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Jean Smith in Everyday Mind collects a number of reflections including this deliciously ironic passage from Jon Kabat-Zinn Wherever You Go, There You Are

A student once said: "When I was a Buddhist, it drove my parents and friends crazy, but when I am a buddha, nobody is upset at all."

Substituting "gay" for "Buddhist" in the semantics at play in the student’s statement the intended target of chauvinism becomes suspect. GAYIST? BUDDHIST!!! Really! Ah, the politics of flaunting it.

Revisiting the statement: parents and friends also contributed to being driven crazy and if anyone is not unsettled or upset or kept a wee bit off balance, where’s the buddha nature?

However in the context of the play of becoming and being the statement takes on a certain resonance. When a person is coming out they drive people including themselves crazy; when they are out nobody including them is upset at all: they are so far out they are in.

Nice reversible slogan for the first century of the new millennium: Be out. Be in.

Keeps people in touch with the collective side of enlightenment.

And so for day 21
04.01.2007