Briefly

I have a new thesis topic and advisor. New thesis: "The Place of Sacred Space in Constructing Tibetan Identity in Diaspora".

I'm loving my Buddhism classes ("Mandala: Visions of Tantric Buddhism" and "Buddhist Ethics"), except at this point they are all review. I'm trying to wait patiently until we get to the meat.

This past week I finally worked out the kinks and officially registered my independent study "Reading Classical Literary Tibetan" with my thesis advisor.

I'm still intent on returning to Mcleodganj in the spring.

Spring Broke

I haven't been giving Spinoza enough attention over Break. I am a bad philosopher. I will try to make it up to him eventually.

Yesterday I went to the opening of an exhibit at a warehouse in Williamsburg. Tara and I drank free beer, took a few laps around the exhibit, then met some awesome artists. Then we went to Alligaytor Lounge, scavenged some pizza tickets, had a beer then bailed. Tres weak.

On my way to sit in a cafe, binge on coffee, and read Dante, I was stopped by a pair of individuals. One was South Korean woman and the other was a darkhaired guy who didn't say a word. They wanted to know if I had heard of "the female image of God" in the Bible. Being a religious studies student (I hate the redundancy of saying that), I was skeptical, but I was having trouble figuring out what this woman was trying to say thanks to her accent. I was genuinely interested in what they were saying until she started to say that it was the "end times", and alluding to apocalyptic prophecy in the Bible. Now, I have read the bible, even Revelations. But I read it in an academic setting, as literature not Truth. As soon as they brought in the end of days, Heaven, the one True God, I couldn't take them seriously. If I'd been in less of a hurry, perhaps I would have asked them to show me just where in the Bible WWII is explicitly prophesied. I remarked that prophecy is written so generally that it is easily misinterpreted. People have "seen the signs of the end times as prophesied in the Bible" since the Bible was written! So, I mentioned my studies, and that was when her partner finally jumped in, asking "May I ask what religion you practice?" There was something in the way he intoned his question that made me defensive, so I replied, "I don't practice a religion. I'm a religious studies student." Then he asked me if I'd ever been Catholic in the past. I don't think he meant past lives, but if he had I probably would have answered yes. But I told him no. It was at this point I started backing away. They were desperate to keep me on the hook but I had better things to do than debate with people who seemed to have less understanding of Christian theology than I do. And that is saying something, not being Christian and everything. To get them to finally back off I told them I would need direct revelation to believe in whatever it was they were trying to tell me about. The guy said, "But it says that you have to come to it for salvation, it won't come to you." I said, "It's already coming to me. Don't worry about my salvation," and walked away. About twenty feet later another pair of people approached me, and said, "Excuse me, may we talk to you for a moment?" I answered him with another question. "Are you with those people over there?" and pointed in the direction I'd just come from. "I don't know. Have you heard about the female image of God? We're with the something or other Elohim blah blah blah." "Yep, that's what they said, too." "So you're not interested?" "Nope, thanks!" Then I waved and walked away.

For the rest of the afternoon I ascended the mountain of Purgation, passed through the cleansing fire of realization, entered the Garden of Earthly delights and was baptised in the rivers of oblivion and good memory. Afterward, I went grocery shopping. Trader Joe's is a godsend. I told them not to worry about my salvation. I can find it on my own, thanks.

Conversations with DJ: Ass Wendesday Installment

Me (7:31:49 PM): happy ash wednesday

d J (7:31:55 PM): thanks

Me (7:32:25 PM): what is it about? do you know?

d J (7:32:37 PM): it's like

d J (7:32:44 PM): catholics go to their cathogogue

d J (7:33:00 PM): and a child molester smears burnt toast on their forehead

d J (7:33:19 PM): which protects them from evil wizards and walrus ninjas

Me (7:33:40 PM): how did the tradition originate?

d J (7:34:08 PM): then they walk around all day with the burnt on their foreheads, so that all the wizards and walrus ninjas can see that they are not to be reckoned with, all "what now bitch? yeah that's what I thought"

d J (7:34:14 PM): interesting you should ask that, S

d J (7:34:39 PM): it originated in 1972, the year that Rock attained perfection

d J (7:34:53 PM): it was a crazy time, with vietnam war protests

d J (7:35:03 PM): everyone was doing acid and pcp

d J (7:35:55 PM): one day the leader of the hippies, Bobby Jindal, was just standing around and he passed the fuck out, face first into a pile of burnt toast

d J (7:36:39 PM): when he stood up, every woman, and 90% of the men in attendance were inexplicably sexually attracted to his forehead

d J (7:36:46 PM): it was the biggest bukkake the world ever saw

d J (7:37:16 PM): Bobby Jindal's forehead was gangraped for nine solid months before his family reported him missing

d J (7:38:18 PM): when they found him, half dead in a kiddie pool up to his lower lip in smegma, his devoutly religious parents demanded to know what he had been up to

d J (7:38:44 PM): he said that he had been visited in a dream by Dr. Phil

d J (7:39:15 PM): who told him that every Wednesday after mardi gras was henceforth "Ass Wednesday," The Great Feast of Gettin' It On

d J (7:39:41 PM): and that he was hitherto St. Bobby, The Patron Saint of The Horontal Mambo

d J (7:39:58 PM): but Bobby was tripping on peyote at the time

d J (7:40:05 PM): and he pronounced "Ass" as "Ash"

d J (7:40:26 PM): and he had all that ash on his forehead and nobody believed that he had actually gotten laid anyway, so Occam's razor pointed to Ash Wednesday

d J (7:40:49 PM): then everybody went to Ruby Tuesday's and got shrimp Poppers. The End!

Me (7:40:58 PM): wowzers!
d J (7:41:44 PM): true story