I seem to think that non-Buddhists might listen to me on the topic and think of me as a Buddhist. And folk that pat themselves on the back as card-carrying Buddhists might listen to me and point out what is "Buddhist" and what is not "Buddhist", and generally not think of me as a Buddhist. Whatever, either way I don't care.

Do you go to the Buddha and ask, "Are you Buddhist? You must be Buddhist, you're the friggin' Buddha"? And maybe he'd reply, "It makes sense when you put it that way, but it just doesn't sound right. Maybe it's better to say that I'm a . . . a . . . I'm a me-ist".

Like those movies with a God character that goes, "Oh God! I mean, 'Oh Me!'"

I'm a thousand times more comfortable thinking of myself as a me-ist. Call me a Buddhist and I feel like being put into a box and framed by all these things I'm supposed to be or believe in. That I'm being fitted for an identity that is supposed to define me, rather than the other way around. Like there's something special or separate or compartmentalizable about it. Commodifiable. Able to be put into the commode.

It may be so that I am this or that which seems kinda Buddhist, or believe in this or that which seems kinda Buddhist, but it's not because I'm a "Buddhist". When you see a duck, you know it's a duck. Why is a duck a duck? It's just a fucking duck!

I saw a sign the other day for an "Orthodox Buddhist Church". It made me wonder why I haven't seen any Unorthodox Buddhist Churches. This is San Francisco after all.

It's alright for me to think of myself as Buddhist, but I won't call myself "Buddhist" to anyone, and as I said, each to their own if they call me Buddhist or not. This is all a conceit, mind you. Most people, Buddhist or otherwise, couldn't give a rats ass who, what, where, why or how I am. Well, no, there are people who give a rats ass how I am, but not how I am. Right