and cheerfully wave down drivers to 'honk for XXX'. Usually, it's anti-war. Even when the war seemed to be the 'right thing'. Non-denominational, probably aging hippies, they cheerfully are in one's face about this world, and right now.
ReplyDeleteI honk. Not for the cause, but for the lunatics cheerfully standing in the rain and saying things that need to be said.
Sliently I pass gas
ReplyDeleteDharma Brothers all turn to me
leaving the zendo
Narda: Keep honking.
ReplyDeleteWabi wan kenobi: Leaving the zendo they have lost their way refusing to smell the sweet incense of the dharma.
LOL x 3!!!