Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Politeness

Omikuji instructions at Sensō-ji, an ancient Buddhist temple in Asakusa:

Long-time readers of this blog may recall that Buddhist temples and I go back a long way.

2 comments:

The Reluctant Rebel said...

In Sri Lanka a Buddhist monk once assasinated a president. Must have been a crazy rebel Buddhist like you.

Sroyon said...

The Wikipedia article about the monk is very interesting:
Somarama was hanged on 7 July 1962. He gave up his robes a fortnight before his hanging and, two days before his execution, was baptized as a Christian by an Anglican priest. Prison officials said that this was so that he could seek "the forgiveness that the Buddhist religion does not grant." Journalists in Ceylon, however, suggested a different motive: to kill a fellow Buddhist was a sin, which he had committed by killing Bandaranaike, but by converting he would spare the gaolers and hangmen from committing the same sin.