God Help Me, I'm not Zen!! Err...Buddha! Buddha Help Me! I'm not Zen!

[JazzManJim]

I've read it and re-read it, and re-re-read it.

This "Bantering with Octagons" thing.

I don't get it. I have no Buddha Nature.

My eyes, at one point, got all twirly, like the snake from the Jungle Book. I could hear childlike insane laughter from a point in space somewhere behind my head. When I turned around, there was a tinkling of bells from deep in non-Euclidian space.

I hear the Venga Boys and they want to party. I hear Bow Wow Wow and they want Candy. I hear the Spice Girls and the Want to say...something. I don't know. I'm too busy staring at Baby Spice's breasts.

But...back to this thread. I don't get it. I'm not Zen. Help me.

 

[heterotic]

Threaten a monk with your catapult 'til he fells you with one well-placed koan.

A novice was trying to fix a broken lisp machine by turning the power
off and on. Knight, seeing what the student was doing spoke sternly-
"You can not fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no
understanding of what is going wrong." Knight turned the machine off
and on. The machine worked.

-- AI Koan

 

[Starblayde]

welcome to the club, JMJ2K

 

[Juspar Emvan]

purple

 

[Thomas Paine]

Mu!

 

[KillerMuffin]

I could respond to that, but you'd have to hold my boobs up first.

 

[cymbidia]

Dill did it to you, didn't he? Or that sigh chickie. Or that Green-Eyed Girl.

They're all so...obscure.

 

[perks]

Maybe you should start with a square or maybe even a hexagon. Those octagons are a bitch and a half.

 

[Guest]

 

[Dillinger]

Octagons aren't really zen - maybe if you stretch it... but then again, not zen IS zen.

But that thread? That's Da Da. That's Abstract. That's Bohemian.

This is zen:

All's harmony, yet everything is separate.
Once confirmed, mastery is yours
Long I hovered on the Middle Way,
Today the very ice shoots flames.

 

[kotori]

'TIS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO MINDS.

 

[perks]

'TIS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO MINDS.

I know that has something to do with sex. I just can't quite wrap my lips around it.

 

[Dillinger]

'TIS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO MINDS.

That used to be my sig line here for a long time.

From Illuminatus... Malaclypse the Younger?

 

[kotori]

That used to be my sig line here for a long time.

From Illuminatus... Malaclypse the Younger?

"And remember that there is no tyranny in the State of Confusion. For further information, consult your pineal gland."

Yeah-recommended by a mutual friend.

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

Obscure! That is a wonderful compliment. Thank you.
(And we are all just making it up, really, truly. It's all the Ill Wind that Kotori was talking about.)

 

[Dillinger]

I love all things mutual!

 

[kotori]

now if you want to come up to the parimutual window, I got a tip for the fifth at Keeneland tomorrow

 

[Dillinger]

Obscure! That is a wonderful compliment. Thank you.
(And we are all just making it up, really, truly. It's all the Ill Wind that Kotori was talking about.)

"We're making it up."

Who? What?

"Us. All of us. It. All of it. The world, the universe, life, reality. Especially reality."

We're making it up?

"We make it up. We made it up. We shall make it up. We have been making it up. I make it up. You make it up. He, she, it makes it up.

Okay, I'm an artist, I can accept that. In theory. But how do I apply it to my daily life?

"you'll have to figure..."

It out for myself. But hold on. Please don't go away. Can't you at least leave me with some advice?

"You need more?" (The inner voice was incredulous.)

Yes. Please. A little more. A speck more in the line of practical advice.

"Very well. The trick is this: keep your eye on the ball. Even when you can't see the ball."

You're kidding, thought Ellen Cherry Charles.

(Tom Robbins)

 

[GreenEyedGirl]

"We're making it up."

Who? What?

"Us. All of us. It. All of it. The world, the universe, life, reality. Especially reality."

We're making it up?

