Word Zendo

[Bunnylump]

The ferry is by far the preferred mode of transport. A rowboat would make even the most hardy Mistress sick with all those raspberries, cherries, sherry, herrings and cranberries.

You, too, are entitled to an assay, novice SparkOut.

[SparkOut]

Then Mistress, I would seek to claim back the mantle and staff and lead another teaching session, by venturing that a word is of the Buddha nature if it contains the letters "err" consecutively.

[Scurra]

Following along behind these eager students, I would suggest that the Master would like to holiday around the Mediterranean rather than beside the English Channel?

[Bunnylump]

Congratulations, my friend. You have learned well, and seen the error of your ways. I see that Student Scurra was not far behind you - which would be pleasing but for the fact that appears to be suggesting that I should go round the Mediterranean in a ferry.

I will gladly pass back the fruit-stained cloak of wisdom, and look forward to the next lesson.

[SparkOut]

Gracious Mistress, thank you again. I shall strive to be worthy to lead another session for you all.

I know that the Buddha likes to meditate for long periods of time and will gladly spend a day or days in a transcendental state, but never as long as a week, and neither would he expect to contemplate much of worth in a matter of an hour or hours.

Buddha beautiful
apples camel Carthage cat coconuts day days dog elephant forum grams pound puzzled red right Rome time "the cat" walk

Buddha bag
agora bananas goat green horse hour hours pears run Sparta Troy truth week wrong

Buddha luvs ya
Scurra (x3)

[Scurra]

I hate to interrupt the Master's mediations, but I would like to offer him these apples, in preference to these bananas.

[SparkOut]

Well does the student to pick apples in preference to bananas. The Buddha finds crisp apples refreshing after a long session of contemplating his navel, while the bananas tend to have gone black in the bowl.

[Bunnylump]

Could I tempt you to a few grams of pears rather than a pound of coconuts?*

* I hope I am not appearing too greedy in offering you all these things at one sitting?

[SparkOut]

Sadly, dear student, your inspiration is not correct, for while the Buddha can happily adopt metricated grams, he is not at all interested in pears. The Buddha is equally at home with imperial measurements, and a pound of coconuts would be extremely welcome.

The Buddha is patient but does not like to be pestered. One or two enquiries are happily entertained, perhaps a third with no displeasure. A student should wait for instruction before guessing too many times, however - although if they are not guesses, and the student wishes to draw attention to the fact that he or she may have found the way, then additional zeal will be happily indulged. Any number of students may individually seek simultaneous guidance - a student need not wait for another to receive his or her instruction before requesting consideration of his or her own submission.

[kathlyn]

may i suggest that not only food should be taken on this journey but we should take a dogfor companionship and a goat to eat anything that is left or not required. we should not consider bringing the catas their meeowing could disturb the mood and also we should not consider taking a elephant as it would take up too much room.


I've had problems getting the colour to work

[SparkOut]

The Master welcomes the student and wishes to advise that when editing a message, then to select colours, the simplest way is to highlight the words required, and then to wait for a moment so that the forum software catches up before clicking one of the coloured squares in the pane on the right. If the mouse pointer changes to a finger when it is over a coloured square, then it should work. I have noticed that if one selects the text and then clicks a coloured square too quickly, then it either ignores it or gives the wrong result, so it seems you may well have some tag codes in your message which do not each have a matching opening or closing tag to make a pair.

The more technical way is to note that just as one can use tags to show italics or bold, that the tags for colouring an item can be directly typed in, and are of the form:

[color=#0000FF] before the text to be coloured (the actual number indicates which colour to use), and [/color] immediately afterwards, to tell the browser to stop colouring. When you want to stop the colourisation, it is only necessary for there to be a "stop colouring" tag [/color] in order for the browser to switch back to the default text colour. You do not have to specify that everything should be coloured in (say) black to stop getting the red (or blue, or whatever colour you chose).

Please note the Americanised spelling of the word "color" and, if you prefer an anorak to an acolyte's robe, the colour code is made up of three "RGB" sections, which follow the # symbol to indicate that it's a number format (in hexadecimal digits). The first two digits in hexadecimal tell how much Red should be included in the colour mix. The next two digits say how much Green should be included and the last two digits say how much Blue. So the code #0000FF means, zero red, zero green, and as much blue as you can get. #FF0000 means all red and nothing else. Black would be #000000 and white would be #FFFFFF.

Anyway dear student, the Buddha would like to inform that he is indeed a "pet person" and a dog would be a welcome companion, but so also would the cat (or indeed any cat). Even an elephant would be a appreciated on this journey for its carrying and path-clearing ability, while a goat would be a nuisance and simply eat its way through all our stores. For other animals, the Buddha thinks that a horse would be high-maintenance and not useful on our journey, whereas a camel would be tremendously appreciated.

[kathlyn]

You are truly an enlightened one especially with regard to the exaplining how to color text and I thank you most sincerely for the said explanation. However, how is such a novice supposed to remember all those technical details especially when they are of advancing years? I had been lead to believe that computers were supposed to make life easier!

I wish you well in you quest for future enlightenment.

[SparkOut]

But my dear student, you need not necessarily remember the technicalities. If you have difficulties with "colors", you may simply remember that if you highlight the words, wait a moment and pick a colour from the blocks on the right and all should be well.

There is also no need to use colours at all, if you do not wish to, as long as you can clearly indicate in some way the words you wish to suggest, such as enquiring of the master whether the Buddha prefers to "walk" rather than to RUN. If you were to make such an enquiry, you would in fact, be correct.

[Scurra]

After my early success, I am now baffled. Is the Master equally puzzled, or does he know the truth?

[SparkOut]

The Master just tries to deliver the words of the Enlightened One as serenely as possible. I would never claim to know the whole truth, only such glimpses as the Buddha deigns to show, and he would show that it is not always what it seems.
To be puzzled, however, shows that one's mind is enquiring and open to seeking new ideas, and is worthy of the Buddha.
I believe that the way you phrased your enquiry meant to demonstrate these conditions of the Buddha nature, and so I will slide another marker across the abacus for you.

[Bunnylump]

[SparkOut]

The students all seem to be confused, but fear not, all will become clear on our journey. Our expedition will take us to see many sites of antiquity where we can learn from the wisdom of the ancients, from Carthage to Rome, although we shall not be seeing Troy or Sparta. Pray continue to enquire, even if incorrect, by a process of elimination you may elicit the truth and discern the way to enlightenment.

[Scurra]

Sadly, the Master has not made things any clearer to this student. However, I do like the approach of using green and red to separate right from wrong. How does the Master feel about this?

[SparkOut]

The master might very well wish to lie down and close his eyes, as I understand that red would be green, and green would be red. At least right and wrong are easier to tell.
Another tally for you, Scurra, and all students may find it helpful to remember that we are using this forum for our discussions, and not an agora.

[Laura]

Master, may I ask you to assist us further in what is clearly a difficult lesson? Or would that be taking a liberty?