UR@1ness

Today brings me something called Second Wave American Buddhism, which in turn brings me to a blurb on Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche (where I learn that "rinpoche" rhymes with "ricochet" whoa... I like it), which in turn brings me to some kind of Seattlecentric technoshamanistic ranting about Blackberrys. Some of my best friends have Blackberrys, but I do not. Am I missing something?

Apparently I am.

If there is a Second Wave American Buddhism does that mean, like, there was this First Wave and the First Wave is so, like, totally over? Where do the First and Second waves begin and end? Is there, like, a point of demarcation, like? And, like, who or what determined this demarcation? And like how?

Like, I got so many questions.

The founding manifesto, if it may said to be as such, is as follows:

"i think this dovetails a lot with our desire to provide programs from younger teachers with a distinctively cross-cultural message - that is the stuff that made the most difference to me as a younger practitioner coming into the dharma - people who were grounded in the tradition but speaking in my language and about stuff that was relevant to my life. not so much for tibetan texts etc. so, in a word: younger, more cross-cultural, and sometimes more thematic - like addiction and dharma, or relationships and dharma, stuff like that."

(Deep breath)

O.K., we'll try to keep the Tibetan texts out of Buddhism because I completely understand they can be a terrible distraction, and we'll try to emphasize the sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll.

I thought we totally already explored that in like, 1967, but apparently we didn't do it thoroughly enough.

So, here is my first cross-cultural and totally relevant meditation for you:

Do you, like, think that the reason everybody does e-mail is because like, some people went postal and killed a bunch of people, so like, everybody is scared to go mail a letter? So, maybe those people who went postal actually helped society because it forced everybody to get into the 'puter, and that's why there are all those unexplained gamma increases in Tibetan monks? Oh... I gotta' go. My second Mom's third husband is back from his AIDS test and its 4:20....

Now if you think I am patronizing you, may I extend this inquiry to ask: who or what is being patronized? You, or everything you refer to as "First Wave?"


Sincerely,
Tenpa "Tupac" Ricochet,
All Waves Are Gnarly Portable Monastery
Kalipornia, Amerikkka