Farewell, My Lovely

Oldboy is a great god damn movie (thanks be to Aero!). A very strange movie, yes. But still, a great god damn movie. It has action! It has drama! It has comedy! It has the longest uncut fight scene in movie history! Saying anything about the story gives it away, so I won't. Be even if I did, the last parts of the movie are crazy and unexpected. All the acting is amazing and the story is intense. One of my favorite movies of all time. And the soundtrack? Beautiful.

Today I got lucky and found two awesome books. It was kinda funny, after going to have lunch/dinner at 3:30pm (slept in till 2:00pm, hey, I was working late!) at the 5 and Diner and then hanging out at Staples for a bit, we just decided to drive around and ended up at the mall. Being pretty broke until Wednesday we headed for the only bookstore in the place. Not even one I'd ever heard of.

So I go to their Religious section and 4.5 of the 5 shelves are Christian stuff which is understandable but still kind of frustrating. But on the last shelf near the bottom is a small section of Buddhism and an even smaller section of Taoism.

I managed to find a book by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk I've only just found through podcasts. Just from a few talks I've listened to I really like him. His teachings are very profound and simple and I love the way he talks. It's very calming and compassionate. The book I found was "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching". The fact that Thich Nhat Hanh wrote it and it's about the core of Buddha's teaching was a one-two knock out for me and I didn't even read the back before buying it. I still haven't, haha.

The other book is the "Tao Te Ching" translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. I've been reading some translations online but it's slower going that way for me because of more distractions and after all, it is the Internet. Who knows how valid the translations and interpretations I'm reading are? Just cuz it's on the Interweb don't make it true! I'm really excited to learn more about this philosophy and this book was just what I was looking for.

I also got a nice journal cheap to help me keep notes. I put my "I Am Ten Ninjas" sticker on it, so it looks all mysterious!

While I was in Staples I noticed that HP has put out customizable printable covers for the iPod. After payday I'm gonna pick up a pack and see if they work with our Canon printer. Usually HP paper comes out looking like ass but hopefully this works out. I've been trying to decide what cover to get for my scratched up iPod. Ones I can make myself are the perfect idea!

Lately I've been thinking that a lot of Buddhist schools are too complex. The Buddha's teachings are very simple and direct and I feel that over the years too much unnecessary stuff has been laid on top. For some this isn't a problem, but I feel that I need something simple and pure. I picked Tibetan Buddhism to follow because it seemed to be the closest to the original teachings, but I've been wondering if there is anything closer out there. After over a year with Tibetan Buddhism I'm thinking about following a different school, if I can find a better one out there. More updates to come as this goes along, and any suggestions and advice is most welcome.

Have a great day, filled with peace and success!

- BuddhaDave

Simple minds, simple pleasures.