Zoom!
Thursday December 17, 2009
Who’d have thought it? A monk on Mount Emei (literally, Mount Lofty Eyebrows) has been photographed zooming around his temple courtyard on a skateboard, and the pictures have been causing a great deal of consternation amongst the faithful – and, no doubt, a measure of glee amongst the unfaithful.
There’s a news article over here. On the scale of things, there are many worse ways of spending one’s time; and today’s shocking innovations can quickly become tomorrow’s traditions. All they need to do over there on Mount Emei is to turn up a hitherto unknown Buddhist text beginning with the words, “Thus have I heard. On one occasion, the Blessed One was on a skateboarding tour of Kosala…”, and the future of the practice is assured.
At the very least, it seems as if the traditional division of Buddhism into Mahayana and Hinayana will have to be revised. Buddhists, it seems, like to travel by means of great vehicles, by small vehicles and, erm… by very small vehicles.
Thanks to BuddhistEd for pointing me to this. The image of Mount Emei (that walkway would be fun on a skateboard…) comes from Wikimedia Commons
#1 · Charlene
20 December 2009
Well, clutch my pearls! (really, looks like fun and I suspect takes a fair amount of mindfulness to stay on. If you can have sitting meditation and walking meditation, why not fun meditation…or just plain fun for that matter?)