"We make it up. We made it up. We shall make it up. We have been making it up. I make it up. You make it up. He, she, it makes it up.

Okay, I'm an artist, I can accept that. In theory. But how do I apply it to my daily life?

"you'll have to figure..."

It out for myself. But hold on. Please don't go away. Can't you at least leave me with some advice?

"You need more?" (The inner voice was incredulous.)

Yes. Please. A little more. A speck more in the line of practical advice.

"Very well. The trick is this: keep your eye on the ball. Even when you can't see the ball."

You're kidding, thought Ellen Cherry Charles.

(Tom Robbins)

My point exactly. Thanks Dilly, I can always count on you to clarify!

 

[kotori]

that's the most rediculous thing I ever heard

say the magic work, and the duck will come down and give you $50

 

[Dillinger]

BTW kotori - I love your new sig line... *grin*

 

[kotori]

well, I owe it all to you, Dill.

So, what's playing tonight at the Biograph?

 

[Dillinger]

Playing at the Biograph for just one week, this animated, made-in- Japan movie is a hoot for adults as well as children. Based on Jonathan Swift's "Travels Into Several Remote Worlds," it offers universal themes plus plenty of sci-fi action and adventure, humor and a little romance, not unlike a Spielberg or Lucas epic.

Opening with a fight between a luxury blimp and ironclad, dragonfly- like contraptions piloted by a pirate family, the movie establishes Sheeta, a waifish, snub-nosed, pigtailed child as the heroine in distress, pursued by governments and thieves for a magical levitation stone she wears around her neck.

Pazu, a poor orphan boy working in the mines, encounters Sheeta as she floats down from the sky after falling from the blimp. Pazu becomes her brave knight in tattered clothing and her travel partner as the two elude armies, agents and pirates and finally arrive at Laputa, an island in the sky.

Both children have ties to Laputa--Sheeta is a lost princess for whom the island has been waiting 700 years. Pazu's explorer-father once spied the paradise in the clouds from his airship and took pictures of it. Both vow to travel there to learn what makes the sky island such a lure for the parties chasing Sheeta.

Her levitation stone shines a beam toward the island, but only Sheeta knows how to coax magic powers from the stone. She is captured and taken to Laputa by the government agents while Pazu joins forces with the pirates to rescue his new friend.

Just viewing the highly imaginative settings and airships is half the fun. Pazu's village is carved from canyons where buildings seem to grow from cliffs. The pirate's airship, commandeered by Dola, a rough and ready matriarch, is fascinating, too. The legendary island in the sky, a paradise with gardens, jungles, castles, labyrinths and robot sentries, is the most awesome spectacle of the film.

Characters have their quirks, especially the snaggle-toothed, crook- nosed, gluttonous Dola and her blundering sons, who are mesmerized by the cute little Sheeta.

The only shortcomings: The animation is slightly less-than-fluid at times, and the faces of children and some other characters could stand more distinguishing details. I was also puzzled by the presence of Caucasian characters, as the writer/director is an award-winning Japanese animator, Hayao Miyazaki. The movie is dubbed in English.

Otherwise, "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" is two hours of wonderful, fantastic make-believe that is sure to keep the animators at Disney studios looking over their shoulders.

 

[kotori]

Is this out in the States? I've been keeping my eyes open, but didn't notice. We have Castle of Cagliostro, and of course, Mononke Hime--although I would really prefer a subtitled version to the dubbed.

 

[kotori]

The only shortcomings: The animation is slightly less-than-fluid at times, and the faces of children and some other characters could stand more distinguishing details. I was also puzzled by the presence of Caucasian characters, as the writer/director is an award-winning Japanese animator, Hayao Miyazaki. The movie is dubbed in English.

This shouldn't be surprising, it's a standard of anime to use western features. Miyazaki's real strength, to me, is in his sublime renderings of nature. The camphor tree in My Neighbor Totoro, or the field of grass bending in the wind. It's the ma scenes.