What’s in a name, BuddhAllah-Christine?

How’s this for a girl’s name: BuddhAllah-Christine? That first part is pronounced “Boo-doll-uh.”

Note: The uh sound in this name is used to indicate, according to Dictionary.com: “hesitation, doubt, or a pause.” All three of these are encountered before crossing the bridge (the hyphen in the name), which leads to Christine (which literally means “follower of Christ”).

BuddhAllah-Christine popped into my mind when I saw this sign in my local bookstore:

“Megan ________ will soon give birth to a baby girl. What names do you suggest?”

So I picked up the magic marker, and thought for a moment while quickly glancing at the names listed by other customers: Alice, Julie, Amber, Melissa…etc. I thought: “My God, can’t anyone be a bit more original than that?”

That’s when BuddhAllah-Christine occurred to me, and that’s what I wrote on the sign as my suggestion.

All of this happened very quickly, much in the manner of lightning-induced inspiration. And that was a few days ago, but I kept thinking over and over since then: “Why exactly did that particular name come to mind?”

While trying to answer that question, I came up with:

·   BuddhAllah-Christine is one of those names like “Henrietta.” It’s too long to use in casual conversation and sounds too unusual – which invites nicknames (which of course is okay).

·   So what would her parents or friends call her for short? Boo? I like “Boo” since this name implies some scary things (more on that in a bit, though what I mean is “scarier to some than to others”). On the more positive side, “Boo” is also used as a “term of affection or endearment for any close friend or family member”[http://onlineslangdictionary.com/definition+of/boo ]

·   “BC” as a nickname should be agreeable to those of the Judaic persuasion. Buddha lived “BC” (Before Christ). Most Jews I’ve known would have no problem with Buddha, since they feel a resonance with the Buddhists they have come to know and love. Or at least they wouldn’t feel threatened when hearing “BC” called out. What Jews do have problems with are certain personalities and movements which came after BC.

·   It’s a stretch, but even this nickname might work: “B-Christine.” Since Christine means “follower of Christ,” when called out, we would hear “be Christine” (that is, “be a follower of Christ”). I have no problem with that, since I consider Christ (and Allah, for that matter) to be followers of Buddha. So it’s easy for me to think of the truest Christine (the truest “follower of Christ”) to be a follower of a Follower (that is, to be a follower of Christ who, in turn, is a Follower of Buddha).

Contemplations on the meaning of BuddhAllah

If you say it: To the ear, it sounds like “Boo-doll-ah.” Joining that, hyphenetically, to Christine, the name could be one way of considering Megan’s daughter as a “Boo Doll… ah*, (who is a) follower of Christ.” [* ah is, among other things, “an exclamation of joy,” according to Dictionary.com]

Of course, much depends on the meaning of “Boo Doll.” In developing this meaning, I favor these particular definitions of doll from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/doll : “an attractive person; a helpful or obliging person.” Therefore, a Boo Doll is a “helpful, attractive person [that is, a person who attracts others to the truth] by means of the twin meanings of boo: to be endearing and (when the occasion calls for it) to startle or frighten someone into realizing a truth which can be scary at first.”

If you look at it: Look at this name carefully: BuddhAllah. Now, let’s split the letters and associate some meanings:

Splitting:

Bud: the first 3 letters of this name

d: The 4^th letter of this name, to which I assign a special significance when considered as part of a sequence including the 5^th and 6^th letters.

h: the h is silent, which (as you’ll see) is important.

a: the lower case a, which doesn’t appear in this name, but which is part of the title Buddha and which I designate as the 6^th (though invisible) letter mentioned above.

A: this is the 7^th letter of this name - the upper-case A, which is the first letter in the name Allah, which is formed by the 7^th thru 11^th letters of this name.

Associating meanings:

Bud refers to the flowering of the seed of Buddhahood, which is in all of us.

d, h, and the invisible lower-case a, which comprise the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th letters, have a special meaning when their contextual implications are considered:

The 4^th letter represents redundancy or repetition, since the 4^th letter is the same as (or a repetition of) the 3^rd letter. In the Buddhist teachings, there are many instances of repetitious teachings which are meant to reinforce key doctrines, and redundancies which (upon more careful reflection) aren’t really redundant at all but serve as gateways to more subtle truths.

The 5^th letter – h – is silent, which represents the void as well as silent meditation.

The 6^th letter – the invisible letter a. It’s there but you can’t see it – kind of like the protuberance on the top of the Buddha’s head which is a symbol of his wisdom but which is invisible to the common mortal.

Some concerns and resolutions:

The 7^th thru the 11^th letters (A-l-l-a-h) allow for two interpretations, Allah (worshipped by the Muslims) being the first I’ll consider:

I was at first a bit concerned about incorporating the personal name of God as part of a broader concept. In the Islamic world, you will encounter many men named Mohammed, just as you will encounter many Christians named Jesus. But you will never encounter anyone named Allah (I can guarantee that).

