User talk:Rannunculus

I found myself a bit dismayed at the (extremely well researched and documented) article on the Jesus Prayer. As a Buddhist, I have always consider it a mantra; yet the author went out of the way to distinguish it from a mantra, insisting that seed syllables made up the core benefit of changing a mantra. In other words, should I mispronounce or translate a mantra, it would not serve its core purpose.

There is a very common Buddhist joke about this. A highly placed Lama rowed out to what appeared to be a deserted island and found a gentleman who had lived there all of his life. One thing lead to another and, discussion about the The Hundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra came up; it turned out that the gentleman on the island had said it all of his life. When he repeated it to the Lama, the Lama became terribly upset saying that his pronunciation was ALL wrong, and while he might have actually gained enlightenment had he had it correctly, sadly he needed to relearn it. So, the Lama spent hours re-teaching the "correct" pronunciation. While there are variations on the ending of this joke, as the Lama is rowing away from the island he hears cries behind him and sees the gentleman running after his boat (on the water) asking "sorry, Lama, could you please repeat the one section again as I have forgotten the way you pronounced it................

This is an OLD joke, clearly meant to signify that intent trumps accuracy, though of course it is preferable to be accurate with seed syllables if possible. I'm sorry to read that the writer of the Jesus prayer felt that mantra was "different" then was the Jesus Prayer as I believe them to be very similar in action and practice.

Rannunculus (talk) 18:08, 15 March 2011 (UTC)Rannunculus