Killing the Buddha

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Happy JewBu Day

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Today’s a big day. At sunset, Passover begins (stay tuned for a special piece publishing at that very moment!). And in Japan, it’s the Buddha’s birthday. What a wonderful coincidence (or dilemma?) for all the JewBus out there!

I also know at least two people with birthdays today, and they’re both at least part Jewish and they’re both at least related to people (closely) with an interest in Buddhism. Pretty neat.

If you have any JewBu day experiences you’d like to share, bring ‘em on!

UPDATE:

Over the course of today I’ve discovered even more great things to be celebrating.

Kurt Cobain died this day in 1994.

Jews celebrated the phenomenon, which comes every 28 years, where the sun returns to exactly where it was at the moment of Creation. (Must be one of those things they don’t tell us half Jews about.

It’s the International Day of the Roma.

ANOTHER UPDATE:

“Mushim” wrote to us on 4/13 with the following:

I enjoyed the Happy JewBu Day article. However, there’s one issue with the illustration of the T-shirt. The back of the T-shirt shows a yin-yang symbol, apparently supposed to represent Buddhism. I think the yin-yang symbol represents Daoism or Taoism. Buddhism is usually represented by, among other images, the 8-spoked wheel of Dharma, or a lotus.

Very true! I noticed that too when I saw the picture but didn’t mention it. Ying yangs do certainly get mixed in with Chinese Buddhism, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first symbol one should use for Buddhism generally.

Incidentally, there was a period when my Jewish father kept Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Tao Te Ching by his bed. So a JewChing? Maybe I should get him the shirt.


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Nathan Schneider is senior editor of Killing the Buddha and writes about religion, reason, and violence for a variety of publications. He is also a founding editor of the blog Waging Nonviolence. Visit his website at The Row Boat.