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Let's hear it for the chubby Little Rascal on the right and for all the children and critters of the planet who remind us how to simply BE sincere.
. . . The teachings of Christ and Zen espouse a principle shared by most major religions, namely, that the immediacy of insight, intuition, revelation and feelings provides a more direct and comprehensive vision of reality and one's inner Self, than does Intellect and rationality. Both espouse the view that, reason (intellect), unbridled and uninformed by compassion, is meaningless, aimless and potentially dangerous. The typical western view inverts this premise, holding that compassion, insight, intuition and feelings must be bridled by reason and the intellect. Plato is sometimes credited with the articulation of the inverted western view, although in fact, he actually espoused the Zen view, as illustrated in his "Cave Shadow" allegory ("Plato's Republic"). In trying to ferret out the truth of the matter, one might ask, "In all of human history, What great harm and holocaust has ever been wrought against the masses by COMPASSION when it has been 'let loose' and is off the leash?" Then ask that same question of 'rationality' and intellect. What Frankensteins of harm has unbridled rationality created in human history? The Holocaust? Hitler's Ultimate Solution with his Grand Scientific Scheme for genetic perfection? The Crusades? The Stalin Holocaust? The Lenin Holocaust? The Mao Regime Genocides? The Pol Pot Regime Genocides? Few would try to argue that these horrific social engineering debacles were the product of 'unbridled' COMPASSION. Indeed rationality, unbridled by Compassion, has proven to be a very dangerous thing.
"THE BEGGING BUDDHA"
On a trip not long ago, to Chinatown in New York City, I visited a shop with some of the most exceptional Buddhist art pieces I have ever seen. The shop was called "Hua Yang USA Co Ltd" at 81 Mulberry St. in Chinatown (Manhattan). I took about a hundred pictures of these Buddhist art objects, and have culled from them a few of the most moving pictures. I have assembled the "Best of the Best" pictures in this slide show. The original pictures were extremely high-quality, having been taken with a very high resolution camera. Although I had to reduce some of the resolution to make them useable on the Internet, this did not noticeably compromise the quality of these pictures. The high resolution is important in trying to capture the magnitude of the central figure, a humongous statue of "The Begging Buddha." This statue was immense, standing nearly seven (7) feet tall. One of the store clerks stood next to this statue so I could provide a sense of scale for one of the pictures. The enormity of this statue, heavy bronze, is truly captured in these pictures. The Begging Buddha had a "presence" and everyone who came into the shop was immediately confronted by it and was profoundly moved by its "presence." Several weeks later I returned to the shop to take even more pictures, but "The Begging Buddha" was gone ... it had been sold. The shop just didn't seem the same after that. It was like a gaping hole was left behind, for anyone who had seen that spectacle. It was this profoundly moving experience that I am trying to share and convey in these pictures.
Left-click on the animated "NEW" icon below, then click the 'PLAY' arrow to start the slide show (PLAY arrow is the largest right-facing arrow within the largest round button in the middle of the Control Panel). Remember you can pause the automatic flow of pictures at any time by clicking on the pause button. Click pause again to resume. Photo descriptions are at bottom beneath the controls. If you should have any problems getting this Slide Show to play, try disabling any "pop-up blockers" you may have running, or hold down the CTRL key when you left-click on the "NEW" icon below. But this should not be necessary. You should have no problems operating the SlideShow.
Enjoy . . .
ZEN MASTER TO THE YOGI IN SEARCH OF . . . . 
