What I am thankful for? Tomorrow I get to see the Buddha! Or at least what remains of him. He and a number of other buddhas are coming to town as part of the Heart Shrine Relics Tour, before they (that is, their remains) are kept permanently in the 500-foot buddha statue being built in India as part of the Maitreya Project. I'm going to the opening ceremony Friday, when I hope a Blessing Ceremony gets performed, where the relics would be placed on my head. I'm hoping Buddha can make me a nice person, but my wife says even Buddha doesn't have that much power.
Regardless, I'm still happy Buddha has come to see me on my birthday (not my actual birthday, but the day I'm celebrating it because I have the day off from school). I was already looking forward to birthday kimchi, seaweed salad, and wakame from my favorite Korean market. The wakame is especially fishy-smelling as sea vegetables go, which irritates my older, smarter cat and puzzles my younger, dimmer cat to no end. The last time I had wakame, the older cat sat atop her claw-and-climb sniffing, anticipating the delicious aroma of fish until she saw the smell was coming from my bowl and realized she was mistaken. Trust me to eat the only crap in the sea.
The younger cat was far more perplexed. She ran around the house squeaking, trying to find the fish. Numerous times her nose led her to my bowl, but when I offered her bits of wakame, she squeaked, "No, I don't want grass. I know you've got fish? Where is it?" I almost felt sad for the torture I was causing her, but the wakame tasted so good.
Desire is the root of all suffering.
2 comments:
Ahh - so your cats will never reach Nirvana because of you. Nice.
I do what I can.
One of the people responsible for organizing the opening ceremony tonight began his speech by talking about losing someone close to him recently, his cat.
I like cats and I can certainly understand someone being emotional after losing one, but when the speaker talked about how his cat taught him patience while he tried to help his cat progress spiritually, I had to hold back a laugh. (I can just imagine my cats' response if I tried to guide them spiritually.)
And for that stifled laugh I will never reach Nirvana either.
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