And I can doubly assure you that you will never find any female named Allah.

I am taking advantage of the fact that, in English, the letters A-l-l-a-h can be grouped as “All ah,” which I claim to be my intended meaning. The fact that it also happens to spell Allah I consider to be beneficial (and is not meant to be blasphemous), though not as important as the philosophy behind All ah.

About this second possible interpretation:

The 7^th thru the 11^th letters (A-l-l-a-h) allow for a second interpretation, when arranged as: All ah.

Some people think of all as being equivalent to “the universe” – that is, “all” equals “everything.” What I’m doing here is capitalizing the A in All, in order to refer to a god concept. If BuddhAllah-Christine were my daughter, I would use her name to teach her a great deal. For instance:

A Lesson for my Daughter

In the name of humoring the Abrahamic worldview, before the (alleged) Creation, the only Thing that existed was God. Not only was God All-Powerful, All-Knowing, All-Encompassing, God was All there was! That’s why I designate the pre-Creation God as All.

However, after the Creation, God no longer was All. There was something other than God, and (frankly) I think that frightened Him. Mankind sensed this fear/insecurity, so man worshipped God as a way of reassuring Him that even though God was no longer All there was, He had nothing to fear from the beings He’d created. God especially appreciated efforts made by a wide-variety of humans (in a wide variety of ways) to get “close” to God. That closeness was important so that God would not anxiously dwell on the fact that He was no longer All there is.

The ah of All ah is a bold assertion on our part, as in “ah, what a relief is this thing called Enlightenment, which comes after contemplating the All of which we are a part. And which comes after we realize we never had anything to fear from any kind of All which was misidentified as a Creational God.”

The meaning of BuddhAllah-Christine

The literal meaning: “The bud that flowers, by means of repetition and redundancy and the silent contemplation of things not visible [as represented by that invisible lower-case letter a] which lead to an understanding of All, who sighs ah in appreciation, after being connected by a bridge [the hyphen in the name is a bridge] to a follower of Christ.”

Christ, in this context, I choose to mean “the anointed” in a broad sense rather than meaning Jesus Christ in particular. The anointed One or Ones are the spiritual teachers or forces this daughter encounters in her lifetime, after being introduced by “followers” (lesser teachers).

This name’s audio dynamic flow goes like this:

Start with Bud. Even with an emphasizing capital B, Bud sounds flat and dull (like dud).

Then it fades progressively from redundant (lulling?) sound to silence and then to invisibility, utilizing the meanings assigned (above) to the next three letters (d, h, and the invisible lower-case a).

Then it grandly and emphatically proceeds from nothingness to everything as pronounced by the next three letters: A-l-l, which spells the word All.

And ends in a sigh: ah.

Then it crosses a bridge (the hyphen), which leads to a means to an end, though itself is non-judgmental.

That “means to an end” is Christine, the sound of which produces a smile:)

Another lesson for this daughter

It bothered me somewhat to offer this name to a girl. I mean, Buddha and Allah are names of male figures and the sound “doll” in that name could be seen as derogatory to females (as in male society’s view of females as objects or playthings).

However, this name can be used by a skillful parent to help move this girl past certain stereotypes. While young, she might appreciate being called a “doll” or nicknamed boo. As she gets older, though, she could be weaned away from doll (in particular) by being told, “Yes, the sound of doll is in your name, but that’s the least important consideration and shouldn’t be a major focus. I mean, when you think of fireman, do you think of a man made out of fire?”

As for boo: “Yes, it’s a term of affection, but there’s a scary meaning – actually, several scary meanings. Someone can say boo like Casper the Friendly Ghost and make people laugh. Or they can boo and be terrifying. Sometimes in your life, you’ll have to be firm with people – even those you love – and they might find that scary. But if you are firm and they know what a caring, kind, compassionate person you are, your firmness will not be as scary to them. Or at least, not for long.”

As for Buddha and Allah being “male” figures:

Buddha was not always male (in prior incarnations) and even in his earthly life, he “stopped” being male in the usual sense after he left his wife (who also “stopped” being female in the usual sense after she became a Homeless Sister). And Allah is very far from being considered a man in the usual sense.

The common theme here is, usual sense. I like expanding that to indicate that none of us has to be (merely) human in the usual sense.

As for Allah

I think Islam is going to be around for a very long time. Indeed, I believe Islam will undergo a Reformation (with a capital R). Now that’s a bit ironic since the Prophet Mohammed is held by Muslims to be the last prophet in an historic succession of prophets. So it will be interesting to see how a unifying, global Islamic Reformation comes into being – especially if espoused by one particular individual. Especially if that individual happens to be female.

