Quote:

---

Kickle said:
I was given access to a book that has yet to be published. Written by an aging Buddhist scholar. Somewhere in his early years he became fascinated with Chinese and then the wisdom traditions of the East. Took the time to read all the wisdom texts that he could in their ancient Chinese forms.

Anyways, here's a snippet of some bits I've enjoyed:

"Where had all the options gone? There was no more
possibility. At that moment, after crushing my imaginary
cigarette, I recognized myself for the lifetime dreamer I
was. My dream life depended on faith in the possibility
that somehow, somewhere, sometime, the dream would
come true. That was the carrot in front of the horse. As
that possibility faded, my dream life came to a close. The
old truck called [Al] was rambling to a full stop. Inertia
propelled me onward but there was absolutely zero
possibility that anything real could develop between me
and nineteen- (or seventeen-) year old Irina, the girl I had
just snapped the shutter on over two hundred times. In
spite of the facts, if I wasn’t vigilantly mindful, I would
slip back into the dream state where Irina became a possibility,
a potential exception, the outlier that would escape
the common world. We would nestle together, hold
hands while we walked, and love each other to death. I
sneered. I was so unbelievably stupid! Please try to imagine
what you look like to her, you old fool. You’re a black
man in the fifties, a Korean in Japan, a Japanese in China,
a Muslim in America, a Jew among the Nazis, and so forth.
Jo, you’re foreign, fat, and low on dough. Fuck you, old
man! Wake up, bitch!"

---

Quote:

---

Lion said:
I just watched the Spanish film Biutiful last night, which is about these kinds of themes: aging and the alarming break-down of the body, and coming to grips with death.  It's an extraordinary film, I recommend it.

---

Quote:

---

The Chronic said:

Quote:

---

Lion said:
I just watched the Spanish film Biutiful last night, which is about these kinds of themes: aging and the alarming break-down of the body, and coming to grips with death.  It's an extraordinary film, I recommend it.

---

Looking forward to checking it out, good to come across this kind of film man

---

Yeah, well I just watched a new Spanish film that recently came out, its called casa de mi padre... its not really relevant at all here, only that it has Spanish dialogue. Will Ferrel is hilarious in more then one style of comedy.Interest-ante!

Quote:

---

Kickle said:
Figured I'd update this post with some personal anecdotes.
Here's a few stories from my personal interactions with this author.


1.) I am a young boy, likely no more than 12 years of age. My father is taking me to meet a friend of his who lives out in the forest. We arrive to a partially collapsed barn and several wooden buildings amidst many acres of forest. It's sunny. I see a few cats and later learn that there are at least 10 roaming the premises. They feed primarily off rodents and are fed only occasionally by the homeowner while never actually entering the home.

After my father meets and greets with his old friend we wind our way behind the home to split some wood for the fire. A large stack of logs is available and we grab one to split. The wood is tough and unyielding, not ideal for splitting at all. I'm not sure if it is too moist or whether the tree was knotted, but it wasn't splitting. So the two older men just let me have my fun burying an axe into it over and over. As I begin to fatigue we start to rotate attempts. My father who has spent most of his life gathering wood and splitting it for our home takes his turn. Occasionally he has success with a log but more often than not the wood remains whole. Now here is what really stands out to me about this. After we've labored for a while to very poor gain, my father's friend goes "ok, time to go Zen on it". So he takes the axe and makes his swing. It isn't an overly labored swing and the log does nothing but let out a low thump as the axe connects. So I say, "where was the Zen?" To which he responds "There it was, didn't you see?" And at that moment I was filled with elation and started giggling. This is a feeling I have rarely had replicated in my life and feel very inadequate in being able to fully describe.

2.) Fast forward ~13 years, I'm now 25. I have rarely seen my father's friend as we don't often go to visit and neither does he. But on this day he is in the city on the hunt for a present for a friend. My father brings him in to my place of work. He wants a particular pen, a fountain pen that costs just shy of $40. I have a display of the pen in Blue, Black, or Purple. He insists that the purple will be best as it is a present for a 70th birthday and Purple is the color best suited for a 70th birthday. I go hunting but only have the black or blue version. I try to go a step farther, checking other stores to see if they have the purple. I'm turning up empty. So I check to see if I can order one in from the warehouse, nothing. So he goes with the blue one. Nothing out of the ordinary here at all. He and my father leave, I continue about my daily tasks.

About 5 minutes later they return. They decided to pick up some refill cartridges for the pen. A wise move I think. We're short staffed so I'm at a register now cashiering. I direct them to the refills. They eventually arrive at the register and I ring them out. My father's friend has poor vision so it takes a while to get the credit card the correct direction and everything moving along through the electronic system. By the time the transaction is finished, there is a decent line forming. I hand him his goods and they are off again. But the next person in line goes "is this his?" and I look down. There is a wallet sitting on the counter. I grab it and shout out to him. He turns back around. The customer also holds up his hat, which he also left. She asks, "is this yours?" He walks back towards us and says "yea, it's all me". This was my second Zen experience with this gentleman. Again, elation and a sense of wide-open spaciousness. And it didn't seem to affect just me. The customer holding the cat was giddy too and after he had grabbed his items and left, I had one of the most truly wonderful interactions with her. It was very light, very relaxed, and very joyful.

I don't know what to make of it, I don't know what the deal is, but those two experiences are very uncommon in my life. And if you have any interest in supporting such a man based on my experiences, I urge you to do so by buying his book. I'm sure he'll be fine if you don't but I think it's a nice way to say "thanks".

---

Quote:

---

Kickle said:
It might make sense to others

you should buy it because you old wise guys need to show some love to one another

---

Quote:

---

Icelander said:
Us old farts should stick apart.

---