The Wheel of Time

My leg hair is so long that when I'm walking around in shorts at home I can feel it flap around. It really tickles. I'm ready for spring.

Today I watched the Werner Herzog film, "Wheel of Time" about the 2002 Buddhist Kalachakra initiation. My favorite scene was a monk buying a handful of flitting birds from a street vendor. The monk held the four or so birds in his hands for a minute and then set his eyes to a nearby tree and thrust his arms toward the sky.

Werner Herzog asked the monk why he did that, the monk said, "Every living thing is equal and every living thing has a chance at enlightenment, but you cannot be enlightened unless you are free."

Now, I don't know how I feel about a man selling birds so people can pay him to free them or enlightenment or even Buddhism for that matter, but I sure can get down with the sentiment and statement of the monk. It says so much about how I'd like to live my life.