I duly noted this bit of info from http://www.allah.org/ : “Allah is the personal name of the One true God. Nothing else can be called Allah. The term has no plural or gender.” However, this very same webpage refers to Allah as “God Himself.” Last time I checked, the word “himself” was male. And yet, as claimed above, “The term has no … gender.”

As for “nothing else can be called Allah,” that may well be so, but I don’t see why those five letters can’t appear in the context of a name chock full of meanings. I suppose, though, that someone somewhere will offer to explain why they can’t.

As for Allah as “the Being Who comprises all the attributes of perfection” that is, the Being Who is perfect in every way,” according to http://www.muslim.org/islam/allah.htm :

What a wonderful ideal to try to emulate!

Steven Searle for US President in 2012

Founder of The Independent Contractors’ Party

“So what’s in a name, BuddhAllah-Christine? After all is said and done, the only things in a name are the things we decide to put there” - Steve

Contact me: bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

The wind writes in Chinese

Intro: The first of today’s essays is entitled The Wind Writes in Chinese, and the second: Palmian – the language of the palm. Please, don’t bother to ask if any of this is tongue-in-cheek. That would spoil the fun.

The Wind Writes in Chinese

Did you ever wonder why China developed a family of languages which, to all appearances, looks like constructions of twigs? Off and on, over the years, I’ve wondered.

Then It hit me. Or maybe not It but only it: merely a speculative possibility:

Once upon a time, Siddhartha Gautama was sitting under the Bodhi tree, under which he was to sit for 49 days before attaining Enlightenment. Many times, he would glance up and notice gentle breezes moving the leaves and branches around.

Then he did more than just notice. He realized that the breezes were trying to communicate with him, by moving the branches about in different ways – using those branches to form characters similar to what we would later come to know as “Chinese” (broadly speaking). The wind was teaching him by using a “language” which all of us have always known, since well before the universe was created (at least in its current incarnation).

Siddhartha had an awareness of this language, though its fluency was buried deeply in his subconscious. But this apparent limitation didn’t matter to someone who had more contact with his subconscious than average. What mattered was: The wind had a way to communicate its truth to the man who would become known as Buddha, World-honored One.

As I’ve pursued my own Buddhist practice, I’ve learned that the teachers of profound wisdom can take many forms – and not always as humans. Maybe this is why the Buddha spoke of “teacherless wisdom,” “wisdom that comes of itself.” Of course it would appear that wisdom conveyed by the movement of the wind through tree branches would be “teacherless wisdom.” Few people would suspect that the wind could be a teacher – such a thing could not possibly be.

Or could it?

Maybe that’s why the Siddhartha, immediately after attaining Enlightenment, “spent a whole week in front of the tree, standing with unblinking eyes, gazing at it with gratitude.”* Some people claim, it was gratitude for having provided him shelter. As you can tell, from my speculation above, I have a somewhat different view.

The state of China today

I don’t worry much about China being a communist/capitalist country. Or a totalitarian state, for that matter. I am comforted by knowing that Buddhist teachings once had a profound and widespread impact on ancient Chinese society. I can’t help but smile when I look at the twiggy appearance of Chinese calligraphy, while knowing how truly ancient that appearance is.

I am extremely confident that China will find its way back to its Buddhist roots.

Palmian – the language of the palm

Twenty years ago, I came up with something rather silly:

If you accept the idea that palms can be read (by – guess what? – palm readers), maybe we can learn to read our own futures (by being self-taught, in a manner of speaking). I thought it would be interesting to construct a bed with a unique sleeping surface: It would consist of an enlarged relief version of my own palm prints, with the various ridges being nothing more than mildly heated electric cables.

By sleeping on such a bed (ideally, naked), I would be in touch with symbols representing a language expressing my unique truths. Even though untrained in interpreting this language, I thought it possible to penetrate its meaning by means of my subconscious being exposed to it (via heating elements) as I slept.

Maybe it would be possible that I, deep down inside, already know the language represented by my palm print. Maybe all I have to do is give my subconscious sufficient time to decode these symbols and bring them to the attention of my conscious mind. Direct and prolonged contact with these symbols would be the key.

Isn’t this the silliest thing you’ve ever heard of?

I never tried this experiment myself. Being a man of modest means, I have no money to spend on such things. So all I can do is use my imagination.

And you know what? That almost always turns out to be more than sufficient.

Steven Searle for U.S. President in 2012:

“The truest way out of our current economic crisis is to use our imaginations. But please don’t use this profound tool merely to conjure up a financial solution. The best things in life truly are free, or are at least free from having to buy them” – Steve.

Founder of The Independent Contractors’ Party