Seriously? Buddhas in your fish-tank?

[logansrogue]

I was at the pet store and they were selling these little Buddha statues for your fish tank, with chintzy 'Asian' writing on the packaging and everything. There was a young lady working there, I think she was Thai, I couldn't be sure. But I said to Helen, "I don't know how I'd feel about drowning Buddha in my fishtank." And she seemed very relieved to hear me say that. "That's right, I'm Buddhist, I don't think I like these, they're disrespectful." She wondered how I knew it was offensive and I explained that I hung around with a lot of people from all around the place when I was at school growing up. Plus it's basic decency - you don't use a culture's spiritual figure for your fish tank decoration, ya know?

Ended up having a great old chat with that girl, she was absolutely lovely. I nice point in my day, to meet someone new and have a nice chat like that.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/lothar_/]

I remember overhearing a conversation between a couple of people and a Buddhist monk. They brought up the "If you meet the Buddha in the road, kill him" koan and asked why, if Buddhism is a religion of nonviolence, it would have a saying like that. Without an eyeroll or missing a beat, he cautioned that it was a figure of speech and a way to clear one's mind.

Can't say I blame them. It's second nature as Americans to be literal-minded and spot contradictions when it comes to "foreign" belief systems.