Viswanathan K's Thoughts

During one of his (as usual) awesome closing arguments in Boston Legal , Alan Shore asked: “ When did religion get such a good name, anyway? Be it the Crusades, the Reformation genocides, the “troubles” in Northern Ireland, the Middle East, mass slaughters supposedly in the name of Allah, and then, of course, the obligatory reciprocal retribution.” Religion now has such a bad name that even Buddhism isn’t spared. The wickedly satirical The Onion posted this hilarious article on how a Buddhist extremist cell (yup, you read that right) vows to unleash (hold your breath) tranquility on the West! The group’s leader, Tsuglag Rinpoche, declared: “In the name of the Great Teacher, we will stop at nothing to unleash a firestorm of empathy, compassion, and true selflessness upon the West… we will bring the entire United States to its knees in deep meditation.” Criticizing the US for “blatant disregard of karmic balance within the universe”, he vowed that his “ soldiers would cont...

The Onion has lots of satirical and/or caustic articles on a variety of topics. Like take this recent article on the insanity of society demanding that people be ambitious (socially, professionally, financially, you name it) even if they are perfectly happy as they are. The article in question is about an imaginary guy named Michael Husmer: “an unmotivated washout who’s perfectly comfortable being a nobody for the rest of his life.” So is he living without creature comforts? Nope, he: “is able to afford a comfortable lifestyle without going into debt.” Is he bored then? Actually, he is quite engaged, just not in pursuits that society approves: “he has nothing better to do than “sit around all day” being an involved member of his community and using his ample free time to follow pursuits that give him genuine pleasure.” How can somebody not want to face the pressure and stress that comes with ambition, one of his friends wondered: “he’s still hanging around the s...