A friend tells me of an expression in German that translates as, Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.
Reminds me of a line from a Talking Heads song, Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
And now what’s happening? Here? What place is this? And who is here?
I smell garlic cooking and hear kitchen noises.
And now I, the bad girl, am called to dinner.
Calling all bad girls
About the Author: zenscribe
Enseignante Zen et poète, Sensei Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell est née et a grandi à Minneapolis, aux Etats-Unis. Arrivée en France en 1981 pour étudier la littérature et l’histoire, elle y est restée, s’installant à Paris, où elle élève ses deux enfants et gagne sa vie en tant que journaliste.
The Zen teacher and poet Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell Sensei was born and raised in Minneapolis, but came to France in 1981 to study literature and history and has lived in Paris ever since, raising her two children and making a living as a journalist.
Thanks Ting.
Always reacting on the tone, to little on the words.
This time i am going to make a walk…
And thanks for the words Tu es cela.
what is bad? what is good? what is merit?
It is a tricky answer ‘cos we were formated on the idea of right and wrong, good and bad, moral judgment! and is difficult to break that pattern.
Evil as the characteristic of someone I see it as nonsense under the concept of emptiness, and interdependency.
Evil as an external influence is "hocus pocus" from other religious traditions/mitology/superstition as there is no God or supernatural agent that rewards or punishes us or makes us do evil actions.
I see evil as the result ignorance, of ignoring the 4 noble truth, something created by us. Even the Pope John Paul said that there is no Devil just some people that let evil develop inside of us.
This takes us to action and reaction known as karma. Good and evil are the effects of what we intentionally do.
"By oneself, indeed, is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself, indeed, is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself. No one purifies another." (Dhammapada, chapter 12, verse 165)
« what is bad? what is good? »
If you don’t know, I ask, what is ignorance?
Being “bad” in this context, I suppose, is breaking conventions without really harming anyone.
Being bad in the harmful way – seriously harming oneself or others – is not going to be fulfilling.
Love and compassion, sometimes don’t look like we expect or want them to. Compassion can be forceful.
And if our conventions about love are harmful, breaking them is a compassionate thing to do.
I guess you have to ask the Talking Heads… ( what’s in a name…)
what is bad? what is good? what is merit?
bon apetit!!!!!
You feel like you take merit to yourself for being a bad girl? ( = you are proud of being a bad girl becous it is YOUR merrit?)
Or is being a bad girl or a good girl just a question of early develloped defensesystems and conditioningpaterns – as everything is?